Activists and school board official pressure business to sever ties with Colorado church due to its views on biblical sexual ethics.

Activists and Journalists Target Conservative Church in Boulder

The Well Church Draws Criticism for Traditional Doctrine

A conservative evangelical church in Boulder, Colorado, has come under fire from activists, journalists, and even a school board official for renting space from a local food truck park for worship services. The Well Church, which has around 250 members and attendees, has been labeled “divisive,” “misogynistic,” and a potential “hate group” for its traditional views on manhood, womanhood, and marriage.

• The church affirms the immutability of manhood and womanhood
• The church affirms the reality of marriage between one man and one woman
• The church asserts that homosexuality is a sin
• The church teaches that wives should respect and obey their husbands

The controversy began when an opinion piece in The Daily Camera, a local newspaper, provided readers with the date and time of The Well Church’s recent Easter egg hunt at a courthouse lawn. The author of the piece urged readers to boycott The Rayback Collective, the food truck park where the church meets, claiming that supporting the business would spread “forced-birtherism, homophobia, patriarchy, Genesis-based ‘complementarianism,’ animus towards faiths not their own, and Bible-inspired ignorance anathema to a more just society.”

Church Responds to Accusations

Chase Davis, one of the pastors and elders at The Well Church, denied the accusations of the article’s author and other protesters. He said that the church does not seek to “merge church and state” and that other sermons affirm the doctrine of sphere sovereignty, which contends that church and state are separate institutions with distinct mandates even as each remains bound by the moral principles of the Bible.

Despite this, Lisa Sweeney-Miran, the vice president of the Boulder Valley School District Board of Education, shared the opinion piece on social media and accused The Rayback Collective of aligning with a “hate group.” Other journalists and activists in Boulder also criticized the association between The Well Church and the food truck park.

Pastor Defends Traditional Views

Chase Davis defended The Well Church’s traditional views on manhood, womanhood, and marriage, saying that pastors must “hold the line” and “equip the church to stand fast.” He also noted that secularists have their own morality which they seek to impose on their opponents by means of the state.

“In any culture, there will be a common cultus or shared guiding beliefs for right worship. It is not whether but which. Right now, in our culture, that ground is hotly contested. And that is precisely why pastors must be ready to offer a sufficient defense of the faith where the battle rages most fiercely,” Davis said. “Secularists have a moral vision which they seek to advance and impose on their opponents. This makes sense because they are working out what every human is by nature: a worshiper.”

“We will worship. The question inevitably becomes who or what they worship. As Bob Dylan said, ‘You’re gonna have to serve somebody.'”