Opinion
By George Miller, 6-26-24
Some members of the public have objected to a scheduled local Christian parade and that participants would have to sign a pledge to some Christian principles, although not to watch or participate in the festivities afterward.
There has been some local/vocal/hateful/unfounded opposition. The opposition goal seems to be to get people to hate each other and sow dissention – they do not want Christians to unite, celebrate, and welcome everyone to see God’s love. We strongly encourage those seeking unity, wholesome family fun, community, and genuine love of one another to bring the kids and celebrate our Christian Heritage and our Independence Day!
An ad hoc assortment of local Christians noted that there are multiple local celebrations for various holidays and causes- Shrimp, MLK, LGBTQ, etc.- so they thought why not a parade and festivities to celebrate America’s Christian Heritage, too? It is undeniable that the USA was founded on Christian principles (even if a former President and others said that “America is not a Christian nation”). They want to share that with the public and each other. A great story on that is the Monumental movie, which explains and illustrates the extraordinary historical Christian foundation of our nation. You won’t see much of this taught in public schools.
So, several months ago, they started trying to organize such an event, setting a threshold of a 15 group minimum participation to make it fly. Now there are 96 signups as of June 24, which will likely be organized into 40-50 groups, which will consist of cars, floats and marchers. The event is fully funded by signup fees and donations. It is faith-oriented, nonpartisan and non-political.
It takes place Saturday, June 29, starting in Central Park and winding downtown through Centre Street, then back to the park, followed by festivities there.
Statement of Faith
While anyone is welcome to watch the parade, attend the festivities afterward and learn, participants are asked to sign a statement of faith. This caused some complaints from local opponents of Conservative Christianity and of those who adhere to a strict interpretation of the Bible. The Bible’s Old Testament is the Jewish Torah, the books of the Prophets and the books of the Writings. Within Judaism this trio is known simply as the Bible, or the Tanakh, an acronym derived from תורה/ Torah (Teaching), נביאים / Nevi’im (Prophets), and כתובים/ Ketuvim (Writings)- SOURCE. The New Testament/Jesus stuff is only in the Christian New Testament, which was all written after the recorded Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus Christ.
Mayor’s Proclamation
At the June 18 Fernandina Beach City Commission meeting, Mayor Bradley Bean presented a Proclamation (agenda item 4.2) making Saturday June 29 Christian Heritage Day, which coincides with the Christian Heritage Parade Date. He presented it to Judge John Meisburg, one of the main event organizers. First Baptist Church of Fernandina Beach Senior Pastor Zach Terry made a brief speech. Because the Commission has moved public comments to the end of the meeting, people had to wait until then to weigh in if they disagreed.
Those who agreed stood up to accept the proclamation at that time or looked on and applauded in the audience. The negative comments on this were very sympathetically covered in detail, not surprisingly, in the News-Leader and 2 other Progressive blogs (1), (2); example of social media opposition by meeting speakers. Citizens Journal referred its readers to the appropriate section in the meeting video (section 6) so they could hear the actual speakers’ words.
Opposition Objections
It seems like the biggest objections were to a pledge that marriage is between a man and a woman for life, something that is clear teaching of the Bible, starting in Genesis, the first and foundational book of the Old Testament, said to be written by Moses, a key leader and prophet who negotiated the freedom and led his people, the Jews, out of servitude in Egypt. That teaching wasn’t always honored, even in Biblical times. It also affirms that the signer agrees that they accept Jesus Christ as their savior and that gender is biological, not a social construct.
For those dubious about the authenticity of the Bible, we could recommend multiple references, but it would be good to start with something simpler, like The Case for Christ: A Journalist’s Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus, or other relevant works by famed investigative reporter and former militant atheist Lee Stroebel, who ended up a Christian after 2 years of rigorous research and writing.
There were also spurious accusations that the event was run by Citizens Defending Freedom (not true but they signed up to participate) or First Baptist Church (they are supporters and will have multiple groups participating). There were also multiple attackers branding participants/supporters as “Nazis,” “Christian Nationalists” (whatever that is), then linking that to warmongers, slavers and oppressors of Indians, as if contemporary peaceful Christians were responsible for slavery, exterminating “native Americans” (I thought that we were native Americans, too) and more. True Christians wouldn’t do that, but people did it in the name of Christianity. Some seem to oppose “leveraging” Christian thinking in government, yet they seek to impose secular Progressive and other ideals unto it. There is no legal constraint against either, although there shall be no state religion and must have “a republican (small ‘r’) form of government.”
On The Pledge
FB First Baptist Senior Pastor Zach Terry is involved in supporting the parade and encouraged congregants to participate, as did some of their other pastors, congregants and Bible study teachers. Terry was also involved in formulating the pledge and sees nothing wrong with asking people to agree with the biblical principle that marriage is between a man and a woman for life, although it doesn’t always work out that way. There are numerous divorced congregants in local churches. Many try again and most would agree to the pledge language. Being divorced or having homosexual tendencies does not rule out participating in the parade, if you repent, agree with the pledge and strive to attain it. He has said repeatedly that “we are all sinners,” himself included.
I’m divorced myself, wasn’t a Christian then, was miserable for a long time, got married again, have stayed married for 48 years and intend to keep it that way. We joke that we are considering making it permanent. I have long since repented, so I had had no problem signing the pledge and organizers know the story. I was vague on some of these principles before I endeavored to study the Word and learned that these principles are pretty clear and unambiguous in the Bible. I saw a sign at the LGBTQ fest that said something like if it just appears on one page of the bible doesn’t mean it’s wrong. Well actually, one mention is enough, but some of this stuff comes up over and over in multiple books of the Bible, written in different languages at different times by different authors. Entire cities were reportedly destroyed for noncompliance, but we seem to be on the way to doing this all on our own now.
I wasn’t in favor of the pledge myself and predicted the reactions accurately. The opposition presents all this as divisive. But to some, all this controversy is a good teaching moment to talk about Christian principles and various interpretations. The opposition rhetoric is remarkably similar to efforts to use CRT (Critical Race Theory) and DEI (Diversity/Equity/Inclusion) as wedges to divide and demonize people and to promote victim mentality. Then they instead accuse the organizers of divisiveness by stating Christian principles for participation.
Would you expect us to invite non-believers to teach our children Christianity? As far as the “what would Jesus do?” questioners … He sure didn’t have non-believers as Apostles, but invited non-believers to listen and learn. He wasn’t at all squishy about Christian principles, although he was very kind and forgiving.
The opposition says that the LBGTQ parade didn’t impose a pledge to march. But, those who oppose them mostly wouldn’t think of raining on their parade by marching with anti-LBGT slogans and raised crosses. In any case, participation implies endorsement and approval. Real Christians are taught to “love the sinner and hate the sin.” As far as I know, there were only two lonely old men with warning, admonishing signs on Centre Street. Not exactly a hatefest. Rather, some went there just to to see what was going on. Some, like us, wrote accounts of the events.
Just marching in the Heritage Parade would be an implicit endorsement. We have already seen social media posts calling for LGBTQ regalia to be worn along the parade route by spectators. But, expect some of us to be throwing kisses at them and inviting them to our churches. It’s up to them what to do next.
Hope to see all at the parade and fest this weekend. Enjoy!
George Miller is Publisher and Co-Founder of Citizens Journal Florida, based in Fernandina Beach. He is a “retired” operations management consultant, software and publishing executive (10 years) and manufacturing management professional.
The views expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Citizens Journal Florida
