Can Colorado Springs Save Itself?
Patton Dodd
January 1, 2000
Last winter, I helped found the Colorado Springs Film Society with my wife Michaela and another friend. Our goal was simple enough: to encourage the gathering of local film lovers by providing a forum for discussion of current movies. And our plans worked out. People came, films were watched, and the group even began to garner attention in the local daily paper.
All in all, the society was a success, but we found we had a difficult time communicating the purpose of the society to some of our Christian friends. They assumed that we had started an "outreach," and while some were a little put off that we watched R-rated movies, they were supportive of what they considered a unique evangelistic tool. A nice sentiment, but one which certainly didn't reflect our own intentions in starting the group. It was as if the idea of doing something for its own sake was rather foreign to these friends.
In contemporary evangelical Christianity, Colorado Springs, Colorado, is the center of the universe. Home to hundreds of Christian ministries, a church on every corner, and seemingly countless believers, Colorado Springs has eclipsed even such evangelical meccas as Wheaton, Illinois, Pasadena, California, and Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Focus on the Family makes its home here, as do Compassion International, Cook Communications, The Navigators, Youth With a Mission, Young Life, the International Bible Society, The World Prayer Center, and a host of other high-profile evangelical organizations. The National Day of Prayer gathering in our municipal park last May was the largest in the nation. Republicans outnumber Democrats two to one—to quote the Washington Post, "If you flipped the Democrat-dominated District of Columbia on its head, you would get ...
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