Colorado Springs didn’t just host America’s evangelical movement. It helped define it.
That’s the conclusion historian William Schultz reaches in his book, “Jesus Springs: Evangelical Capitalism and the Fate of an American City.” Schultz traces how faith, power and place converged in one city, and how that convergence reshaped American evangelicalism far beyond Colorado.
Colorado Springs became the story, not just the setting
Schultz began his research by treating Colorado Springs as one example among many. But his approach changed as his work took shape.
“I realized that this was not just a story about Colorado Springs,” Schultz said. “To tell the story of Colorado Springs is to tell the story of how evangelicalism has been defined in the modern United States.”
By the late 20th century, the city had become evangelicalism’s most visible symbol to believers and critics.
Military expansion created fertile ground for evangelical growth
Colorado Springs’ transformation into a modern city began with defense spending during World War II and the Cold War.
That growth brought people, money and national attention but it also created deeper ideological alignment. US leaders increasingly framed the Cold War as a moral struggle, using religious language to distinguish America from communism.
For many, it confirmed a long-held belief that American power and Christian purpose were intertwined, according to Schultz.
Evangelical ministries operated in a competitive marketplace
Schultz described the dense network of ministries in Colorado Springs as part of what he calls “evangelical capitalism.”
“These organizations are businesses,” he said. “They are as concerned with money, with their financing, as any other secular organization.”
Colorado Springs offered a strategic advantage: affordable land, dramatic scenery and space to build campuses that signaled scale and ambition to donors.
“If you give to us,” Schultz said, organizations were effectively telling supporters, “you are contributing to this grand cause.”
Evangelical activism shifted from outreach to confrontation
Early evangelical groups focused on evangelism and charity. That emphasis changed over time.
Beginning in the 1970s and accelerating in the 1980s and ’90s, some organizations framed American culture itself as the problem.
“Their language shifts from that of Christian nationalism to that of the culture wars,” Schultz said.
Battles over LGBTQ rights became a catalyst, transforming religious institutions into political actors with national reach.
Conflict sparked organizing on both sides
The rise of evangelical political power didn’t just reshape conservative activism – it also galvanized progressive movements.
Attacks on gay rights forced people into public life, Schultz said, uniting LGBTQ communities and long-term political engagement.
“It leads them to meet each other, to start organizations, to start organizing,” he said.
Those dynamics, he added, played a role in shaping the political trajectories of figures such as Colorado Gov. Jared Polis.
Evangelical institutions reshaped the city, but not belief
Evangelical organizations left a visible imprint on Colorado Springs, from large campuses to school board battles and land use decisions. But their presence didn’t translate into widespread religious conversion.
“You have lots of evangelical institutions,” Schultz said, “but you don’t necessarily have lots of evangelical people.”
In that sense, he argued, the city became a hub of evangelical power without becoming uniformly evangelical itself.
The movement burned hot – then burned out
Some of the most influential evangelical political groups in Colorado Springs rose quickly and collapsed just as fast.
“They can stir people up,” Schultz said, “but they can’t really sustain themselves.”
By the late 1990s, many had lost influence or disappeared altogether. The city’s role as the epicenter of evangelical politics faded even as its ideas continued shaping national debates.
Schultz said today, evangelical organizations remain present but operate in strategic ways, shaped by lessons learned in Colorado Springs.
“It belongs, I think, to a different era of the history of American evangelicalism,” he said.
Why it still matters
Schultz hopes readers see the city’s present through its past, recognizing how decades of choices shaped today’s political and cultural landscape.
“The best way to understand your city,” he said, “is to go about exploring it yourself.”
