Most journalism is compost for a community. The manure of words can be toxic for sure (e.g., FOX News), but if it’s done right, journalism lays the groundwork for debate, inspires new ideas, stimulates broader perspectives, and kills infectious societal diseases like misinformation, conspiracies, lies, inconsistencies, and more.
Students at Woodland Park High School are getting their sex education instruction from Choices, an anti-abortion “pregnancy resource center” with ties to Andrew Wommack’s ministry.
The “least credible history book in print.” That’s the honor voters bestowed on David Barton’s 2012 book about Thomas Jefferson, which rewrote the third president as a modern God & Country evangelical and distanced him from that whole slavery mess. The book was ultimately withdrawn from publication by Christian publishing house Thomas Nelson, but neither the withdrawal nor the spate of scathing reviews slowed Barton down. If anything, his star has risen even further: today, Barton is constantly found onstage alongside the biggest names in the Christian nationalist movement.
This was just a battle,” Woodland Park-based evangelist Andrew Wommack wrote last week, triumphant in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s victory. “The war is yet to be won. The left is not going away, because they’re inspired by the devil – and the devil has never quit!”
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.
Controversial Christian evangelist Andrew Wommack announced that he will transition out of leadership over his Woodland Park-based Charis Bible College next month.
The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to halt the thrice-delayed trial of Tina Peters, the former Colorado county clerk who became a national celebrity of the election denial movement, claimed God was on her side and rallied the enthusiastic support of churches and conservative Christian groups.
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.
Transform Colorado, the Truth and Liberty entity dedicated to political spending and voter guides, has organized a series of private, closed-to-the-press events at churches throughout Colorado. Last month, Colorado Times Recorder reporter Logan Davis was asked to leave a Transform Colorado event in Commerce City, but CTR recently obtained an audio recording of Transform Colorado’s July 16 event in Del Norte, where speakers Richard Harris and William Federer encouraged the audience to support their conservative political agenda while indulging in wild conspiracies.
Content note: this story contains references to domestic violence, abuse, and murder.
