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.
Latest posts - Page 3
Fire on the Mountain: Inside a Secretive Colorado Bible College (Part III)
Content note: this story contains references to domestic violence, abuse, and murder.
Fire on the Mountain: Inside a Secretive Colorado Bible College (Part II)
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.
Fire on the Mountain: Inside a Secretive Colorado Bible College (Part I)
Content note: This story contains references to sexual assault and abuse.
DAVIS: What if the Worst Happens?
If the 2024 presidential election were held today, Donald J. Trump would win it. He would not have to sic his followers on Congress again, nor would he need to rely on his followers in Congress to approve false electors, or tamper in any way with the certification of the vote. He would win outright.
DAVIS: What I Learned While Being Kicked Out of a Christian Nationalist Event
I arrived at Radiance Church in Commerce City shortly before noon on Tuesday and took up a parking space in the thin band of midday shade cast by the trees at the small parking lot’s far edge. I was nervous in a way I had not expected to be. I have handled plenty of hostile interviews as a reporter, and even enjoyed them from time to time, but this was different.
DAVIS: Chekhov’s Gun, Christian Nationalism and the Supreme Court
If you say in the first act that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the third act it absolutely must go off,” reads one of the many versions of the narrative principle commonly known as “Chekhov’s gun”. Developed by 19th-century Russian dramatist Anton Chekhov, Chekhov’s gun was the playwright’s way of insisting that every element in a story must ultimately be necessary; that there can be no insignificant details, and, therefore, that every detail carries a sense of imminence with it. Through my years of studying, analyzing, and working in politics, I have come to believe that a similar principle applies in real life: the details, often unnoticed at the time of their emergence, have a way of coming back and turning the plot like Chekhov’s gun.
DAVIS: Demons, Assassinations & More as Christian Nationalist Leaders Respond to Trump Verdict
Last Thursday, Donald J. Trump was found guilty on all 34 felony counts levied against him by a jury of his peers in a New York courtroom, marking the first time in our 248-year history that a former President of the United States has been held accountable to the law. The exact consequences of that conviction, legally, culturally, and electorally are still unknown – our frayed social contract and crumbling institutions being what they are – but there is always righteousness in holding the mighty to the same standards as the meager.
DAVIS: On Holy Wars & Ballot Initiatives
Ballot initiatives. Referenda. Plebiscites. Whatever you want to call them, they play a major role in Colorado’s political life. We vote on tax increases, pet projects, citizens’ initiatives, legislatively referred initiatives, and anything else under the sun for which a determined enough cadre of organizers can collect a sufficient amount of signatures to place on our ballots. Colorado is not unique in this regard – 26 states have ballot initiative processes – but we are exceptional: between 1912, when the first initiative appeared on a Colorado ballot, and 2023, Colorado has voted on 266 initiatives, the third most of any state, behind Oregon and California.
DAVIS: Dismantling Ralph Reed’s Argument on Christian Nationalism
Everyone enjoys being proven right from time to time. It’s validating, it puts a little spring in your step, and it allows you to redouble your efforts, knowing that you are heading down the right path. But the experience of being proven right is rarely so crisp, or so quick, as the version I was fortunate enough to have last week, which was bestowed upon me by an unexpected source: conservative Christian political consultant Ralph Reed.