Chats with the Lord, demon possession, Dominionism, Chrisitan Nationalism
Claire Houlihan, a Douglas County homeschooler and artist, presented a pretty picture to the Park County Board of Commissioners on August 22, 2023. But the saga doesn’t begin there. We have to go back to April 5, 2022, to understand the genesis of this story.
The writing was on the wall from the beginning of the Park County Commissioner’s meeting on April 22, 2022. Commissioner Amy Mitchell made sure of that. What followed exposed Christian Nationalism for what it is. Vicious dogmatism that raises bullying to heights equaled only by the Potentate of Mar-a-Lago. Skewed perceptions of the Constitution, the Founding Fathers, and threats of retribution flowed as an ugly, shameful discourse on the motivations of so-called Christians.
On April 5, 2022, an item was removed from the Park County Commissioners’ agenda. It was a proclamation that would have identified Park County as a sanctuary for life. Imagine that. Now, who could vote against such a lofty ideal?
But the devil is always in the details.
The proclamation was about abortion. It was an attempt to put all citizens of Park County into a communal pot in opposition to the enactment of Colorado HB22-1279. Called the Reproductive Health Equity Act, the governor signed the law on April 4, 2022, just a day before the BOCC meeting. The law preserved women’s reproductive health rights in Colorado regardless of the anticipated attack on Roe v Wade by the Christian Nationalist Catholic majority of the Supreme Court. That attack would come in June 2022.
The proclamation was written by folks who had become heady with Trumplicanism, highjacking the Colorado GOP, replacing it with a staunchly Christian Nationalist righteousness. Folks who have lost touch with the spirit and intent of the Constitution, not to mention twisting the meaning of the Constitution to fit their particular skewed understanding of it.
(Just a note. Nowhere in the Constitution will you find the words God, Christian, the Divine, or the Creator.)
The public record of the meeting is instructive. Right-wing culture warriors insisted we all bow down to their God, the freedom of conscience enshrined in the First Amendment be damned.
Commissioner Amy Mitchell set the tone from the outset. She said it was a sad day when the State of Colorado allowed a baby to be murdered one minute before birth. Anticipating the Catholic Supreme Court majority ruling on Roe v Wade, she spoke about the significance of the 1803 Supreme Court decision in Marbury v. Madison. She said the importance of that bygone ruling was that unconstitutional law can be nullified, a conclusion probably gleaned from The Daily Caller or Tucker Carlson. What Marbury v. Madison actually did was establish the principle of judicial review. That Chief Justice John Marshall found the Judiciary Act of 1789 conflicted with the Constitution was incidental to his intent.
The significance of Marbury v. Madison is known by high school kids who paid attention in civics class. The decision enforced the Constitutional principle of separation of powers and judicial review as a check on the legislative and executive branches to ensure the republic remained faithful to the Constitution.
(I pause here, wondering under what circumstances an abortion would be performed one minute before birth. And, is there any question that the present makeup of the Supreme Court, the majority of whom are Christian Nationalist Originalist Catholic ideologues, three of whom were appointed by the Grand Poobah of Mar-a-Lago, are dedicated to anything other than the imposition of their righteousness on us all? Regardless of the spirit and intent of the Constitution?)
Two commissioners at the time, Dick Elsner and Ray Douglas voted to remove the proclamation from the agenda. Their reasoning reflected that the Park County government is a creature of the state, and commissioners are obligated to uphold the Colorado Constitution and the laws of Colorado via their oaths of office. Specifically, Section 25-6-405 of the Reproductive Health Equity Act which reads:
(1) THIS PART 4 APPLIES TO ALL STATE AND LOCAL LAWS, ORDINANCES, POLICIES, PROCEDURES, REGULATORY GUIDELINES AND RULES, PRACTICES, EXECUTIVE ORDERS, AND GOVERNMENTAL ACTIONS AND THEIR IMPLEMENTATION, WHETHER STATUTORY OR OTHERWISE. THE RIGHTS PROTECTED UNDER THIS PART 4 ARE A MATTER OF STATEWIDE CONCERN. (2) NOTHING IN THIS PART 4 MAY BE CONSTRUED TO AUTHORIZE A PUBLIC ENTITY TO BURDEN AN INDIVIDUAL’S FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS RELATING TO REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH CARE.
During public comment, a so-called Christian asked Commissioner Ray Douglas what he holds higher, God’s or man’s law. Douglas favored God’s law but said we must also follow man’s law. The retort was to declare Commissioner Douglas a disgrace to his faith and church. Finally, he called Commissioner Elsner a coward and a liar.
Then another supposed Christian from Bailey suggested there would be retribution, presumably for Commissioners who didn’t toe God’s line. (“Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.” And they achieved retribution. Ray Douglas lost the Republican primary in 2022 by 130 votes. The South Park Outsiders’ poster boy candidate, Dave Wissel, won that primary.)
Then a righteous woman told us that Commissioner Douglas was not following the Greater Law. She advised us to repent and accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.
Then another righteous woman shared that the devil had made her abort a child. She observed that Commissioner Elsner, calling himself a Republican, and Douglas, calling himself a Christian, with both not supporting the proclamation, said a lot about both of them. We can assume she meant both men did not fit the Christian Nationalist perception of what a Christian or a Republican should be.
Commissioners Elsner and Douglas bore the ugliness of that meeting well. I don’t believe Commissioner Mitchell batted an eye at the ugly spectacle her fellow Christian Nationalists created that day. Like Madame Defarge in a “Tale of Two Cities,” perhaps she was content to quietly knit and purl the vengeance she envisioned for the future. The Christian Nationalists during that BOCC meeting of April 5, 2022, exposed themselves to be surly, bullying jerks, their religious self-righteousness giving no quarter to those who disagreed with them.
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Claire Houlihan is a painter and a pretty good one, besides being a small-town girl who homeschools her kids. She brought one of her paintings to the Park County Board of Commissioners meeting on August 22, 2023, from her home in Douglas County. Commission Chair Amy Mitchell welcomed Houlihan to make her presentation as a matter of “personal privilege.”
Houlihan began her comments by explaining she was at a women’s conference last fall, where she discussed with someone that her two adopted children were almost aborted. Whoever overheard that conversation advised Houlihan that Park County had wanted to make the entire county a sanctuary for life (read anti-abortion) via proclamation. From that conversation, Houlihan said the Lord gave her a job to do. He told her to make a painting that would speak to the people’s hearts and encourage the county government to be brave and stand on behalf of life.
Houlihan sermonized for nearly fifteen minutes, reaffirming several times that her painting had come from conversations she’d had with the Lord. At one point, she mentioned the names of Dutch and Tim Sheets, preachers and self-identified prophets, and leading figures in the Christian Nationalist fundamentalist movement known as the New Apostolic Reformation. A Paint Your State initiative was commenced by the Sheets brothers which Houlihan was obviously responding to. Indeed, over the last three months, Colorado followers of the Sheets have traveled the state, anointing not only their tires but county and state borders with oil (holy, I assume), planting anointed stakes in the ground for the Lord, and, in one case, flying the Colorado border and releasing oil through IV lines from the plane. They painted the state with oil.
Houlihan painted a picture.
Here’s Dutch Sheets. A tribute to Trump as the Great Reset, and those who don’t agree with his message are the demonic enemy. The “Foreword” he mentions are the words and prayers uttered by the first colonizers of America and various state constitution preambles that mention God or the Creator. Words, of course, that encompassed the sins of Manifest Destiny. Words, of course, that do not appear in the US Constitution.
The followers of the New Apostolic Reformation believe America was anointed by God to convert the world to Christianity. By force, if necessary. They work to accelerate Jesus’ return to earth. Their mission also includes seizing control of US Government institutions by their devoted followers. They have recently embraced a “great shaking” that will occur soon. In fact, they believe June, July, August, and September of this year will see an ominous message from God, indicating something serious is afoot with His plans for mankind. So far, June and July have not rattled the timbers, though we still have one day in August and all of September to look forward to. Dutch Sheets says we shouldn’t try to predict what God might have in mind for us because only He knows what He’s up to. Sheets warns it might be war, famine, economic turmoil, or something else. Is he hedging his bets? Of course, he is. If the Repugnants in the US House refuse to fund the government at the end of September, I’m sure Sheets will say that was God’s plan, the “great shaking” he predicted. If the world’s fragile economies collapse due to the Repugnants’ actions, according to Sheets, that too will be God’s plan.
To say these folks don’t believe in separating church from state is a severe understatement. They are theocrats who believe Christians can impose their beliefs on society, and God demands they do just that. Anyone who opposes them is demon-possessed. In fact, the Lord’s picture Houlihan presented to the BOCC comports with the Sheets brothers’ bright idea their followers should paint the state to bring the evil-doers to their knees and reset Colorado for the glory of God.
I’m reminded of Lauren Boerbert. Give me an Amen! for that young woman who believes “the church is supposed to direct the government” and not the other way around. Boerbert also said Donald Trump was “anointed,” presumably by God, to become the president. (A lot of anointing going on these days.)
When Dutch Sheets appeared at an event in Atlanta with Majorie Taylor Green, he told the crowd that Green’s orange-red dress was covered by the blood of Jesus. “She will not be taken out by evil forces.”
“We need to be the party of nationalism, and I’m a Christian,” Taylor Green said last year, “and I say it proudly: we should be Christian Nationalists.”
The Sheets brothers, the New Apostolic Reformation movement, and maybe Claire Houlihan and even Amy Mitchell adhere to Dominionism. Dominionism posits that Christians must gain control of all government functions before Christ returns. This opposes general Christian dogma, which teaches that only after Christ returns will governments become Christian-based.
Totalitarianism isn’t a bad word in the lexicon of the New Apostolic Reformation crowd. Christian suzerainty of all aspects of society, including schools and governments, will occur by hook or crook. Demonism will be erased from the face of the earth.
These folks believe whoever does not agree with their views are demon-possessed. Therefore, people like you and me are not just uninformed or stupid or socialists or communists; no, we are possessed by demons. Indeed, Democrats are the worst of the lot. And what do you do with demons? You destroy them. Literally? Well, of course, literally.
I have often characterized Park County Commission Chair Amy Mitchell as a Christian Nationalist. And I bet she wouldn’t deny it. I’ve also identified Commissioner Dave Wissel as one. However, I’m now tending to believe Wissel will posture himself according to whoever he sees will advance his best interests, like the South Park Outsiders have and will continue to do. No doubt, Christian Nationalists and adherents of Dominionism will provide him with the comfort of their support.
The not-so-subtle point of Amy Mitchell’s “personal privilege” in bringing Claire Houlihan to the BOCC meeting of August 22, 2023, was, I have no doubt, to set the stage for the reintroduction of the April 2022 life sanctuary proclamation. It will happen regardless of what those demon-possessed might think about this blatant effort to inch (leap?) county government to the front of the Dominionist’s agenda, if not simply that of Christian Nationalism. After all, the demon-possessed must be destroyed. They may be property owners, taxpayers, and voters in Park County, but discounting them is easy. Their time is not long for this world.
Indeed, Amy Mitchell is now the Chair of the Park County Repugnants. Her Vacancy Committee is headed by the editor or publisher (or both) of the Lamplighter Patriot Press. The February 2022 edition of that publication informed us that “…the liberal moral worldview is entirely adopted from satanism.” And, “Abortion, which is a religious ritual in the satanic temple, has been adopted as a foundational motivation for liberal voters around the world.”
(A matter of my own personal privilege. Houlihan’s narrative, manner, and mien reminded me of several folks I’ve known who spoke to the Lord. Their soft inflections, their righteousness, in one case, their schizophrenia, in another case, their embracement of stigmata and self-flagellation, impressed me significantly. Not positively.)
I believe Amy Mitchell has put on, as Ron DeSantis said, “…the full armor of God. Stand firm against the left’s schemes. You will face flaming arrows, but if you have the shield of faith, you will overcome them.” Instituting invocations at BOCC quasi-judicial proceedings was her first step in this direction, invoking the Lord to guide commissioners in their deliberations about potholes and zoning. Now she brings forth a woman’s right to choose, one of those natural rights of conscience the majority of the founders held dear. But for Mitchell, the only thing she sees is a doctor, midwife, or maybe even the devil killing a baby somehow, some way one minute before birth.
Those of us who abhor abortion, but believe deeply that such is a matter between a woman and her own conscience, that a fertilized egg is not a human being, and that the promise of the Declaration–Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness–are not defined by religious zealots, see the greatest danger to our Republic centered on those who righteously believe otherwise. Including those who righteously foment insurrection against the very foundation of our republic, and call themselves patriots.
Anyone can believe anything they want. Anyone can proclaim what someone else believes is baloney. The rub comes when demonstrable empirical factual evidence is provided to refute what people think. The more dangerous rub comes when self-righteous politicians, county commissioners, for example, reject demonstrable empirical factual evidence for an alternate reality that identifies those who don’t share their bubble-encased fantasies as demonic.
And what about Houlihan’s pretty picture? I haven’t seen it, but I bet it’s beautiful. But was the intent behind the painting beautiful? Certainly, she and her fellow Christian zealots think so. Maybe their God does too.
“It may be a species of impudence to think that the way you understand God is the way God is.” – Joseph Campbell
