Last night, I had the opportunity to speak to a crowd in Woodland Park about an investigative series I recently published. That series, “Fire on the Mountain,” was an examination of Charis Bible College, a controversial religious organization helmed by televangelist Andrew Wommack, which has locations in dozens of countries and is headquartered on a large compound just outside of downtown Woodland Park.
There has been nervousness and hand-wringing in Christian nationalist circles this week, since Republican Vice Presidential nominee J.D. Vance commented in an interview that Donald Trump, if returned to the presidency, would veto a national abortion ban, and Trump himself posted that his administration “would be great for women and their reproductive rights.” The comments followed the softening of anti-abortion language in the Republican Party’s official platform.
Last week, a sentence was handed down in a case that has taken more than three years to conclude. Rebecca Lavrenz – perhaps the most prominent of the 17 Coloradans arrested for participating in the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol – will not face jail time. Lavrenz, who has been dubbed the “J6 Praying Grandma” in right-wing social media circles, was convicted in April on four misdemeanor counts stemming from her participation in the Capitol attack. Instead of incarceration, the 72-year-old was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of house arrest, and a $103,000 fine. The judge also barred Lavrenz from using the internet during her six months of house arrest.
The national Republican Party’s path to maintaining its majority in the House of Representatives this November runs straight through Colorado’s 8th Congressional District (CD-8). It’s a new district, created by the 2021 redistricting process, and this year’s contest will mark only the second time it has appeared on local ballots. Despite currently being represented by Democrat Yadira Caraveo, CD-8 also has the unique distinction of being one of the most evenly balanced districts in the country: of 435 seats in the House, Cook Political Report ranks Colorado’s 8th as the 221st most conservative.
Controversial Christian evangelist Andrew Wommack announced that he will transition out of leadership over his Woodland Park-based Charis Bible College next month.
The gravitational pull of political discourse shifted last week with the use of one word: weird. As in “Republicans are weird,” or “J.D. Vance is a weird guy,” or “Donald Trump? Kind of weird.” It’s not clear who used the line first – whether it was Minnesota Governor and current contender to become Kamala Harris’s VP pick, Tim Walz, or Vice President Harris herself – but it has since taken off like wildfire. Currently, a Google search for the word “weird” turns up headlines from The New York Times, Newsweek, USA Today, and a dozen other outlets, all covering what is arguably the most concise and devastating hit on an opponent American politics has seen in at least two decades.
When I started investigating the drama surrounding the Woodland Park school board in late spring of last year, the elephant in the small mountain town’s room was difficult to ignore: the Bible college and international ministry organization which had relocated its world headquarters to a massive compound just outside of the scenic hamlet’s downtown. The same Bible college and ministry whose leader, Andrew Wommack, told his followers in 2021 that they “ought to take over” the town – and which had then taken steps to do so. It did not take long for me to realize that Wommack’s organizations were heavily involved in the local feuding over school politics, or that their influence on the town stretched far beyond the classroom.
Content note: this story contains references to domestic violence, abuse, and murder.
John Leong had a decision to make. The finances were a mess: the ministry was underwater after its latest land acquisition, and no one else in leadership seemed to take that fact into account. In an organization seized by the need to expand at all costs, the $18 million debt on the balance sheet was treated as an abstract problem. As Chief Operating Officer for Andrew Wommack Ministries (AWMI), John saw it in more concrete terms. Instead of dialing back their projected spending or slowing Charis Bible College’s desired rate of expansion, though, a new board member had proposed a riskier idea: selling investment opportunities to Wommack’s loyal followers.
Content note: This story contains references to sexual assault and abuse.
