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A sign carried by a religious group in the Festival of Light parade last week violated conditions of participation, Ashland Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Sandra Slattery said, and the group will not be allowed to take part in future parades. One of the signs read, “Our lies, hate, theft, greed, lust, porn, fornication, LGBTQ, abortion, and all other sin earn death and hell. Trust Jesus! Be Saved!” (LGBTQ means lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning and/or queer.) Many people were offended, and some said they had to explain the sign to their children, which was not something they expected at a children’s Christmas parade. “It offended people by the signs, but it also offended us as an organization because we try to put on a great event for the community and so it’s completely unacceptable,” Slattery said. “And we’re really disappointed that it happened and will see that it doesn’t happen again in the future.” The Festival of Light parade rules ( bit.ly/2Rtnw8k ) say: “An entry may not include any image or content that includes ... hate, racism, or that is vulgar or sexually explicit, insulting or offensive to any ethnic, religious, political or other identifiable group or individual, or any protest, ridicule, or negative statement directed at any other person, organization, religion, belief, nationality, ethnic group, sexual orientation, policy, program, or political or cultural identity as determined by a parade official.” The content of the sign escaped notice of parade officials as the RV Saltshakers , a group marching as part of a parade entry registered as “Marching for Jesus,” did not have the signs visible as officials walked past before the parade. “We did not approve Rogue Valley Saltshakers, nor would we ever have,” Slattery said. “They took the sign and put it in the parade absolutely knowing that we would never allow it.” A RV Saltshakers organizer, Jon Clement, said the signs were not intentionally hidden. He said the signs were on the ground as they were being crafted, but once completed, the signs were held up for anyone to see. Slattery said the “Marching for Jesus” group was the parade entry that was approved. This group has marched in the parade in past years without any issues. They sometimes bring in volunteers from other Oregon religious groups to help with their entry. The RV Saltshakers was one of these groups. “None of the committee officials saw the sign in the beginning of the parade. It wasn’t visible when they walked by the entry,” Slattery said. “Had anyone seen it, it would have been removed and they (RV Saltshakers) know it.” The sign directly broke the Chamber of Commerce parade rules, according to Slattery. Slattery said because the chamber was in the back of the parade to help Santa set up, they missed the sign once it was out and later thought this group was standing in the Plaza, a public right-of-way where they have freedom of speech rights, when it was displayed. Slattery said this issue was not brought to their attention until Saturday. Originally, she responded saying that the group did not walk in the parade, but after she received photographic evidence that they did indeed walk the parade, the chamber released a statement on their Facebook page acknowledging the situation. The statement said that RV Saltshakers and the “Marching for Jesus” group are now banned from the parade for violating the rules. Clement said he doesn’t feel it’s fair for the Marching for Jesus group to be banned because of a sign the RV Saltshakers held. But Slattery said the Marching for Jesus group allowed the rule violation in their entry, so they too are banned from future parades. “That sign isn’t hateful because I wrote it and I don’t hate anyone,” wrote Mason Goodknight on Facebook. “It is sad when people label a call for forgiveness and salvation hateful.” Clement said the group’s intention is not to be hateful, it’s to “share the Gospel.” “If you read it (the sign), it isn’t hateful, it just speaks of the sin of hate, and then lists a bunch of other sins, so that makes sense. I could see how someone might connect ‘hate’ and ‘LGBTQ’ on the sign, jumping to the conclusion that you hate homosexuals, but I know the Bible forbids Christians to hate anyone, moreover, if they do hate anyone, it shows they aren’t actually Christians at all ... people just need to take the time to read the sign carefully and not be so quick to judge and do it wrongly,” Clement wrote. This group speaks out and carries signs at public events regularly in the Rogue Valley and elsewhere. Their Facebook page has photo albums of parades and events they attend, and says they plan to attend the Christmas parade in Grants Pass Saturday, Dec. 1. “When we bring up sins, it offends people. We understand people may hate us because of our message, but our message is to rescue people,” Clement said. “What we really desire is to have open communication with people. We want people to talk to us.” Slattery said the parades will have to be monitored even more closely from here on out to keep this from happening again. “We’re incredibly disappointed that it happened and certainly it doesn’t represent our value system,” Slattery said. “We’ve worked for years to create value-specific rules and we enforce those rules in all of our parades. Certainly, now we’ll have to have even more enforcement in the future.” Contact Daily Tidings reporter Caitlin Fowlkes at [email protected] or 541-776-4496. Follow her on Twitter @cfowlkes6 .