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TN TEA PARTY BREAKUP

97 views · Published 7 January 2012 · 1:55 · Indexed 26 October 2026

Channel: FOX NASHVILLE · 2012 · News & Politics

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ONLY ON FOX: What's breaking up the Tennessee Tea Party? It seems one of the state's Tea Party organizations is no more. FOX17's Eric Alvarez spoke EXCLUSIVELY with Tea Party organizers. They say they're doing this to more openly inject Christian values into the political discourse. The Tennessee Tea Party has been active since May of 2009. Yesterday, its directors sent a message to all members announcing the organization is disbanding and that they're moving in a new direction.

"There are many in the Tea Party movement that don't see that issues of faith and religion should be mixed with the Tea Party agenda which is mostly, you know for some is just taxation, smaller government and things like that," says former Director of the Tennessee Tea Party Robert Kilmarx.

The Party is one of 40 Tea Party organizations in the state recognized by the National Tea Party Patriots. Thursday, the organization announced a move to shut down its efforts, and that they had a plan to take up a new project: the Black Robe Regiment, a faith-based network with a political voice.

"I dont think that by any means that our God would have us you know, just remain quiet in all things in the social sphere so, I mean, we need to be concerned about things that are happening in society," says Kilmarx.

The decision comes almost 6 weeks after the Tennessee Tea Party was scrutinized for posting a controversial tweet following the retirement of an openly gay U.S. Congressman from Massachusetts. Congressman Frank had announced his retirement and the Tennessee Tea Party reacted by saying "good riddance you perverted sodomite POS". chris Sanders of the Tennessee Equality Project says he's relieved to see the organization disappear from Middle Tennessee politics.

"So we knew that they were a bigoted group but the public didn't necessarily view them that way," says Sanders. "When they saw that tweet everybody knew so we're delighted that they're disbanding.  We think that's a good thing for the politics of Middle Tennessee."

Kilmarx says the tweet was posted by a staffer and didn't reflect the views of the organization as a whole. He says the fallout from the comment had nothing to do with the decision to disband. Instead, it was a move to allow more Christian rhetoric into the political conversation.

"We need to be concerned about how our government is run and how we are electing politicians that are in line with our vision and our values," says Kilmarx.

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