{"id":85,"date":"2005-10-25T13:39:18","date_gmt":"2005-10-25T19:39:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/?p=85"},"modified":"2005-11-04T17:02:24","modified_gmt":"2005-11-04T23:02:24","slug":"evangelical-colorado-springs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/nada\/evangelical-colorado-springs\/","title":{"rendered":"Evangelical Colorado Springs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Political kingpin: Focus <\/p>\n

on Family leader’s influence quietly spreading<\/a>
By STEPHANIE SIMON, Los Angeles Times<\/p>\n

A recent poll for PBS <\/p>\n

found that 77 percent of white evangelicals view Dobson favorably.<\/strong> Other Christian leaders were far less widely trusted; Pat <\/p>\n

Robertson’s approval rating stood at 55 percent and Jerry Falwell’s at 46 percent. …<\/p>\n

A campaign against Sen. Ken Salazar last <\/p>\n

spring, on the issue of judicial filibusters, provoked such a barrage of calls and e-mails that the Colorado Democrat called Focus on the <\/p>\n

Family "the Antichrist of the world." (Salazar later apologized, saying he meant only that the ministry’s approach was <\/p>\n

"unchristian.") <\/p>\n

Dobson devoted just 7 percent of his $142 million budget last year to explicitly political activities, <\/p>\n

such as the Salazar campaign. This year, 5 percent of the budget has been set aside for politics. …<\/p>\n

Some references are subtle; a <\/p>\n

pamphlet called "When a Loved One Says ‘I’m Gay’" attributes same-sex at tractions to unhealthy family dynamics, but also <\/p>\n

lays some blame on "today’s ‘gay-affirmative culture."’ <\/p>\n

Other political references are overt: A recent <\/p>\n

edition of the ministry’s flagship Focus on the Family magazine defined conservatives as championing democracy, human rights and <\/p>\n

"the cause of freedom around the world" while "liberals defend civil rights, abortion, pornography and <\/p>\n

homosexuality."<\/em><\/strong> …<\/p>\n

Don’t you love it when the Radical Right calls themselves <\/p>\n

everything good and the left everything wrong. mjh<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The calls reinforce the ministry’s <\/p>\n

view that America’s moral foundation is crumbling — and must be shored up with political action to curb pornography, end abortion, <\/p>\n

revoke no-fault divorce laws and stop recognizing gay relationships as legitimate.<\/p>\n

Gazette.com<\/a>God’s BUSINESS By PAUL ASAY, THE GAZETTE<\/p>\n

Religion is big <\/p>\n

business in Colorado Springs, and business is booming. More than 80 national Christian nonprofit organizations with combined <\/p>\n

revenue of nearly $1 billion make their headquarters in El Paso County [Colorado].<\/strong> …<\/p>\n

Other cities — including <\/p>\n

Chicago, Dallas and Atlanta — have more Christian nonprofits than Colorado Springs. But this city is unusual because of its smaller <\/p>\n

population, and because of the size, profile and influence of some of the ministries located here.<\/p>\n

These ministries are more than <\/p>\n

big fish swimming in a midsized pond: They’re leviathans. <\/p>\n

Of the more than 80 Christian nonprofit headquarters in the region, <\/p>\n

four (Compassion International, Young Life, Focus on the Family and The Navigators) have revenues of $100 million or more. <\/p>\n

Their <\/p>\n

influence is far-reaching….<\/p>\n

Fourteen Springs-based ministries each have revenue above $10 million; 32 earn more than $1 million. <\/p>\n

All the 80-some groups The Gazette studied have a national or worldwide focus, and many are household names — at least in <\/p>\n

evangelical households.<\/p>\n

“In my book, I would put it (Colorado Springs) as the (nation’s) most influential Christian <\/p>\n

city,” said Rusty Leonard, founder of the charity watchdog MinistryWatch, based in Charlotte, N.C.  …<\/p>\n

BUT WHAT DOES <\/p>\n

THAT MEAN TO COLORADO SPRINGS? Very little of that nearly $1 billion finds its way into the local economy. …<\/p>\n

But all that <\/p>\n

activism has its negative side. Many residents bemoan Colorado Springs’ evangelical reputation.<\/p>\n

“We’re so known as a <\/p>\n

community that’s dominated by a certain socially conservative philosophy,” Skorman said. Those who don’t share that philosophy, <\/p>\n

he added, feel unwelcome. A few companies have shied away from locating here because of its evangelical presence.<\/p>\n

That evangelical <\/p>\n

unease extends to more secular charities, too, who believe that many of the city’s Christian organizations only support like-minded <\/p>\n

charities.<\/p>\n

“I think there’s a lot of backlash against the cause of Christ because Christians don’t seem to care <\/p>\n

about anything but proselytization or evangelism,”<\/strong> said Yonker, of Elevation Group.<\/p>\n

These Christian nonprofits <\/p>\n

often like to do business with Christian-oriented companies, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Political kingpin: Focus on Family leader’s influence quietly spreading By STEPHANIE SIMON, Los Angeles Times A recent poll for PBS found that 77 percent of white evangelicals view Dobson favorably. Other Christian leaders were far less widely trusted; Pat Robertson’s approval rating stood at 55 percent and Jerry Falwell’s at 46 percent. … A campaign … Continue reading Evangelical Colorado Springs<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}