Religion in colorado springs (Denver, Pueblo: home, cinema, to live)

[Bob from down south]

Originally Posted by lalahartma

I think we have a bad reputation due to the mega church/Focus.

Why else would people keep asking about it?

Because bad people are afraid of good people maybe?

[phetaroi]

Originally Posted by lalahartma

I think we have a bad reputation due to the mega church/Focus.

Why else would people keep asking about it?

The view of people on that topic depends on the perspective of the individual. My former secretary thought it was great that I was moving to COS...she's a BAC. I also know good people who have chosen not to move here because they didn't like the presence of the mega churches and what they thought that meant about the area. I imagine that there are some companies that may have avoided COS for the same reason. It gave me pause to think before I moved here...although I am a moderately religious person.

Perhaps the really important question is how "open" is COS to all religious groups. What if a Muslim group wanted to open a mega-mosque? Would they be welcome to do so?

[phetaroi]

Originally Posted by Bob from down south

I say that we have a good rep because of the national organizations with headquarters here. Focus on the Family, for example, is right here, does great work, and anyone that can't stand them or what they do so much that they won't move here is probably somebody I don't want here anyway.

The fact that people often ask this question is a great thing, a sign of an enduring reputation that continues to repel the wrong kind of people and organizations.

For an example of the opposite effect at play, one need only look at a few communal cesspools like San Francisco and Las Vegas.

For the OP...nobody will hunt you down, but you will see overt signs of religious life all around here. And "open minds" does not mean that we tolerate anything and everything here. We vote fairly conservative here...in the recent mayoral election the liberal candidate with support for an LGBT organization in his past got trounced.

I'm surprised you are so open to a favorable church environment here. In another thread I was reading a few minutes ago you were complaining about the government giving free handouts to the poor because it was the reason there are so many homeless in COS. Yet, the soup kitchen downtown is what attracts so many homeless to the area around the main library -- a soup kitchen that is sponsored almost entirely by various religious groups. So in reality, it is the work of those churches that is the magnet for the homeless. Hmmmmm.

[denverian]

Originally Posted by lalahartma

I think we have a bad reputation due to the mega church/Focus.

Why else would people keep asking about it?

I think that hate group (FotF) is part of it... and the sickening fact that there is (was) a STATE sign on the freeway advertising it ( I haven't been down there in 15 years, so maybe that exit sign isn't there anymore). And then the whole Ted Haggard thing made the city look like it's filled with nutty evangelicals.

[Carrera32]

The sign's still there. Can't miss it.

[Mike from back east]

Any business can have those signs put up if they pay for them.

[Bob from down south]

Originally Posted by denverian

And then the whole Ted Haggard thing made the city look like it's filled with nutty evangelicals.

That's laughable. If I were to say something like that about how blacks in America "look" based on one guy like Louis Farrakhan or Jeremiah Wright, you libs would go nuts. But hey, generalization and stereotyping is OK if it suits YOUR purpose, right?

Being against something isn't the same as hate.

[Bob from down south]

Originally Posted by phetaroi

I'm surprised you are so open to a favorable church environment here. In another thread I was reading a few minutes ago you were complaining about the government giving free handouts to the poor because it was the reason there are so many homeless in COS. Yet, the soup kitchen downtown is what attracts so many homeless to the area around the main library -- a soup kitchen that is sponsored almost entirely by various religious groups. So in reality, it is the work of those churches that is the magnet for the homeless. Hmmmmm.

I think those groups mean well, but I do agree that often their misguided attempts at charitable work do in fact cause more harm than good to the community. The execution is as important as the intent.

[phetaroi]

Originally Posted by denverian

I think that hate group (FotF) is part of it... and the sickening fact that there is (was) a STATE sign on the freeway advertising it ( I haven't been down there in 15 years, so maybe that exit sign isn't there anymore). And then the whole Ted Haggard thing made the city look like it's filled with nutty evangelicals.

No, it's still there. And I laugh every time I drive through there because at the same location is a sign that one of the gay groups has taken on the responsibility of cleaning up litter along that stretch of highway.

[Mike from back east]

I've been posting on here for 5+ years now and almost since day one we have fought the misconceptions that COLO SPGS is some sort of hotbed of wild-eyed religious whackery. I've gone on other websites to dispel those distortions. You can search my earliest postings from 2006 to find where I try to dispel the dirt people like to heap on COLO SPGS.

Primarily it was public announcements coming out of FOTF when Dobson was in charge that gave our city the aura of extremism, especially his anti-gay items like press releases stating that cartoon characters like Tinky Winky had gay tendencies. IMO he was about fleecing homophobes out of many millions of dollars. It didn't help that FOTF got a lot of bad press by funding and politicking to end gay marriage in California. FOTF has toned it down greatly since Dobson left, but we are still singled out for what he did. I've always pointed out that although Dobson is here, the vast majority of his followers are not here, they are all over the nation.

The Haggard episode was another black eye too, as he politicked against gay rights in COLO but got outed for sneaking off to Denver to partake of that forbidden fruit; it made national news and every pundit in the nation raked us over the coals because of his capers.

Lastly, a chap named George Rekers, a founder of the Family Research Council, a founder of the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality, and a close associate of Dobson, was outed the other year for spending two weeks traveling around Europe with a gay escort hired from a website called "rentboy.com" and that's no joke.

The Haggard-Rekers outings took a lot of wind out of the sails of Dobson and FOTF, but we're going to be fighting the labels of extremism for a long time.

As I said years ago, there are no churches setting up tent revivals in the median of I-25, stopping cars w/out a fish symbol, dragging out the drivers and performing forced baptisms in Fountain Creek.

Religion is alive and well in COLO SPGS, and comes in all the usual flavors and strengths.