Under Surveillance by Randolph Lewis

Author:Randolph Lewis [Lewis, Randolph]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Published: 2017-03-13T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIVE

A Mighty Fortress Is Our God

At the heart of Colorado Springs are tree-lined streets with century-old houses, an unusually bucolic college campus, and droves of attractive young people who look like they alternate between snowboarding, rock-climbing, and enjoying the mind-altering edibles that can be legally obtained from local pot dispensaries. In their midst are sandal-wearing tourists who stroll along scenic streets, exploring quaint hippy boutiques that sell used crystal balls “with good energy,” bits of rock candy, and homemade soaps. The city, in other words, feels like an overgrown college town, complete with the thriving alternative culture that one would expect in an eco-paradise just a few miles from Pikes Peak.

But the city center doesn’t tell the whole story, which starts to change a few miles up the interstate that runs through town. None of that counterculture funkiness is evident on the northern edge of the city, where I am heading to an evangelical megachurch, the site of a security conference in summer 2014. Out here the vibe reflects the presence not only of the sprawling hilltop compound of the influential New Life Church, but also its equally conservative neighbors—the US Air Force Academy and Focus on the Family. The service academy trains young men and women for aerial combat above Afghanistan or the Middle East, whereas the latter is an influential 501(c)(3) organization engaged in a different kind of war—a culture war that supports prayer, teaching creationism, and corporal punishment (paddling) in American schools; the single state of Israel; so-called ex-gay ministries; national radio programs; and a Christian dating service. Although not as large as the vast Air Force compound, Focus on the Family’s 47-acre headquarters still has its own zip code.

Mostly because of these three organizations, northern Colorado Springs is considered by many to be the epicenter of conservative evangelicalism in the United States. It’s the sort of place where one runs into Focus on the Family staffers gossiping about Republican presidential contenders over free waffles in a budget hotel lobby. Here, on the edge of the city, I find a version of postwar Americana that could be anywhere, characterized by dreary gas stations, random fast-food shacks, and a dying mall with oddball “tutoring academies” and half-empty gift shops, all linked by a highway system that seems designed to thwart human interaction. More than just another example of unplanned American sprawl, this part of town has a bland seediness that finds its counterpart in the faces of the young men and women working on streets named Interquest Parkway and Jet Stream Drive. Except for the length of their hair and faded Walmart clothes, these twenty-somethings might have stepped out of a photo of the 1930s Dust Bowl, whose devastation almost reached this part of the state. Although the Great Depression might seem like a thing of the past, something still haunts these parts, something that feels sad and broken and not really worth fighting for.

It might seem like a strange spot for New Life Church, with its sports-arena architecture and acres of blacktop parking.

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