Jamie Sanchez has felt a calling to serve the homeless ever since he was a baby. However he by no means imagined that following that calling would result in him being labeled a bigot.
“It was really strange, actually, because we all of a sudden started getting like messages on Instagram about how we hate gay people and just like random comments like that,” Sanchez informed Fox Information Digital. “And come to find out there was like an organized group ready to protest the opening of our café before we even open. We did some digging, and we found out it was strictly because we were Christian.”
Sanchez is the proprietor of The Drip Café in Denver, situated within the Artwork District on Santa Fe Drive. He additionally runs a homeless ministry referred to as “Recycle God’s Love,” that he began in 2012 together with his late spouse, Carolyn, who died from most cancers in 2018.
What started as a small group providing Bible research and meals to the homeless has grown right into a widespread neighborhood initiative, involving church buildings, native companies, and volunteers, offering a whole lot of individuals with every thing from haircuts to meals to clothes and housing.
“Over the years, it has just grown into just an amazing community of believers and people who really have a heart to help people who are in need and to do it selflessly,” Sanchez informed Fox Information Digital.
In 2022, Sanchez took the ministry a step additional by launching “Project Revive,” a faith-based initiative designed to help homeless people in search of to rebuild their lives. This system helps the homeless entry housing, transportation, identification, dependancy counseling, and jobs — grounded in Christian discipleship.
As a part of this mission, Sanchez opened The Drip Café the subsequent yr. It’s a daily espresso store that additionally hires and mentors people who’ve accomplished the ministry’s program, and are sober and able to reintegrate into the workforce.
“We’ve had a few people go through the project so far, and it’s been very successful,” he stated.
Nonetheless, even earlier than The Drip Café opened its doorways, Sanchez says they started receiving social media messages accusing the café of being anti-gay. On the opening day, protesters, organized by an area group referred to as the Denver Communists, held indicators and handed out flyers accusing the espresso store of being run by a “right-wing church” that hated these within the LGBTQ neighborhood.
“I was in shock,” Sanchez recalled. “Our whole purpose opening the café was to serve the homeless community and help people get off the street, change their lives. And here we got a group who just hates us because we’re doing that, and we’re Christian.”
The group objected to Recycle God’s Love calling homosexuality a sin in its beliefs part on its web site.
They protested exterior the café each weekend initially. Now, about 10–20 individuals protest exterior their store each first Friday of the month in the course of the space’s artwork stroll occasion.
Regardless of makes an attempt to have interaction with them peacefully, Sanchez says he’s been met principally with silence or shouting.
He stated protesters adopted two aged girls into the shop one time and screamed at a blind Christian DJ on one other event.
“Here’s this group trying to act inclusive, and they are harassing a Black blind guy in front of my café because he’s Christian,” he stated.
His property has been vandalized, home windows damaged and “Keep Santa Fe Gay” stickers have been left on home windows and mirrors. Just lately, a spray-painted picture of a KKK member hanging was left on the café’s entrance door.
The Christian store proprietor maintains he harbors no hatred towards the protesters. He sees the backlash as a part of a non secular battle. After discovering no assist from native authorities, he and his staff selected to carry reside worship music within the café each first Friday to assist “drown out” the commotion exterior.
“I love them even though they don’t believe me and I’ve never shown anything but love to them and that’s why the only pictures they have of me is praying for them,” he informed Fox Information Digital. “I understand that they feel like they are having an identity crisis, and they might feel hopeless and lost and the only way to rectify that feeling is through the Son of God who is Jesus Christ.”
The Denver Communists informed Fox Information Digital they weren’t protesting the café strictly as a result of it’s Christian, however due to its non secular beliefs on sexuality.
“There are plenty of Christian denominations that don’t share their bigoted view, such as the ELCA [Evangelical Lutheran Church in America] and we’ve been joined by pastors and many Christians in our protests. Since then Drip has doubled down on its homophobic position,” a spokesperson for the group stated. “Jamie and his bigoted coffee shop don’t have a monopoly on Christianity, but he sure is willing to try and profit off of it.”
The communists say they view the protests as a part of a “broader struggle” towards forces just like the Trump administration, which they are saying is attacking LGBTQ+ rights.
“We may not succeed in running the Drip out of town before the end of its lease, but that is ultimately irrelevant. The protests against the hate-café are serving as a training ground for new queer-rights activists, the message of queer liberation is being spread, and our ultimate victory, while delayed, is inevitable,” the group wrote in a weblog put up shared with Fox Information Digital.
The group additionally claimed Sanchez was affiliated with neo-Nazis and stated they’d been subjected to slurs and threats by employees, which Sanchez adamantly denied. He disavowed any hate proven to the protesters by others exterior his café and claimed the communists had unfold lies about him and his store.
“The communists have told me I’m not welcome, told me to kill myself, and my response is, ‘I love you, and you are welcome to come in peacefully.’ We have offered them free coffee and food on cold days,” he informed Fox Information Digital. “It’s very silly of them to say I am part of a Nazi group, considering I am a brown-skinned Hispanic.”
