{"id":38405,"date":"2022-09-12T12:16:51","date_gmt":"2022-09-12T18:16:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/boebert-tells-churchgoers-to-rise-up-at-far-right-christian-conference\/"},"modified":"2022-09-12T18:16:51","modified_gmt":"2022-09-12T18:16:51","slug":"boebert-tells-churchgoers-to-rise-up-at-far-right-christian-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/boebert-tells-churchgoers-to-rise-up-at-far-right-christian-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"Boebert tells churchgoers to \u2018rise up\u2019 at far-right Christian conference"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"U.S.
U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert speaks at a Truth and Liberty Coalition event hosted by far-right Christian leader Andrew Wommack in Woodland Park on Sept. 9, 2022. (Screenshot)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

In a raucous speech at a Christian conference in Woodland Park on Friday, U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert called for conservative churchgoers to put \u201cGod back at the center of our country\u201d and defeat \u201cthe enemy\u201d that she said is destroying it from within.<\/p>\n

\u201cGod is on our side. The blood has been applied,\u201d Boebert told the crowd at Charis Bible College in an hourlong speech that quoted heavily from scripture. \u201cWe are going straight into victory. You are all more than conquerors through God, through Christ who strengthens you every step of the way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boebert and other speakers addressed a three-day conference held by the Truth and Liberty Coalition, a nonprofit started by Charis founder and far-right preacher Andrew Wommack, which aims to erase boundaries between religion and politics.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see a Church unengaged in the public square because we have been conditioned to believe there is a disconnect between the secular and sacred,\u201d the group\u2019s website <\/a>says. \u201cThere is not.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an earlier political conference held at Charis in April, Wommack urged attendees to \u201ctake over Woodland Park\u201d and \u201ctake back Colorado\u201d from what he called a \u201cdemon-possessed\u201d government, The Gazette<\/em> reported<\/a>. His views have frequently been characterized<\/a> as belonging to the dominionist <\/a>movement, which seeks to place government under control of the Christian church and its interpretation of biblical law.<\/p>\n

Though his organization rejects the label, affirming <\/a>that it supports \u201cpreserving America\u2019s constitutional republic of government,\u201d Wommack frequently emphasizes the need for Christians to reclaim the \u201cSeven Mountains<\/a>\u201d of influence, a key tenet<\/a> of dominionist theology.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are the kings. We are the ones who rule,\u201d Wommack said in a speech to the conference Thursday. \u201cAnd when we don\u2019t vote, then we allow those with different values \u2013 we increase their power. It\u2019s Christians that have allowed this nation to go the way that it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Endorsing baseless conspiracy theories alleging widespread election fraud, Wommack added, \u201cIf we got enough Christians to stand up and vote, we\u2019d overwhelm all of their algorithms, and we\u2019d beat their cheating.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over three days, speakers at the Truth and Liberty conference celebrated the Supreme Court\u2019s rollback of abortion rights<\/a> and called for Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 case establishing a right to same-sex marriage, to be overturned next. They denounced a long list of evils that included \u201cwokeness,\u201d cancel culture and Black Lives Matter, peppering their speeches with transphobic abuse and conspiracy theories about a \u201cone world government.\u201d One speaker referenced the Georgia Guidestones, an obscure public monument that far-right extremists alleged was satanic in origin and was destroyed in a bombing<\/a> in July.<\/p>\n

Boebert told the crowd that the country had been founded by men \u201cfluent in the word of God,\u201d calling for a \u201crevival\u201d that restores conservative Christian values in government.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need God back at the center of our country,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s time for us to position ourselves, and rise up, and take our place in Christ, and influence this nation as we were called to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018The last of the last days\u2019<\/div>\n

A first-term congresswoman from Silt, Boebert unseated veteran Rep. Scott Tipton in the 3rd Congressional District\u2019s 2020 Republican primary and has gone on to become one of the most prominent voices on the GOP\u2019s far-right wing. She helped lead attempts by former President Donald Trump\u2019s supporters to overturn the results of the 2020 election, and tweeted <\/a>\u201cToday is 1776\u201d on the morning of the Jan. 6 assault by pro-Trump rioters on the U.S. Capitol.<\/p>\n

On Friday, she reserved some of her harshest words for the public health measures that restricted church attendance during the COVID-19 pandemic, which she called an \u201cattack on our faith,\u201d and she veered into apocalyptic rhetoric about \u201cthe end\u201d drawing near.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that we are in the last of the last days,\u201d Boebert said. \u201cIt\u2019s not a time to get upset about it. It\u2019s a time to know that you were called to be a part of these last days. You get to have a role in ushering in the second coming of Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rep. Doug Lamborn of Colorado Springs also addressed the conference via a short prerecorded video focusing on the U.S. relationship with Israel, both of which, he said, have a \u201cmiraculous origin based on a belief in scripture.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nonprofit status<\/div>\n

Boebert was preceded on stage by far-right political commentator Eric Metaxas, a prominent election denier who is among the defendants named in a defamation lawsuit filed last year<\/a> by a former employee of Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems.<\/p>\n

Metaxas repeatedly likened conservatives in the present-day United States to the victims of Nazi Germany, saying that \u201cprecisely what happened in Germany\u201d is \u201chappening here now, because of the silence of many, if not most, Christian leaders.\u201d Echoing the conference\u2019s theme, he called the notion that churches shouldn\u2019t be political \u201ca lie from the pit of hell.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code, churches are automatically considered 501(c)(3) organizations, a designation that bars them from political activity. The Truth and Liberty Coalition is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit, which allows it to engage in some political advocacy, as long as such activity isn\u2019t its \u201cprimary purpose,\u201d and it doesn\u2019t directly contribute to or coordinate with candidates for office. Conference organizers clarified that Boebert, who is running for re-election in November, appeared at the conference \u201cin her official capacity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Metaxas, however, urged Christian churches to follow through on political activism regardless of the consequences.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I say this candidate is the one you should elect because he will help these things, and I mention the name Donald Trump \u2026 the idea that Christians shouldn\u2019t be allowed to say that is insanity,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have participated in our own silence. Somehow we\u2019ve said, well, I don\u2019t want to lose my 501(c)(3) status \u2013 folks, better that we would never have 501(c)(3) status than that it would muzzle us from speaking the truth of God.\u201d<\/p>\n

To read more stories from Colorado Newsline, visit coloradonewsline.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Liberty event hosted by pro-Trump preacher Andrew Wommack\u2019s Woodland Park bible college<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38406,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[981,28,4153,367],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-38405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-colorado-3rd-congressional-district","tag-headlines","tag-religious-event","tag-u-s-rep-lauren-boebert"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38405\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38405"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=38405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}