The Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Grand Valley church changed its mind on granting access to former CU professor Ward Churchill for a speech on Memorial Day.
Churchill will be speaking at Sherwood Park instead, according to a report by the Grand Junction Sentinel.
An alternative media group called Confluence Media Collective, invited Churchill to speak on any topic of his choosing and offered him $350.
"He is a very controversial speaker. I think right now America needs more controversial speakers. There's a lot of activity going on in our name and we'd like to get out some of the things that people might not know about their government," Eric Niederkruger of Confluence Media Collective told KREX TV.
A statement on the congregation's Facebook page reads:
Some of our congregants have close relatives and friends now serving in the armed services in Iraq and Afghanistan, and have expressed dismay about having Churchill speak during a weekend of remembrance. Because our mission guides us toward unity with one another, we will not be using our time and space to bring a controversial and possibly divisive speaker into our community during such a poignant time.
The University of Colorado at Boulder fired Ethnic Studies Professor Churchill in 2007 for academic fraud after allegations of plagiarism were made to CU's Board of Regents. Churchill then filed a lawsuit alleging the university violated his First Amendment rights, and in January of 2011 Churchill petitioned for a Writ of Certiorari.