"You see, Charlie looked at politics as an on-ramp to Jesus. He knew if he'd get all of you rowing in the streams of liberty, you'd come to its source, and that's the Lord."
--Rob McCoy, Kirk's pastor
I'm not sure how to interpret this, but at first glance this is concerning.
I've been raising alarms all week about the conflation of Kirk's politics with Kirk's faith, but this seems to make the conflation explicit.
He launched from that straight into the altar call.
...And the altar call was immediately followed by the national anthem.
*bangs head on desk Anabaptistly*
"Start with the Bible. Read the classics. Study the founding of America. In those places you will find that there's a ladder that reaches up toward God..."
Not sure I'm comfortable with America's founding being part of a ladder towards God.
"[Charlie] always said to me, 'If only would figure out how to bring the Holy Spirit down into a Trump rally.'"
--Tyler Bowyer, COO of Turning Point Action
"And I promise, we are going to make TPUSA so big, that it reaches Charlie in heaven."
😳
"It's only now that I'm starting to realize what was going on, all these years that I spent with Charlie. We called them campus tours, but now I know they were really tent revivals... I see now that Charlie was a prophet... the biblical kind..."
--Andrew Kolvet
"FIGHT! FOR! CHARLIE! KIRK! WHO FEELS THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE HOUSE TONIGHT?!"
--Benny Johnson
Ah yes, that famous sign gift of the Holy Spirit from Acts 2, "fighting."
"In Romans 13 Paul talks about a godly government instituted by our Lord... How God establishes the rulers of the nations. In the audience now there are rulers of our nation. ...God instituted them. God gave them power... God saved President Trump from an assassin's bullet."
"An what, in Romans 13, does Paul say about godly leadership? He says rulers wield the sword for the protection of good men, and for the terror of evil men. May we pray that our rulers here...given power by our God, wield the sword for the terror of evil men in Charlie's memory."
"Center your life on Christ. Fall in love. Get married. Have a million kids. And live our your American dream. And by doing that we can create millions and millions of Charlie Kirks, and we can save our land."
No "take up your cross" in that list.
"Have you notice a lot of preachers don't want to talk about what the Bible says if it runs counter to the social gospel? I want to challenge you to talk about what the Bible says, not what the Left says."
I remember when Bishop Budde told the President what the Bible says.
Right after telling us to talk about what the Bible says and not to distort it, Ben Carson totally hijacks John 12:24 to be about Charlie Kirk instead of the glorification of the Son of Man.
Jack Posobiec said "Charlie KIRK" and then did some kinda weird salute while dangling a rosary.
"Charlie's death was not just a murder. The true word for what Charlie did is 'sacrifice.' ...Charlie Kirk died for all of you. And Charlie's sacrifice means that Charlie Kirk will live forever ...for all future generations of Americans."
This is getting awfully messianic.
(I'll grant that this speaker is giving an accurate telling of the Calvinistic PSA-centric telling of the gospel, in which Justice and Mercy are diametrically opposed.
But I can hear George MacDonald yelling at the screen somewhere in the great cloud of witnesses.)
Unintentionally revealing moment -- from what I can tell, the worship leader was about to start a song, and said, "Let's hope in Jesus today, Amen?" but then the crowd started cheering and I think it's because Donald Trump had arrived and the camera cut away to him waving.
"We're gonna take a moment to honor Jesus," the worship leader tries again, once the applause for Trump finally dies down.
"Charlie was more than an activist. Charlie was a modern-day disciple, who preached the greatness of America not just around our land, but around the globe."
--Sergio Gor
A modern day *DISCIPLE*... who preached America.
"Charlie was all Trump. When the President had an idea, no matter how big it was, Charlie was willing to make it happen."
"If you believe in America, STAND UP! If you believe Charlie Kirk represented the best of us, STAND UP! If you believe in the power of Charlie Kirk, his conviction, his mission, STAND UP!"
Less than an hour earlier, standing up was part of the altar call.
"WE stand for what is good, what is virtuous, what is noble. ...WE are the ones who build. WE are the ones who create. WE are the ones who lift up humanity... We built the world that we inhabit now, generation by generation... We are on the side of God."
--Stephen Miller
"Charlie... knew that politics cannot answer the deepest question, that the only real solution is Jesus. Politics... is the process of critiquing other people and getting them to change. Christianity, the Gospel message... calls upon YOU to change."
--Tucker Carlson
Almost?
In this otherwise deeply syncretistic memorial I do appreciate Tucker drawing the line of the limitations of politics and how politics and the gospel are distinct -- but I wish he said that the gospel started with GRACE. Repentance comes in response, and not in our own strength.
"That is a call to change OUR hearts, from Jesus, and that is the only way forward in this country... when WE repent of OUR sins."
--Tucker Carlson
[Again -- we can't change our hearts ourselves. We need grace. But otherwise this is much better.]
"...And here was this voice [Charlie Kirk] that inspired a movement, and told young people, 'That is not true! The highest calling we are called to is to be in a successful marriage and to raise productive children!"
--Marco Rubio
That is *NOT* our highest calling.
I swear I just saw Doug Wilson in the audience.
"Christ died at 33 years old. He changed the trajectory of history. Charlie died at 31 years old. But because he had surrendered [his life to God], he also now has also changed the trajectory of history."
--RFK Jr.
Yet another comparison between Charlie Kirk and Stephen the martyr.
If they were going to take this comparison to its end, you would think this would engender compassion for those who celebrated Kirk's death. Saul, after all, celebrated Stephen's death, and look what happened.
A second speaker (Vance) calls marriage and family "the highest callings."
Both speakers who said this were Catholic -- a denomination that I believe explicitly does not call marriage and family the highest calling.
"[Charlie Kirk] was Athens and Jerusalem, the City of Reason and the City of God, in one person."
--J.D. Vance
"What does Athens have to do with Jerusalem?"
--Tertullian
It's very strange to hear the Vice President of a powerful earthly nation quoting Jesus saying "But take heart, I have overcome the world," and using that to encourage people to say "For Charlie, we will rebuild America to greatness!"
America is part of the world, brother.
All right, I have to head to bed, I have work in the morning. Erika and Donald's speeches will have to wait I guess.
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