Churches launch 'God Loves Pride' response to GOP Chair's Dave Williams' 'God Hates Pride' email (2024)

In response to Colorado Republican Chairman Dave Williams’ anti-LGBTQ+ email from the state party he sent last week to supporters titled, “God Hates Pride,” members of First Congregational United Church of Christ in Colorado Springs enthusiastically chanted “God Loves Pride,” as they marched as a group in this past Sunday’s Pride parade.

They and hundreds of others who attended this year’s annual event that celebrates the LGBTQ+ community carried rainbow-colored Pride flags; the state GOP also recently posted a call on social media to “Burn all the #pride flags this June.”

“We felt compelled to speak out and to profess our belief of an inclusive God who loves everyone,” said the Rev. Lee Ann Bryce, lead minister of First Congregational in Colorado Springs, which is part of the progressive United Church of Christ.

The mainline Protestant denomination in 1972 became the first Christian church to ordain openly gay pastors.

Bryce was hired to lead First Congregational in 2022, which she does so as an openly gay woman.

“There are many different ways to image God,” she said Tuesday. “When we heard the statement, ‘God hates Pride,’ and that called for the burning of Pride flags, that is just not the God we envision in our congregation.”

Bryce is one of many members of United Church of Christ churches in the Rocky Mountain Conference in Colorado, Wyoming and Utah who have signed a statement objecting to Williams’ diatribe of derogatory comments about the nationwide observance of June as Pride month.

“When word spread of the Colorado Republican Party’s messaging, there was an immediate and strong sense that a faithful response was needed,” said the Rev. Allyson Sawtell, a retired clergyperson with the United Church of Christ.

Created at the denomination’s regional annual meeting that was held last weekend, the statement denounced “this call to violence and dehumanization, which is incompatible with God's expansive love.”

Church members “decry the virulent and hateful rhetoric of the Republican Party of Colorado,”the statement reads. “God marches with us in Pride. God journeys with all of us as we seek to live lives of justice and inclusion.”

The United Church of Christ teaches that “all people, regardless of sexuality, gender, family structure, age, ability, race, ethnicity, political identity or any other identity, are created in the image of God and worthy of respect and dignity.”

The Rev. Anne Cubbage, lead minister at Broadmoor Community United Church of Christ, also signed the statement because she said the words from the GOP are contrary to what her church embodies.

“We believe that Christ stood for love, and that we are called to that as well,” she said Tuesday. “We also stand for those who are often sent to the margins, and LGBTQ folks are often those who are sent to the edges, they're told that they are 'less-than.' We think we are called to inclusion and justice in whatever form we can do.”

The list of groups and individuals now demanding Williams to relinquish his role as the GOP leader in Colorado has been growing since the social media posts began appearing shortly after Pride month started and Williams sent the mass email.

The communication is the latest controversy to besiege Colorado’s fractured Republican Party, which has been divided over extremist vs. moderate political views.

Elected officials from the conservative-leaning Teller County renounced Williams' actions and language in a letter issued Monday and signed by leaders from Teller County and its cities of Woodland Park, Cripple Creek and Victor.

“This call to burn pride flags was authorized and approved by the State Party Chairman and is not reflective of the Republican Party in Colorado and does not reflect the views of the Teller County Elected Officials of either party,” the letter states.

“We are calling for the immediate removal of Mr. David Williams, the Chair of the Colorado GOP, for continuing to incite hatred and further division in Colorado,” it concludes.

Jefferson County GOP Chairwoman Nancy Pallozzi last Friday launched a petition to oust Williams as the state party chair, telling The Gazette, “He is not speaking on behalf of the Republican Party. He is speaking for himself.”

She wants to force a vote to fire Williams from the role as the top party official. A recall movement to remove him now is underway. Williams has said he will not step down.

Said the Rev.Darlene Avery, lead minister at Church in the Wildwood in Green Mountain Falls, who also signed the United Church of Christ objection, "God does not hate. Period. To assert so is blasphemy. Period."

Williams is a Republican primary candidate for the congressional seat being vacated by retiring U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn.

The seat represents the 5th Congressional district, which covers the El Paso County communities of Colorado Springs, Fountain, Monument, Manitou Springs, Palmer Lake, Peyton, Falcon, Security, Widefield and Cimarron Hills.