Boomtown Blues
Paul Asay, religion reporter for the Colorado Springs Gazette, teams up with colleague Dave Phillips to ponder the post-Haggard fate of the city sometimes called the evangelical Vatican. It’s an excellent report. Megachurch light shows and Dobson fire-breathing acts are old news in Colorado Springs, so Asay and Phillips do what reporters are trained to […]
Paul Asay, religion reporter for the Colorado Springs Gazette, teams up with colleague Dave Phillips to ponder the post-Haggard fate of the city sometimes called the evangelical Vatican. It’s an excellent report. Megachurch light shows and Dobson fire-breathing acts are old news in Colorado Springs, so Asay and Phillips do what reporters are trained to do — they follow the money. That is, they examine the rise of their city’s evangelical community as an economic industry — courted and caressed by a city government desperate for business — and what might be a coming end to the boom.