Cumberland Presbyterians Denounce White Supremacist Gathering at Montgomery Bell State Park (2022)

For years, individual Cumberland Presbyterians had voiced deep concerns about a gathering of White supremacists at Montgomery Bell State Park near the Church's birthplace. In the summer and fall of 2022, several ministers and members of both the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in America came together to draft a statement, which was sent to the State Park and the State of Tennessee, along with a letter requesting an end to the sheltering of hate speech on public lands. The Statement On the hallowed grounds where the Cumberland Presbyterian Church was born, White supremacists, neo-Nazis, and Klansmen will meet again November 18 - 20, 2022, to espouse their hateful beliefs. At the American Renaissance conference, participants desecrate the site as they justify, plan, and teach their racist version of American culture in the shelter of Tennessee's Public Land, Montgomery Bell State Park. As a grassroots group of concerned Cumberland Presbyterians, not only are we sickened by their racist ideology, we are heartbroken that they will again meet near the birthplace of our beloved church. In response to this meeting and in the face of rising extremism, we have a duty and a responsibility to speak up. Silence is complicity. Therefore, we state together and with a unified voice: We denounce White supremacy as evil and a threat to justice, peace and the common welfare. We petition the State of Tennessee and Tennessee State Parks to cease sheltering hate speech and providing a platform to individuals and groups promoting White supremacy. White supremacy undermines the safety, livelihood, and basic human rights of its victims and hardens its proponents against the dignity of all people. We vehemently oppose any ideology, philosophy, or theology that sees any human being as inferior to another - based on race, ethnicity,