Heather McDuffee, pastor of Community Congregational Church of Manitou Springs, addressed a crowd of approximately 3,500 people on the steps of Colorado Springs City Hall during the Hands Off protest on April 5. The protest was part of a national effort opposing President Donald Trump’s policies and potential cuts to services like Medicare and education spending. The event was organized by Indivisible Colorado Springs, which has been active in organizing protests against Rep. Jeff Crank (R-CO), as well as 50501 Colorado Springs and El Paso County Progressive Veterans. Other speakers included local activists and former Democratic Party candidates.
McDuffee spoke out against Christian Nationalism, the religious movement that has found increasing purchase within the Republican party as conservative evangelicals have embraced Trump. Locally, nondenominational and charismatic churches, affiliated with Woodland Park’s Andrew Wommack and the national New Apostolic Reformation, have become increasingly involved in local board of education races, flipping boards in El Paso County to conservative majority and embracing policies focused on transgender students, controversial books and curriculum, and diversity, equity and inclusion policies. McDuffee’s denomination, the United Church of Christ, is one of several liberal-leaning denominations that have pushed back against the conservative trend among Christian congregations and embraced social justice initiatives.
I will not let Christian nationalism claim Jesus as their own. – Pastor Heather McDuffee
“I am a follower of Jesus and I am shamefully entwined with the damage that people have caused and continue to cause in the name of Christianity,” she said. “I am sickened by Christian nationalism. If you are unfamiliar with that term, Christian nationalism claims that the United States was established by and for Christians. False. Christian nationalists have blended Christian identity and cultural conservatism as central to American civil life, and I will tell you what — that has nothing to do with my Jesus. Hands off my Jesus! Because the whole premise of Christian nationalism is wrong and misleading. In reality, Christian nationalism is a lightly pretty-veiled brand of white supremacy, plain and simple. It does not reflect the gospel. It does now reflect Jesus’ kingdom work. And matter of fact, if God wanted political power, Jesus would have come as a baby born to Roman royalty, not a Palestinian Jew born to an unwed pregnant teenager. So here is my true North. We all gotta find our own. I will not let Christian nationalism claim Jesus as their own. He is not for sale. He will not be owned by them. They cannot have Him.”
We can choose to respond with courageous love for our neighbors. – Pastor Heather McDuffee
McDuffee noted that Trump’s election and policies have brought a host of issues to the forefront of American discourse. “We have to remind ourselves that every policy has both good and bad consequences,” she said. “When tyrants rule, citizens become more engaged in democracy. Would we be gathered like this if Kamala was our president? No. We would just be sitting back, putting ourselves on the back, saying, ‘Good little American?’ Guess what? We are engaged now. I also wonder, sweethearts, if tariffs will halt our addiction to fast consumerism. Our consumerism is bad for the planet, it is bad for our global siblings to make less than a dollar a day all because we want cheap shit. We want cheap stuff. Alright, so if fast consumerism is bad for our planet and bad for our human family we can assume that it is making us spiritually sick.”
McDuffee urged protesters to remain engaged with the political process and to not give in to despair. “We may not be able to control everything that’s unfolding in this time, but we can choose our response,” she said. “We can choose to respond with courageous love for our neighbors. We can refuse to cooperate with what harms us, and our responses can change our experiences of life, and they can change the whole world. So in the end, human relationships is all we have. We are all we. So let us commit ourselves to the quiet work of justice and renewal, responding with human connection that does not wound others. Let us practice love that cradles both the beloved and the betrayer, steady enough to outlast this storm of violence, for love will always endure beyond the breaking.”
