By Steve Rabey
Religion Correspondent

Scott Bottoms and Victor Marx, two Christian ministry leaders from Colorado Springs, are among the leading GOP candidates for governor. And both say it’s time for the godly to root out wickedness in Colorado government.

Bottoms, now in his second term in the Colorado lLgislature, is an Assemblies of God pastor who has led Church at Briargate for 14 years after a decade and half pastoring in Strasburg and Rocky Ford.

Marx, who has no previous political experience, worked with James Dobson at Focus on the Family before starting his own ministry, With God All Things Are Possible, or ATP Ministries, in 2003.

Both describe themselves as Christ-followers and lifelong Republicans who support President Donald Trump but promise to serve all Coloradans regardless of what they believe.

Both say they decided to run after praying about it. Both say they care deeply about the abuse of vulnerable children.

And both say the demise of the Johnson Amendment, which long prohibited churches from endorsing candidates, makes it easier for them to campaign in churches. (The IRS “reinterpreted” the amendment last year.)

Bottoms: Politics as sacrifice

“I don’t see myself as a politician,” said Bottoms. “I see myself as a pastor.” He decided to run for office after local GOP leaders Stephanie Luck and Dave Williams asked him to. He sees his service to the state as part of his sacrificial service to God.

“My life is not my own,” said the pastor of nearly three decades. “It belongs to the Lord.”

Focus founder Dobson led evangelicals into political activism in the 1980s, but Bottoms acknowledges that many of his sometimes otherworldly Pentecostal brethren were latecomers to politics. John Ashcroft, who served as George W. Bush’s attorney general, is one of the few Pentecostal political role models.

Bottoms is trying to reverse that reluctance, saying that Pentecostals, of all believers, should “jump into these things because we are being led and empowered by the Holy Spirit.”

He doesn’t have a single legislative victory to celebrate but says that’s because state “Democrats made an agreement four years ago that they will never pass a bill that my name is on.”

Bottoms says his biggest contribution has been “breaking down some of the status quo” with bold, straight talk. He spoke out against transgenderism at a Feb. 18 press conference at the state Capitol to discuss the bill, HB26-1087, “Safeguard Minors from Sex-Altering Interventions.”

He claims Coloradons need to safeguard minors from Democrat leaders because “there are pedophiles that traffic children that are elected representatives, all the way up to governor’s office.” Because he doesn’t trust the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, he has provided his evidence to the FBI.

“When I’m governor, I will use all the resources I have to go after these perpetrators,” he said. He has also promised to eliminate property taxes and expects the same pro-gun rights groups who’ve endorsed him in the past to do so again.

Marx: War on wickedness

“Either I leave Colorado, and move to Florida or Texas, or I stay right here and fight and run for office and make a difference from the governor’s seat,” said Marx, a former Marine, explaining his first-ever run for public office.

At first, he didn’t think a race then crowded with 20 GOP candidates needed him. He changed his mind after assessing the viability of the top candidates. He assembled a disciplined team, has toured the state, has spoken to 12,550 people in 10 churches, and is a leading fundraiser.

Rocky Mountain Calvary’s Senior pastor Eric Cartier devoted the church’s Wednesday evening service Feb. 11 to Marx.

For years, Marx was a private person who kept his pain from horrific childhood abuse and neglect hidden deep. “I had my locks on my emotional safe,” he said.

When the Focus executives he worked with asked him about his childhood, they were shocked by his story of suffering and redemption. Soon, he was telling his story to others, traveling as a motivational speaker, and creating books and films.

His ATP Ministries also worked with incarcerated juveniles add Marx also organizes teams of military veterans to travel into high-risk areas around the world to rescue women and children. He says he recently negotiated with “Barbecue,” the notorious Haitian gang leader, as part of a mission to protect a Christian orphanage that had been isolated and surrounded by gang members.

Marx was a friend of Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk and teased his candidacy last fall at a memorial event for Kirk held at Brave Church in Denver. He also boasts endorsements from U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, retired Gen. Mike Flynn and guitarist/activist Ted Nugent.

He hopes to be endorsed by Trump, saying he knows the family and Trump’s White House spiritual adviser Paula White, and has spoken at events held at Trump’s Florida Mar-a-Lago Club.