Denver, CO
“Christian privilege” in Colorado mountain town’s amphitheater fuels church-and-state storm
DILLON – Town leaders’ refusal to reconsider a longstanding practice of letting a Christian church use the Dillon Amphitheater for Sunday prayers has hurled the town into a national storm over worship in public facilities.
They now face potential lawsuits from pressure groups. Freedom from Religion Foundation attorneys are demanding an end to any preferential treatment for the Dillon Community Church. The rival First Liberty Institute sent a countervailing letter urging continued use, warning that recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions favor greater mixing of church and state.
Town staffers hit with multiplying requests from a diversity of religious groups to rent the amphitheater had proposed to shut down access by all outside groups and allow only town-sponsored events such as rock concerts. But town council members on June 11 rejected that approach and voted 5-1 to allow continued use by the church. Two members derided Dillon’s Denver-based contract attorney Kathleen Kelly for creating roadblocks after she raised constitutional concerns. Kelly resigned the next day.
The drama lit up chat sites — Friendly Athiest commenters decried “Christian privilege” — and led to a special meeting Wednesday night where town leaders faced a cacophony from residents. Then leaders accepted advice from a new attorney and back-tracked, temporarily prohibiting the use of the amphitheater by all groups until leaders set a legally defensible policy.
“There needs to be a separation of church and state. We cannot favor one denomination over another,” town manager Nathan Johnson said in an interview. “Now with the popularity of the venue we have more and more people reaching out. Everybody wants to be down there,” he said.
“If we are going to open up the amphitheater, we have to open it up for everybody.”
For more than 40 years, Dillon leaders have let the Dillon Community Church, a non-denominational Christian organization that owns a building a few blocks away, run evangelical “outreach” events appealing to Colorado high country visitors.
The amphitheater was built in 1993 as a low-key community band shell. Town officials have transformed it into one of the nation’s trendiest concert venues by investing $10 million, including a $1 million grant from the Colorado Department of Local Affairs, for an overhaul completed in 2018. Seats on a grassy hillside look out on the blue waters of Lake Dillon, a Denver Water reservoir, and majestic snow-splotched mountain peaks. Town officials charge a $25,000 fee for promoters of town-sponsored concerts. The venue holds up to 3,656 people. Town-sponsored activities also include country line dancing and yoga.
But religious worship is now canceled.
Dillon Community Church officials had lauded town leaders’ initial stance. “We are grateful that the council voted down the new policy that would limit all non-profit organizations that are not city-sponsored,” their posting said.
Senior pastor Jim Howard said Friday he’s confident town council members will sort out future access. “If they say we can’t use it while they figure out the legalities, we’ll stay in our building. We definitely don’t want a lawsuit,” Howard said.
The church paid a $1,100 annual rental fee, town officials said, and Howard said his 220-member church draws 300 to 800 people to the Sunday worship events.
Church members have mobilized. “Dillon Community Church should be grandfathered into whatever contract. They’ve been here for over 40 years,” church representative Wendy Myers told leaders at the packed special meeting. “It attracts an incredible number of our visitors who come to the county every single summer and love coming to church.”
She and others advocated opening the amphitheater to all religious groups. Former council member Tim Westerberg supports that but also spoke out against new council members’ political tactics. “They don’t seem to care about what the community thinks. They don’t seem to care about what their attorney says. They don’t seem to care about what the Constitution says. It’s just damn the torpedoes full speed away, bulldoze ahead our agenda.”
Problems around prayers in the amphitheater arose earlier this year when other religious groups, including a Jewish synagogue, Native American tribes, and people of various faiths planning weddings asked to rent the facility, Johnson said. “Everybody is attracted to the lake, the natural beauty of the lake,” he said.
“It’s a dilemma because an expectation has been set” in allowing the Dillon Community Church events.
When other religious groups requested access, “we put them on hold,” he said. “That’s what started this conversation. We haven’t told anyone ‘no’ – at least that I’m aware of. We want to have clear and definitive direction from the town council on what is allowed and not allowed in this setting.”
If Dillon officials excluded any other religious group, members of that group could file a civil rights lawsuit, said Madeline Ziegler, staff attorney for the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation, which has filed a legal petition seeking town communications with the Dillon Community Church and other groups to explore a possible lawsuit.
Dillon’s practice has sent “a signal to the town residents that their government prefers Christianity and that Christians will be treated better than other people in this town. That’s not a message that the people’s representatives should be allowed to send,” Ziegler said.
Dillon could avoid a lawsuit by setting a formal policy that includes “a welcoming and inclusive message that all are welcome and equally allowed to use the town’s facilities,” she said. Otherwise, town leaders would be acting to ensure “the continued dominance of one church that has the backing of the town over all other religious organizations.”
Attorneys with the Texas-based First Liberty Institute, a conservative Christian legal organization devoted to”restoring religious liberty,” have prevailed in cases at the U.S. Supreme Court, where justices have decided that “history and tradition” must be considered in determining whether government is too intertwined with religion.
Senior attorney Lea Patterson, in her letter sent Tuesday, encouraged Dillon leaders “to continue to allow the church to rent the amphitheater” so as not to invite a lawsuit.
Finding space for religion in Colorado increasingly presents challenges. Soaring real estate prices mean church groups can be hard-pressed to afford buildings, said Jon Stavney, director of the Northwest Colorado Council of Governments, which supports local leaders. “Look at the cost of housing. If you are a church, it makes sense to use public space at a reduced cost,” Stavney said.
In the Eagle Valley west of Vail, the Redeemer church rents space for Sunday worship at the public Brush Creek Elementary School.
For elected leaders, deciding to end a longstanding public worship tradition such as the Dillon Community Church’s use of the town amphitheater can be politically perilous because leaders in small towns typically have to face down residents in grocery aisles, he said.
“If I were in their shoes, and this entity had been using a public space for a long time, I would have some loyalty to the history of that group using that facility.”
Get more Colorado news by signing up for our daily Your Morning Dozen email newsletter.
For Christmas Eve dinner in Denver, options range from upscale steakhouses like Elway’s and Urban Farmer to Italian spots like Cranelli’s, seafood at Jax Fish House, Mexican at Kachina Cantina, and varied American/international cuisine at places like Tavernetta, Root Down, with many offering both dine-in and takeout for prime rib, seafood feasts, or holiday boxes, but reservations are essential.
Remember to book early, as many of these places fill up fast. Check the websites or call to confirm holiday hours and make reservations.
Steak & Upscale
Elway’s Downtown
Featuring their classic steakhouse menu plus festive additions like Duck Breast and Crab Stuffed Mushrooms.
Make a reservation HERE
Urban Farmer Denver
Offers prime rib and Peking duck to-go or dine-in options.
Make a reservation HERE
The Capital Grille
Another upscale steakhouse option for the holiday.
Make a reservation HERE
Italian & European
Cranelli’s Italian Restaurant
Featuring a la carte menu with seasonal luxuries.
Make a reservation HERE
Tavernetta
Featuring a la carte menu with seasonal luxuries.
Make a reservation HERE
Le French – 9+CO
Focusing on decadent food like oysters, foie gras, seafood, turkey/goose, and the iconic chocolate log cake.
Make a reservation HERE
Seafood & American
Jax Fish House & Oyster Bar
Featuring seven Fresh Fishes, Five Golden Courses, and an unforgettable Christmas Eve.
Make a reservation HERE
Local Jones
Savor carving stations, classic holiday favorites, specialty desserts, and more
Make a reservation HERE
Root Down
Creative American cuisine with global influences offering prix fixe or a la carte menue
Make a reservation HERE
Mexican & Latin
Kachina Cantina
Features a Christmas Eve Prime Rib special.
Make a reservation
SOL Mexican Cocina
Featuring Prime Rib served with Truffle Parmesan Mashed Potatoes, Bacon Brussels Sprouts & Maple Syrup Glazed Carrots
Make a reservation HERE
Denver, CO
Keeler: Broncos, Sean Payton reuniting with Justin Simmons would be surprise. Denver becoming AFC West’s next dynasty would not be.
The Grinch has more room for nostalgia in his heart than one Patrick Sean Payton.
Before we get to the good stuff, just know that what applies to Von Miller and Payton absolutely applies to Justin Simmons, too. Even though the Broncos now have a starting safety slot wide open while a former Pro Bowl safety in Simmons is local and looking for a gig, the locker room in Dove Valley might not be big enough for the both of them. Although stranger things have happened, and it’s almost Christmas.
Speaking of presents, the Chiefs finally returned the AFC West throne to the store, receipt and all, after hogging that thing for 3,270 days. Eight years, 11 months, and 14 days, officially.
A child born on New Year’s Day 2017, the actual start of the Kansas City Chiefs’ AFC West dynasty, would be halfway through third grade as of Monday. At last, Heaven help us, we can clearly see the end, a light at the end of long, red tunnel of darkness.
The Chiefs were mathematically eliminated from the postseason this past Sunday. Kansas City is slated to be $43.8 million over the cap in 2026. Travis Kelce just turned 36. Chris Jones will be 32 next summer. Mahomes will be 31 next September, and his left knee just went kablooey in a home loss to the Chargers. Legends live forever in our hearts, but every anterior cruciate ligament comes with an expiration date.
The second-hardest thing in the NFL is to win a championship. The hardest is to pull it off multiple times. It never ceases to amuse me how the most popular sports league in America, land of me-first, is simultaneously a screaming bastion of socialism and enforced parity. The good of all before the one.
Bad teams get the best draft picks. A salary cap that prevents elite teams from hoarding all the elite players, so long as those elite players want to get paid. And they do.
All that being said, the Broncos (12-2) aren’t just poised to win a division title this fall. They’re in a really good position to follow in the Chiefs’ cleats and go on a little dynastic run of their own. And we’ll give you five reasons why:
1. The Chiefs’ best players are getting old
Even if Kelce, who can become an unrestricted free agent next year, elects to return, the Chiefs’ books are looking fairly lopsided. Per Spotrac, Kansas City will have 44.9% of its cap space for 2026 taken up by four players who will be 31 years or older: Jones ($44.85 million), K Harrison Butker ($7.3 million), LB Drue Tranquill ($7.5 million) and Mahomes ($78.2 million).
The Broncos’ 31-and-older club, depending on what becomes of linebacker Alex Singleton, is slated to take up 24.9% of next year’s cap.
2. The Chargers’ best players are already old
The Bolts have 33.3% of their active roster cap tied up in 17 players who are at least 29 years old. And at least 10 of those guys are scheduled to hit the open market after this season.
QB Justin Herbert is better with one good hand than most NFL signal-callers are with two. He’s just 27. Although working with Jim Harbaugh has been known to age people prematurely.
3. The Broncos’ best players are … not
The Broncos went into Week 1, per PhillyVoice.com, with the eighth fewest number of players among NFL rosters who were aged 29 or older (10).
Bo Nix, the QB1 who keeps rising to the moment, is 25 and on a rookie contract through 2027 (for now).
Also signed through ’27, per Spotrac.com (deep breath): CB Pat Surtain II, RT Mike McGlinchey, DL Zach Allen, WR Courtland Sutton, LT Garett Bolles, OLB Jonathon Cooper, OLB Nik Bonitto, S Talanoa Hufanga, DB Jahdae Barron, DL D.J. Jones, LB Dre Greenlaw, G Quinn Meinerz, DL Malcolm Roach, C Luke Wattenberg, OLB Jonah Elliss, RB RJ Harvey, CB Kris Abrams-Draine, K Wil Lutz and P Jeremy Crawshaw. Oh, and WRs Troy Franklin and Pat Bryant.
Pretty good core, that. Especially when you consider that only five of those guys are 30 years or older — and one of those five happens to be Lutz.
4. GM George Paton has the drafting part down
And he always did. Nine of Denver’s 11 starters are former Broncos draft picks or former collegiate free agents. As are five of the 11 guys who usually start for Vance Joseph’s defense. The more expensive Nix’s contract becomes, the more important hitting on rookies immediately is going to get.
5. Sean Payton has done this before
Yes, Sunshine Sean loves the screen game more than Homer Simpson loves Duff Beer. Yes, he holds fools and journalists in equal disdain. But the man also won seven division titles in New Orleans, including four straight (2017-2020) after his 2012 suspension. From 2018-2022, talk about the Broncos largely focused on the franchise’s sagging floor. Now it’s about the ceiling. Whether you like him personally or not, there’s no denying the degree to which Payton flipped the script.
Tom Brady was 42 when he signed with Tampa Bay and 45 when he retired for the second time. Rob Gronkowski hung ’em up for the USAA life at age 33. Savor the now. When a window opens, you don’t walk through it. You sprint like there’s a raging, snorting Nederland moose in hot pursuit.
In the NFL, age is a running clock. As any Broncomaniac can tell you, there’s one defensive coordinator worse than Belichick, a mastermind not even Mahomes, Brees, Elway or Manning could lick: Father Time. For the first time in a decade, he’s finally on the Broncos’ side.
Denver, CO
What drivers will face traveling into mountains near Denver on I-70 amid Floyd Hill bridge building
Drivers heading west from metro Denver into the mountains on Interstate 70 on Monday and Tuesday face overnight closures, and 20-minute stops through Thursday at the base of Floyd Hill, the latest traffic disruptions for bridge building as part of the Colorado Department of Transportation’s $800 million reconstruction of I-70 through Clear Creek Canyon.
The nighttime closures this week, scheduled from 9 p.m. until 5 a.m., are planned around the I-70/U.S. 6 interchange at exit 244 and include on- and off-ramps.
Drivers also should expect to wait at 20-minute stops multiple times per day from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on I-70 starting Monday, and continuing through Thursday, according to a CDOT notice.
But officials said there would be no planned traffic disruptions during the holidays from Dec. 20 to Jan. 5.
CDOT contractors will be blasting rock in the canyon above eastbound and westbound I-70 between the Veterans Memorial Tunnels and the Homestead Road interchange near Idaho Springs. And drivers may face intermittent traffic stops along the Central City Parkway, County Road 314, U.S. 6, and U.S. 40, CDOT officials said.
CDOT contractors are building a temporary framework to support their upcoming construction of a concrete bridge on I-70. When it’s done, the bridge will carry westbound drivers through a new route that CDOT officials say will be safer and improve traffic flows through the canyon, which long has loomed as a bottleneck.
The rebuilt highway, with an added westbound express toll lane, eventually will carry drivers through a widened canyon on viaducts 115 feet above Clear Creek. This safer route, designed to improve visibility for drivers, is expected to allow speeds of 55 miles per hour in areas now marked 45 mph.
Depending on the weather this week, disruptive construction work may shift to Wednesday and Thursday, CDOT officials said.
The I-70 Floyd Hill Project involves about eight miles of I-70 in the mountainous area between Evergreen and the eastern edge of Idaho Springs. CDOT officials have promised that, as part of the project, they’ll improve the Clear Creek Greenway trail and ensure safer routes for wildlife.
Construction began in July 2023. The project is expected to conclude in 2029.
Drivers learn more by calling CDOT at 720-994-2368 or by texting floydhill to 21000 and signing up for text alerts. CDOT officials also said information about weather, road conditions, and travel impacts is available at COtrip.org.
4 dead, Detroit firefighter injured in slew of fires. What to know
What have San Francisco police been doing at 16th and Mission?
DA: Nick Reiner will be charged with first-degree murder in deaths of Rob & Michele Reiner
Packers star Micah Parsons heads to Dallas while awaiting ACL surgery
An immersive ‘Survivor’ experience and fan café will open in Miami in January
Florida High School Football Rankings: Top 25 teams – Oct. 21
Cleary's 21 help Le Moyne down Central Connecticut State 69-64 in OT
How old is Bo Nix? What to know about Oregon quarterback ahead of 2024 NFL Draft
99th annual Pony Swim held in Virginia
Video: ‘It Didn’t Have to Happen This Way:’ U.Va. Faculty Call for Review of Police Response to Protests
DA: Nick Reiner will be charged with first-degree murder in deaths of Rob & Michele Reiner
Video: Nick Reiner Talked Openly About His Addiction Struggles
Trump admin defends White House ballroom as national security matter
Venezuelan opposition leader Machado injured on covert Nobel Prize trip
Peace plans ready to be presented to Russia in days, says Zelenskyy
-
Washington1 week agoLIVE UPDATES: Mudslide, road closures across Western Washington
-
Iowa2 days agoAddy Brown motivated to step up in Audi Crooks’ absence vs. UNI
-
Iowa1 week agoMatt Campbell reportedly bringing longtime Iowa State staffer to Penn State as 1st hire
-
Iowa3 days agoHow much snow did Iowa get? See Iowa’s latest snowfall totals
-
Miami, FL1 week agoUrban Meyer, Brady Quinn get in heated exchange during Alabama, Notre Dame, Miami CFP discussion
-
Cleveland, OH1 week agoMan shot, killed at downtown Cleveland nightclub: EMS
-
World1 week ago
Chiefs’ offensive line woes deepen as Wanya Morris exits with knee injury against Texans
-
Minnesota1 week agoTwo Minnesota carriers shut down, idling 200 drivers
