A mile above sea level, nestled at the base of Pikes Peak, sits the city of Colorado Springs.
Among the dazzling rock formations are the United States Air Force Academy, a bustling high-tech industry and the headquarters of over 50 evangelical Christian organizations.
“This is everything that I want to study in one place,” said Asst. Prof. William Schultz, a historian of religion at the University of Chicago Divinity School.
In Jesus Springs: Evangelical Capitalism and the Fate of an American City, Schultz outlines how Colorado Springs transformed from a resort town to a booming military complex to a sprawling network of evangelical megachurches, media outlets and missionary groups.
“As America grows this unprecedented wealth and power after World War II, what does that do to this faith?” Schultz said. “This is where Colorado Springs is significant; it is the headquarters of this project.”
In the following edited Q&A, Schultz delves into the transformative power of military spending, charisma and the myth of the American West.
In the book, you discuss how it’s a tricky term to pin down. In your view, what is evangelicalism?
Evangelicalism, to give my definition, is a form of Protestant Christianity with an emphasis on transforming the self so that you can transform society.
There are many kinds of evangelicalism throughout history, but American evangelicals have always felt that the United States is something special, that it’s God’s country. Today, many evangelical Christians believe the U.S. has a special destiny in the world. One reason so many of them thrilled to Donald Trump is because he talks in those same terms.
What was happening in American evangelical communities during and after World War II? Why did so many move to Colorado Springs?
A lot of these evangelical organizations felt, with some good reason, that they were excluded from where American culture was going.
In the 1940s, during this wartime religious revival and surge of patriotism, many leaders in evangelical movements said: All right, here’s a chance to get back to the mainstream.
This is an era when “teenager” is emerging as a specific market segment. Just as corporations are thinking about how to market to teenagers, evangelical groups are thinking about how to sell Christianity.
Young Life, the very first organization to move out to Colorado Springs, is figuring out that teenagers don’t want boring church services; they want songs, skits and sports. Colorado Springs is a place where they can build these summer camps where kids can have fun, but also learn about Jesus.
Many of these groups wanted a lot of land. You can’t get that cheaply in suburban Chicago, but you can get it in Colorado or Utah or Wyoming. In ideological terms, the beauty of this landscape also enhances the idea that this is where the future is.
Right after WWII, the U.S. is plunged into the Cold War. How does this era shape evangelicalism in Colorado Springs?
During the Cold War, the federal government was building this warfare state across the U.S.—military bases, military installations and missile launching bases.
The city leaders of Colorado Springs realize that military money is a way to shake their city out of its economic doldrums. That is, for instance, how the Air Force Academy winds up there.
The military is what allows Colorado Springs to turn from this little resort town into a city. It’s that transformation which starts bringing in evangelical groups.
And ideologically? How did the U.S.’s war against communism factor into evangelical thought at the time?
This is another point where evangelicals see an opportunity to demonstrate that they are good Americans.
Many evangelical groups in Colorado Springs put anti-communism at the heart of their message; they believe in it ideologically and recognize that it puts them in sympathy with the American military and politicians.
For instance, Summit Ministries moved to Colorado Springs in the 1960s and ran classes every summer to teach students about the evils of communism and the virtues of America, capitalism and the free market.
Speaking of the free market, how do capitalism and faith come together in Colorado Springs?
In Colorado Springs, they are all religious leaders, but they are also all businessmen.
These organizations are all in this intense competition for money. When you succeed in that competition, you naturally start to think of the market as the work of God. Money becomes a measure of piety. If they are bringing in a lot of money, they must be doing God’s will.
I think there’s a strong tendency among many leaders in this evangelical community to equate the workings of the free market with providence.
In the book, you mention the charisma of these leaders—why is that so important? Is this a particular feature of American evangelicalism?
Charisma is always a weird thing to work with because it’s hard to define.
In the American context, you have a tradition of people saying: I am going to break the bonds of the old church and create something new. These evangelical ministers are all following in this tradition.
For so many of these Christian organizations that move to Colorado Springs, they ultimately started with a charismatic person—Jim Rayburn, Dawson Trotman and later, James Dobson of Focus on the Family and Ted Haggard of New Life Church—saying, “Join me in this cause.”
Their charisma comes not from being particularly well spoken, but from making people feel like they’re part of something.
What is the political influence of American evangelicalism today?
By the 1970s and ‘80s, a lot of the evangelical leaders, especially the ones in Colorado Springs, feel like the culture is slipping further away from them. Voices emerge in the evangelical community, saying, forget about this cultural persuasion, we need to win back political power.
That’s where you get what we now think of as the Christian right.
It is this group of politicians, activists and ministers who try to take a vague conservatism among many evangelicals and turn it into a specific political agenda. It’s an attempt to tell evangelicals, “Hey, you are under attack by secularism, liberalism, feminism, etc. You need to get involved.”
Now, I don’t want to overstate evangelical influence. Even in Colorado Springs, there are limits. They’re never the majority, and they must try to make alliances. While evangelicalism and the Christian right have been really influential in American politics, it’s not unopposed.
Many evangelicals see themselves as defending a tradition that’s been abandoned by other Americans. They look back to the early Cold War and see this world where government and religion seem to go hand in hand. As a new generation of evangelical leaders comes forward: Will they carry on this message, or will they try to adopt it and change it?
It remains to be seen.
—Read more from Schultz on the Shaker movement and the recent film The Testament of Ann Lee.
