.- A hotly contested, but long held ban on religiously themed floats in a Denver Christmas parade was lifted this week allowing participating Christian groups to publicly recognize Christmas as the birth of Christ. Jim Basey, chairman of the 2005 parade committee said at a press conference Monday that "This has been a marvelous event for downtown Denver for 30 years, and we believe it's going to be even better with these changes."
The event was thrust into the national spotlight last year when a local pastor was denied entry into the parade with his church’s float depicting Christ’s birthday.
George Morrison, pastor of Faith Bible Chapel said that he received a flood of supportive e-mails following the incident and was featured on 25 talk shows including CNN and Fox News.
Morrison now says he has raised almost $40,000 from various religious groups--including the Archdiocese of Denver—to develop a float for this Christmas’ parade.
"Hopefully”, Morrison said, “we'll come up with something that will be pleasing to everybody."
