The White Supremacist conference is being held on the lands where the denomination was founded 212 years ago.

Background: On February 4, 1810, near what later became Burns, Tennessee the Rev. Samuel McAdow, the Rev. Finis Ewing and the Rev. Samuel King reorganized Cumberland Presbytery in McAdow’s log cabin home. After rapid growth, Cumberland Presbytery became Cumberland Synod in 1813 and the Cumberland Presbyterian denomination in 1829 when the General Assembly of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church was established. Today, the denomination has 65,087 members and 673 congregations, 51 of which located outside the United States. Visitors to Montgomery Bell State Park can see a replica of the Rev. Samuel McAdow’s cabin where the three founded the church, and a sandstone chapel commemorating the event has been erected nearby. These two buildings are two of the main attractions in the park.

Welcoming Cumberland Presbyterians

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, gender, sexual orientation, religion, socioeconomic status, disability, age, nationality, or any other reason. We believe all persons are created in the image of God, even those who do not reflect God’s love. We pray for those who suffer under oppression and those who deliberately ignore or are unconscious to it. We pray for White supremacists and those of us who benefit from its systemic practice, for the harm it does to our humanity, and that all our hearts may be transformed. 

We have faith that God’s infinitely wise vision for our diverse world includes the liberation of all humanity. Our prayer is that we always embrace reconciliation, love, and justice among all persons, classes, races, and nations. We acknowledge for that vision to be realized we must create communities that enable every human being to flourish, humbly examine our privileges, and work to end individual and systemic oppressions. We Cumberland Presbyterians declare that White supremacy and all forms of oppression have no place in the Kingdom of God, in any nation, in our church, nor at the place of our church’s birth. Therefore, we proclaim that our “covenant community, governed by the Lord Christ, opposes, resists, and seeks to change all circumstances of oppression–political, economic, cultural, racial–by which persons are denied the essential dignity God intends for them in the work of creation.” (Cumberland Presbyterian Confession of Faith)

Next Steps

• Contact Montgomery Bell State Park to ask them not to host this event (and light them up on social media): 615-797-9052
• Pressure Montgomery Bell State Park in social media posts opposing the event and the racist ideology it will promote. Encourage others to share your posts.
• Contact officials in Burns, TN: http://townofburnstn.net/admin.html
• Contact Cindi Gray, Dickson County Commissioner representing District 12 (Burns, TN): 1135 Johnny Hall Road, Burns, TN 37029; 615-519-0400
• Follow developments via https://idavox.com/index.php/stop-amren/ or facebook.com/OpposeFascistsAtMontgomeryBell.
• Attend the protest at Montgomery Bell on Saturday, November 19, 2022. Meet at the Visitor Center.
• Share this information with everyone in your network and ask them to help as well