Tackling Tradition 33A : Charlie Kirk

I recently watched a few of Charlie Kirk’s soundbite “debates.”  In one of them, he used Jeremiah 29 to justify his views on Christian nationalist fervor by way of pointing to what the Bible says about civic engagement.  

Jeremiah 29:7 - But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.    

He also referred to Daniel, Esther, & Mordecai then pivoted to Moses.  

Every text Kirk quoted or to which he alluded, except for Moses, is about the covenant community **in exile** not the covenant community in power. 

Deuteronomy (and the Pentateuch in general) does provide instructions on Moral Government, but how is what Moses said congruent with American Conservatism?  

Kirk’s ideas about economics seem at variance with Proverbs 22.   Do not rob the poor, because he is poor, 

or crush the afflicted at the gate, 

23 for the Lord will plead their cause 

and rob of life those who rob them. (Proverbs 22:22–23, ESV) 

Whoever oppresses the poor to increase his own wealth, 

or gives to the rich, will only come to poverty. (Proverbs 22:16, ESV) 

His anti-abortion stance was absolute.   The Bible teaches us both the value of human life & how to deal with systemic social evils with strong economic components (divorce, slavery) by way of regulating them away.   Moreover, American Conservatism’s answer to  the issue frequently resorts to states’ rights - but in the Bible there is one moral code & legal code for the nation & tribal (state) law must conform to it, not the other way around. 

Kirk believed baking the gay cake is a matter of religious liberty.   Matthew 5:41 - 48 enjoins us to paraclete even those we think of as our enemies.   We are to bake the cake not look to our religious liberty to excuse ourselves from obedience. 

When he spoke against DEI measures, he frequently resorted to the worn trope that DEI keeps the cream of the crop from employment.   The Bible’s reply is that instead of loving ourselves & our profit & productivity margins first, we are to make sacrifices to do the right thing as a matter of discipleship (Luke 14:33) 

He lived by the sword of his words & died an ironic death by the same sword.  He strikes me as a classic example of a man at the center of a cult of personality — evidenced by the behavior of his followers. 

We live in the age of laws that target the guilt feelings of people in the public square.  In FL, if you will recall, they passed a law a few years ago that stated that if an employee or potential employee felt guilty then they had a case against their employer.  In addition, FL is the the process of removing emblems that support the LGBTQ community, like the crosswalk in Orlando memorializing the murder of people in Pulse Nightclub.   Their pretense is that the crosswalk was a distraction for drivers.  One wonders if the real “distraction” is the guilt feelings of the people who passed the law.  

Now, many of Charlie Kirk’s followers are hailing him as a Christian martyr & a champion of free speech.  How much more Orwellian can this situation grow?  Kirk believed in speech codes at universities & school board watchlists, & some of his online followers are allegedly combing the internet looking for information to dox his posthumous critics.   They sound just like Ben Carson several years ago complaining about the Left’s alleged intolerance on the one hand then calling for university speech code system that ultimately ran through the Executive Branch & Elon Musk turning Twitter into X then giving platforms to all manner of Tinfoil Hattery on the one hand & tweaking the algorithm & banning material that he himself disfavored. 

O LORD, Hear our prayer(s)!