Dillon, Colorado a small town of merely 1,000 residents has a incident that is turning into a national new story.
For more than four decades, the Dillon Community Church has been utilizing the town’s amphitheater for Sunday prayers. Picture this—a congregation praying against a scenic backdrop of sprawling mountains and a tranquil lake. Sounds idyllic, doesn’t it?
The town’s amphitheater has increasingly become a magnet for various groups, from synagogues to Native American tribes, all eager to use the space. This has left town officials in a quandary. The task at hand? Deciding who gets to utilize the facility.
Town Manager Nathan Johnson no longer seems to support the church, stating that, “There needs to be a separation of church and state. We cannot favor one denomination over another.”
Dillon Community Church has hosted a service there for decades and always paid its annual rental fee.
“Everybody is attracted to the lake, the natural beauty of the lake. With the venue’s growing popularity, we’re seeing an exponential increase in inquiries. Everybody wants to be there,” Johnson added.
He also complained that the Church has set “an expectation” that they’d always be allowed to use the space.
Here’s where the liberal insanity starts, and this is really about punishing the church.
On June 11, 2024, the town council voted 5-1 to allow the church to continue holding their services there.
Then Dillon’s Denver based attorney Kathleen Kelly resigned over the decision and the council backtracked.
Opinions in the small town are split over whether the church should be granted special permission due to its long-standing usage. Some perceive this as “Christian privilege” and argue that the space should be accessible to all groups on equal footing.
Currently, the council has suspended access to all third parties as they attempt to devise a use policy that can withstand legal scrutiny.
In other words, the town isn’t letting anybody use the amphitheater until they can figure out how to wiggle out of the letting the church there.
If this was really about “fairness,” the church could book out their services, and any other group could book the appetite as long as it doesn’t affect the schedule. Just like if the church wanted to schedule an event for a, say, a Friday, but there would be a conflict with another group. The church would have to reschedule.
