I wonder if the people in charge of your local Civil War park would be open to issuing a permit for an old fashioned gospel revival?
They don't prohibit religious services. They specifically mention weddings as a potential use of their facilities. They would likely take action if any event was loud enough to disturb other permit holders or park neighbors. It's in a residential area and there are homes just yards away from some of the picnic sites.
On the subject of Christian-themed participation in this event, in general:
In one of the myriad articles I read about this Denver event I read that the organizers will be reconsidering their policy. Of course my mind, as it habitually does, wandered off to how the organizers might include a Christian theme. Would it necessarily be Christmas-oriented? It's hard to imagine a parade of lights with a guy in sandals and a crown of thorns hefting a big cross. Given the season, the display would likely be about Christmas.
So I imagined myself organizing this parade. Each year I probably call and invite the guy with the Chinese dragon in his attic, probably the only guy in Denver with a Chinese dragon in his attic, for the Chinese New Year's float. That's easy. Now, what about the Christians? I know that the First Presbyterian Church on Maple Street has a nice creche. Perhaps they'd be willing to uproot it for two days and put it on a float for the parade, then restore it to its site in front of their church for the rest of the season. But I know that the mayor is a member of the Methodist church on Elm and he might favor their creche although I don't think it's as nice.
Then I think about the four hundred other Christian churches in Denver and how they're going to react and I get a headache. Maybe I could ask churches that want to participate to submit a float design and then pick a winner. Of course, I'd have to get a multi-demominational and multi-ethnic committee together to pick the winner. And deal with the complaints from those who didn't like the choice. Or I could just let every church that wants to participate have it's own float. That's fix it. But then we'd have four hundred Christian floats totally overshadowing the Chinese New Year float. Well, I say, that would just reflect the culture of Denver--four hundred to one. Isn't that as it should be? Of course, the parade would be deadly boring as people snooze through twenty Christian floats to get a glimpse of the Chinese and another twenty to get a glimpse of the Indians, etc.
At that point, it would be time to scrap the event... |
