Earlier in July, a group called Transform Colorado held a private event in Del Norte with speakers Richard Harris and William Federer. The press was not invited or allowed to attend the event. The evangelist Truth and Liberty Coalition funds Transform Colorado and during the event Harris and Federer spouted conspiracies and encouraged those who gathered to continue to support their evangelical Christian nationalist ideologies. They argue that they are not Christian nationalists and instead call themselves “Christian patriots.”
A few days after this event was held in Del Norte, an attendee who recorded a section of Harris and Federer’s speeches sent The Citizen audio from the event. There was a request from the hosts of the event, which can be heard in the audio, not to record any audio or video.
The audio is only one hour long and does not paint the whole picture of what occurred behind closed doors that night, nor does it identify anyone but the speakers who attended. But it paints a large enough picture to show how a nationwide movement is working at the local level.
“You don’t need me to come up here and to tell you that America is in trouble. It’s pretty obvious,” Harris told the attendees that night.
Truth and Liberty was created by Andrew Wommack in 2016-2017, Harris said, to oppose Obergefell v. Hodges. “It’s a funny name isn’t it?” Harris said.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in this case that the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples through the due process clause and equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution.
The LGBTQIA+ community has been a target of the right for years, and when Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2023, many evangelical activists and advocates hoped that Obergefell v. Hodges would be next.
“Basically six thousand years of human history, no civilized society has ever endorsed gay marriage. In the entire history of western civilization it’s never been endorsed or promoted. In the entire history of the common law it’s never been sanctioned,” Harris claimed. “And yet we had nine folks on the Supreme Court decide that suddenly there it is in the Constitution, can’t you see it.”
The case was decided by a 5-4 vote.
Christian nationalism is an ideology that purports that the United States was built as a Christian nation, is currently a Christian nation, and should remain so now and into the future. It primarily focuses on the internal politics of society, such as legislating civil and criminal laws that reflect its view of Christianity and the role of religion in political and social life. Christian nationalism seeks to establish its version of Christianity as the dominant moral and cultural order.
Religious freedom is guaranteed by the First Amendment, as is freedom of speech, the freedom of assembly, and freedom of the press. Within the First Amendment is the establishment clause. It was created to prevent the government from stepping in the way of religious freedoms while also preventing that same government from being controlled by a religion.
Truth and Liberty has an online training course designed for current and prospective political candidates. The training course is built upon a “biblical worldview” curriculum.
A nationwide movement of Christian nationalism is making serious waves, influencing politicians and legislatures to enact religion-based laws – such as in Louisiana, which just passed a law requiring public schools post the Ten Commandments in classrooms. Other issues are abortion rights and the right to choose, the banning of books in public schools and public libraries, preventing gender-affirming care (even going as far as trying to ban personal use of gender identification and preferred pronouns), encouraging “traditional” marriages, and devaluing same-sex marriages. Adherents see many of these freedoms as threats to democracy, or Satanic, and believe they should be outlawed.
Harris claimed, without evidence, that “you can see it today, from porn in our libraries, abortion on demand, Satanism in our public schools. We have a fatherhood crisis in America as families are falling apart.” He then went on to say, “Did you know a majority of African American children are born without a father in the home?”
This myth has been perpetrated for years. Center for Disease Control and Prevention research has found that Black fathers are no less involved in their children’s lives than any other race or ethnicity, arguing that Black fathers may even be more involved.
There is also little to no evidence of actual pornography being found in public libraries, nationwide. Many of the books that are referred to as pornographic simply contain discussion of same-sex marriage and gender identity.
Harris said that Christians have lost sight of the “great commission,” which encourages followers to “make disciples of all nations.” He went on to encourage the audience to fall in line with Truth and Liberty’s heavily conservative policy plans. “How many of you know how to disciple a nation?” he asked.
“Well I’m not sure, but I can tell you how you don’t do it. You don’t do it by staying locked in the four walls of your church building. You don’t do it by not getting involved, not voting, not talking about culture issues. You don’t do it by consigning your children to indoctrination laboratories called our public education system where they’re taught there is no God, that they’re an accident, that they evolved from some primordial slime, and that they can choose their gender.”
Through five strategic initiatives, he said, Truth and Liberty is mobilizing, educating, and unifying the “body of Christ.” First is a daily radio show on its website where there are interviews with leaders of “all levels,” from local sheriffs to congresspeople.
Collaboration with conservative and conservative Christian organizations such as Family Research Council, Students for Life, Focus on the Family is the next step. “The problem we have is they’re not collaborating and working at a strategic level,” he said. Collaboration, he said, will increase “effectiveness” at spreading the word.
Part of these initiatives is a program Harris called the “Pastors Toolkit for Cultural Engagement” which aims to give church pastors the ability to make their church into a transformative forum.
It’s worth noting that churches are tax-exempt institutions. Under the Internal Revenue Service’s rules, as long as the religious institution uses its property and organization for the sole purpose of religious, scientific, or charitable practice, then they remain exempt. The IRS guide for non-profit churches reads: “No substantial part of its activity may be attempting to influence legislation; the organization may not intervene in political campaigns.”
Harris’ introduction at the event showed what is sparking controversy across the nation: trying to get as many people involved as possible to enact church-based laws and ensure that the United States has little to no separation of their church and state.
When Federer took the stage he went head-first in trying to underscore his assertion that Christian nationalism is the opposite of globalism. “Globalists want world communism.”
He said the left is engaging in “psychological manipulation” where “they blame you for what they’re doing,” arguing that it is the left who are nationalists.
“It’s a woke nationalism,” he said. “And they are intolerant. They want to take away your rights and freedoms. They’re pushing Satanist theocracy. They have transgender dominionism, if you don’t go along with that they want to cancel you.”
Stoking fear was heavy in Federer’s speech. “The same globalists… Remember we talked about globalists, the Rockefellers, the Soroses – the same globalists that are giving money to woke seminaries so they’ll teach the Christians not to get involved in politics, they’re giving money to the LGBTQ activists to get them involved.”
Moving from the macro to the micro, Federer said these “globalists” are seeking the leadership of rural LGBTQ members and giving them money to activate their supporters to silence Christians.
When asked if any local, rural LGBTQ members of the San Luis Valley and SLV Pride itself have ever had any payments or reasons to silence Chrisitans or Christian organizations, SLV Pride Co-President Vince Alcon told The Citizen simply, “No. I can say that confidently.”
Colorado legalized same-sex marriage in 2014; a year later the U.S. Supreme Court found that state bans on same-sex marriage were unconstitutional. Despite a decade of marriage equality, the Colorado Constitution still defines marriage as between a man and a woman. There is a ballot measure – among many others this year – to amend the Colorado Constitution to remove the provision that states, “Only a union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in the state.”
State Sen. Joann Ginal, District 14, sponsored the bill and told LGBTQNation, “As representatives of the people of Colorado, it is our shared responsibility to uphold the principles of equality and justice for all citizens, regardless of political affiliations. While we’re protected today, our state constitution still reflects outdated language and values.”
Meanwhile, Rep. Scott Bottoms, House District 15, opposes the measure on religious grounds. He posted on X, “The Democrats want to remove the idea of marriage being between a man and a woman. You will have an opportunity to vote against this initiative in November. I took some time to explain how God sees marriage and the fact that we have to stand before God for our decisions.”
At the Del Norte meeting, Federer went on into a long history lesson on the formation of different religious movements and how he said they evolved to form different forms of governments and dictate laws through interpretation of the Bible. Through this history journey, he talked about Frederick Muhlenberg, the first U.S. speaker of the house who was a minister. Muhlenberg presided over the ratification of the Constitution and was the first signer of the Bill of Rights. Federer said that through his path as a minister, Muhlenberg did not want the country to become a “federalized monster” ruling “through fear” demanding people believe what the government wants them to believe. He argued that this is the inherent reason to believe the United States was built upon Christian fundamentalism.
What Federer didn’t mention is that Muhlenberg left his career as a minister because he wasn’t making enough money, so he decided to pursue politics and business and ended up becoming one of the most influential German businessmen in Pennsylvania in the 1780s, gaining incredible influence up until his death in 1801.
Federer claimed that Muhlenberg’s contribution as a man of religion set a precedent to allow the citizens of the United States to have a country where they can both rule themselves and have a “personal relationship with Jesus.”
True, there can be room for both, but within the paper Muhlenberg signed and oversaw, Thomas Jefferson argued that state support of a religion can be a violation of conscience that is both sinful and tyrannical. The Virginia General Assembly became the first legislature in history to end state churches and guarantee religious freedoms.
Federer said if those in attendance don’t get involved, then “They” will teach children that there is no God, and if a god “happens to exist He is messed up. He’s putting men in women’s bodies. You have to have operations to fix it and take expensive pharmaceuticals your whole entire life. He’s either confused up there, powerless, or worse, sadistic. And if that behavior’s not sin, what behavior is?”
Near the end of the audio that The Citizen reviewed, Federer said that if “sex outside of marriage is not sin then arguably there are no sins.” And because of this then there is no need to have a savior to save people from their sins.
He said that people who just “enjoy their relationship with Jesus” and don’t get involved in politics are allowing “the gospel of the Antichrist to be taught to their kids.”
The most important thing is to bring people to Christ, he said, and the second most important thing is to “preserve the freedom to do that most important thing.”
He encouraged the audience to keep their children’s actions under their control to prevent them from questioning their gender or sexuality, relating it to just letting kids eat candy “until their teeth fall out.”
He said there will be a rude awakening to church members who stay silent, claiming that they are then giving their consent to “all that wickedness out there.”