Introducing 'Have Faith, Colorado'
Plus, news about cake, the SMC and the SBC
Welcome to Have Faith, Colorado, a new newsletter documenting religion news in the Centennial State. Religion is a major driving force behind many of the things that fill our daily news feeds and it reaches across nearly every aspect of life, including politics, culture, education, healthcare and crime. Colorado has a rich and varied religious landscape, from serving as an epicenter of the evangelical Christian right to springboarding the introduction of Buddhism to the west. But as local news organizations across the country shrink, it’s become less likely for publications to dedicate a full-time beat reporter to the subject, and the topic can get left by the wayside.
As reporters who are deeply passionate about both the value of local news and religion reporting, we want to spotlight the religion news that does get reported in our local papers so that it reaches a wider audience. Each week, this newsletter will feature a curated roundup of the week’s local religion articles and may also include original analysis about religious issues affecting the state and links to nationally reported religion articles with a Colorado angle. We hope that you will subscribe, forward this email to your friends, and send articles our way. Thank you for coming along with us on this journey!
-Liam Adams and Carina Julig
Now, on to the news. This was Colorado’s week in religion:
Cake and conservatism
A local judge issued a ruling in Jack Phillips’ second biggest court case over LGBTQ rights, religious liberty and cake. Phillips is best known for the 2018 U.S. Supreme Court Case, Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, after he refused to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple. The Court ruled partially in his favor, saying a state commission violated Phillips’ right to exercise religion when it penalized the baker. Back in 2017, on the same day SCOTUS agreed to hear Phillips’ case, Autumn Scardina, a Denver attorney, ordered a cake from Phillips to celebrate her gender transition. Phillips refused, so Scardina took the baker to court. On Thursday, Denver District Court Judge Bruce Jones ruled in favor of Scardina and said that Phillips violated a state anti-discrimination law.
Speaking of Phillips, you can see him talk at the Western Conservative Summit this weekend in Denver alongside a slate of other conservative celebrities. The event comes from the Centennial Institute, a think tank at Colorado Christian University. The institute’s director, Jeff Hunt, spoke with Colorado Public Radio ahead of the conference about western conservative hype.
The Court and Catholics
The Colorado Catholic Conference spoke favorably about Thursday’s Supreme Court ruling in Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, which unanimously ruled that the city discriminated against a Catholic foster agency by dropping it from its foster provider list for not working with gay or unmarried couples. The conference described the ruling as “an important victory for religious freedom” and criticized a bill passed in the latest Colorado legislative session that prohibits foster care agencies from discriminating on the basis of religion, sexual orientation, sexual identity or HIV status, among other criteria. “Just as with the city of Philadelphia, the new Colorado law does not contain an exemption for religious organizations, and therefore could be vulnerable to litigation on similar grounds,” the conference wrote. That’ll be something to watch.
Episcopalians on pandemic worship
Rev. Kym Lucas, bishop of The Episcopal Church in Colorado, was quoted in an article in The Living Church about online worship. “The blessing of this pandemic time is that we’ve had to figure out how to be church outside our buildings,” she said. “More congregations have begun using technology like Zoom and social media to host not only worship but also for spiritual formation and community engagements. I suspect more people have heard of, and engaged with, the Episcopal Church in the last year than in the last 10 years and I hope that we continue reaching out with our message of love, mercy, and justice.”
Back to the land
Shambhala Mountain Center, Buddhist organization Shambhala International’s retreat center in the mountains of Larimer County, announced in an email that it will be reopening to visitors in July after being closed for over a year due to the pandemic. The center lost 14 buildings to the Cameron Peak Fire last fall and is currently in the process of rebuilding. Along with the fire, SMC took a hit from Shambhala’s ongoing sexual abuse scandal, though an investigation into possible criminal activity at the center was closed last year without any charges being filed. How closely the center ties itself to Shambhala going forward and whether any new allegations surface remains to be seen.
Colorado advocate ‘began pioneering the movement’ to address SBC sexual abuse
And at the national level, the big religion story was the Southern Baptist Convention and its annual meeting in Nashville. The country’s largest Protestant denomination had to sort through divisions over race and politics, and an ongoing sexual abuse scandal. Ahead of the meeting, Christa Brown, a Coloradan and nationally known advocate for survivors of sexual abuse in the SBC, joined with seven other survivors to call for a third-party audit of sexual abuse in the denomination. Three days after the survivors issued their statement, SBC officials approved the audit.
Rachael Denhollander, a nationally known lawyer and sexual abuse survivor, said the audit, a significant step for the SBC, wouldn’t have been possible without Brown. Brown, Denhollander tweeted, “began pioneering the movement to shine a light in the SBC … She wrote a book and began a website tracking SBC abusers and coverup.” Brown responded, “So honored to be named with these extraordinary women … I too believe that energy spent in resisting oppressive forces & bringing truth to light is never energy wasted.”
Briefly noted
After having to fight a legal battle, Park Hill United Methodist Church opened a safe-camping site for people experiencing homelessness and a group of multi-faith leaders showed up to offer support.
That’s it for this week. See you next Friday!
“Have Faith, Colorado” is a weekly roundup and analysis of local religion articles in the Centennial State. It’s by Liam Adams and Carina Julig. Liam covers local news for Colorado Community Media and religion news as a freelancer. Carina covers education and other Aurora news at the Sentinel Colorado. To connect with us about the newsletter please email liamadams.journalism@gmail.com and carina.julig@colorado.edu, and follow us on twitter at @liamsadams and @CarinaJulig.