Charlie Kirk and the Importance of Nonviolence

                 It has now been a week since Charlie Kirk, the young right-wing activist and public speaker, was assassinated in broad daylight at a university in Utah. I have deliberately refrained from writing a post about this event until I could take some time to collect my thoughts, consider the evidence, and gauge how people in the public sphere would react to news of this tragic event. Now, after ruminating on that day and the consequences that seem to be following on from it, I believe I am in a better frame of mind to deliver my own thoughts about it.

                First, I want to make one thing clear to anyone who is reading this blog: Murder is never an acceptable action for a Christian to engage in. Scripture reminds us on numerous occasions that we are to care for and respect even our enemies, and that we are not to take vengeance into our own hands, no matter how strong we may feel an urge to do so. In Romans 12:19, Paul puts it this way: “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” I especially want to point this out right now because someone reading this blog may get freaked out by it and decide to take it into their head to plan some sort of violence against the Trump administration, or against those who (like Kirk) publicly aligned themselves with the administration. Understand that in no way, shape or form is that an acceptable thing for a Christian to do.

                There is a very important verse from Revelation 13 that directly applies to this matter: “9 Whoever has ears, let them hear. 10 “If anyone is to go into captivity, into captivity they will go. If anyone is to be killed[c] with the sword, with the sword they will be killed.”[d] This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of God’s people.” The immediate context of these lines is the description of the end-times beast system that will engage in making war on Christians – imprisoning and even executing them. I have bolded the two mentions of patient endurance and faithfulness because it is clear from the context that John the Revelator is requiring of us that, during this prophesied end-times persecution, Christians are to refrain from any retaliatory violence whatsoever – even if those persecuting us are doing so lawlessly and wrongheadedly. The sentence “If anyone is to be killed with the sword, with the sword they will be killed,” seems to be a direct reference to the gospel narratives’ mentioning of Peter attacking the officer who came to arrest Jesus on the night of his betrayal. Jesus responded to this by telling Peter to put up his sword, because what was happening was a direct fulfillment of Bible prophecies. Since we are the Body of Christ, remember that what happened to Jesus is also going to happen to us.

                In that vein, I want to remind anyone reading this that it is vital to keep in mind that nothing we do – no violent actions we may plot, no efforts to stop what is coming by turning the tide of events to go the way we might prefer them to go – are going to succeed in preventing God’s end times plan from coming to fruition. In fact, Jesus reminds us of this in Luke 21: “9 When you hear of wars and uprisings, do not be frightened. These things must happen first, but the end will not come right away.” In other words, scripture will be fulfilled, and no man will be able to prevent it from being fulfilled. The author of Luke continues to mention that Jesus said: “12 But before all this, they will seize you and persecute you. They will hand you over to synagogues and put you in prison, and you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of my name. 13 And so you will bear testimony to me. 14 But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. 15 For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict.” These teachings of Jesus confirm that we are not to react against the state with any violence if they come to arrest us or persecute us – rather, we are to prepare to speak words from the gospel in order to defend our cause in a peaceful and nonviolent manner. Our words are our truest and most effective weapon, as it is said in Ephesians 6: “14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

                Now, to more directly address the assassination of Kirk, I believe it’s important to note that this killing and the government crackdown that will be coming as a result of it entirely play into the hands of this lawless administration. I am not going to get into any conspiracy theories that are currently being bandied about – to the effect that possibly another nation, or even this administration itself, somehow planned and executed the killing for the purpose of carrying forth its own long-planned crackdown on dissent and constitutional freedoms. I know that many will engage in that sort of speculation, but this blog is not the place for it, and it should also be mentioned that whether or not the government’s narrative is accurate – that, allegedly, a leftist radical named Tyler Robinson acted alone and carried out the killing because he wanted to protest against fascism - the end result is the same no matter what: Trump and his minions like Stephen Miller, Pam Bondi and Karoline Leavitt are clearly eager to use this event for their own malignant propagandistic purposes. They are portraying the “radical left” as in some way collectively responsible for the actions of one assassin. They are dishonestly claiming that such political violence is only a problem coming from the left; ignoring the fact that numerous far-right radicals have engaged in sporadic violence over recent years (off the top of my head I could mention the Charlottesville car murder of 2017, the hammer attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband, and the recent murder of two Democratic officials in Minnesota). The administration long ago openly admitted that they were planning to end free speech rights – not only for those on the radical left, but also eventually for anyone who publicly criticizes the regime – and the fact is that Kirk’s death plays right into those plans like a hand sliding into a perfectly fitted glove.

                I was not a fan of Charlie Kirk’s when he was alive. I frankly thought he was a paid-off shill for the MAGA movement, who was making millions of dollars off of spreading many hurtful comments and flat-out misinformed takes. The fact that he was a Christian in some way served to publicly associate my own faith with comments I found to be at times dishonest and at other times disrespectful. I want to make it clear that although I do mourn the death of anyone killed for exercising their first amendment rights on a college campus, my criticisms of Kirk’s often aggressively misinformed – and sometimes downright bigoted – takes still remains.

                I believe it is vital for us to separate our valid criticisms of this man from how we react to the fact that, nevertheless, an innocent citizen was snuffed out after engaging in back-and-forth dialogue in a public setting. It should be obvious to readers that although I am not aligned with many of Kirk’s views, he and I share the fact that we are both putting our necks out there to opine on controversial matters having to do with very powerful people in Washington. I might very well end up like Charlie Kirk merely because I publish this website. That fact is not lost on me at all, and I’ve had to distance myself from my initial reaction to his death by realizing that, in a deep sense, the attack on Kirk was an attack on all of us who value the first amendment. To his credit, Kirk was a supporter of free speech. He advocated for people to have the right to publicly disagree, even when things get heated. I have to conclude that, were he alive today, Kirk would not be a supporter of how Trump and his people are using his death in order to shut people up.

                Kirk was not a perfect person by any means, but we should also remember the he was still a relatively young man when he died (at the age of 31). Most of his political opinions were formed at a young age, and he grew up in an online culture where lots of misinformation was flying around social media on a daily basis. In fact, I have to give props to Kirk for this as well: he was recently demanding a full public release of the Epstein files, even though it was clear that Trump has been trying to squelch any efforts to that end. This shows that Kirk had potential to grow out of some of his erroneous views in the future. Who knows – had he lived he might even have used his influential public platform as a way to critique the president even further. Even as we mourn the loss of a public voice, we should also listen to those (especially from minority communities) who were hurt by various detrimental things that Kirk said over the years. The pain these communities feel as a result of his insensitivity is important for us to not forget or sweep under the rug. They have every right to be mad, for example, about Kirk claiming that black women are inherently less intelligent than white people, or that black people were somehow better off under slavery. It is entirely understandable that the black community would be aghast at those comments, and in no way should we excuse them or belittle their importance. However, we should try to remind everyone as well that Jesus’s way is about not just correcting wrongs, but allowing for them to be forgiven in the future. Snuffing out someone’s life cuts off any hope of future repentance. And that is why God does not want us to go that route.

                It should also be mentioned that Kirk boldly stood up for Christian positions when doing so would leave him open to attack by lots of campus radicals. For example, he stood up for the value of monogamy and the family – the importance for young men to avoid ‘hookup culture’ and for them to stay committed in enduring families. He stood up for pro-life positions, and he also stood up for the Jewish people (while not being hesitant to criticize the Israeli government for certain actions). Kirk proclaimed his faith in Jesus openly and without shame. And though I have strong criticisms about some of his other takes being associated with that central stance of Christian faith, nevertheless I will give him credit for publicly defending the gospel when many are too hesitant or ashamed to do so. I must conclude that Kirk’s legacy is a complex one, on the whole – neither entirely good nor entirely bad.

                So, yes, after ruminating on all of this for a week, I must say that it is in fact a tragedy that Kirk died. However, as we move on from this shooting, I believe our focus now needs to be on how this administration is using Kirk’s death for obviously underhanded purposes. They are trying to make a ‘MAGA martyr’ out of Kirk and attach his martyrdom to their own MAGA movement – a movement that is in no way, shape or form a true Christian movement, but is, rather, a violent white nationalist authoritarian movement posing as a Christian movement. It is truly unfortunate that, though apparently Kirk himself was sincere about his Christian faith, those misusing his legacy in order to whitewash his reputation and cherry-pick past quotes for the purpose of their own power grab, are acting in considerable bad faith. Do realize that the powers that be are trying to manipulate us into fighting with each other so that they can repress our unrest with their own takeover.

                In addition to never engaging in the murder of our enemies, we are also never to celebrate the murder of our political enemies. This is where some on the left have made mistakes over the past week. Hasty social media reactions were posted, and many of those perceived as justifying Kirk’s murder were hounded by MAGA conservatives so that they even lost jobs after their employers were contacted. Both of these reactions – from the left and from the right – are counter-productive and unfortunate. No one should be gleefully celebrating anyone’s murder in broad daylight, but at the same time, Kirk’s fans and the MAGA movement need to realize that there is documented evidence of Kirk saying truly hurtful – even hateful – things. Kirk was perhaps the most influential social media figure aligned with the advent of a nascent fascist regime. It is neither un-American nor unethical to point that out, and, yes, to openly use the ‘F’ word: fascism. No one on the left or the right should be hounded from their jobs or ganged up on online for correctly pointing out that Kirk was open to many valid criticisms.

                At the same time, people on the left should perhaps limit their criticisms to trying to edify the public about exactly how and why they disagreed with Kirk, whether about religion, politics, culture, or whatever. Now that Kirk is dead, there is no sense in attacking the man any longer. What is needed is to address some of the most erroneous views he held. Don’t personalize it. Step back and realize how you can be a part of contributing to the solution, instead of playing into the narrative of those who want to depict you as the entire problem itself. When average citizens use such a traumatic public event as an excuse to ramp up the finger-pointing and vitriol, we all end up losing out, because those in power – who have a vested interest in staying in power – tend to use the old Roman ‘divide and conquer’ strategy in order to do so.

                Don’t fall for it.