We were curious what would be
on offer at Charlie Kirk’s memorial service on Sunday (21 Sept. [2025]): an extravagant MAGA promotion or an attempt
to honor and exalt Christ. It was both.
Vice President Vance and
Erika Kirk offered
some very clear and unapologetic statements about Charlie’s faith in Christ,
and about the need of all of us to seek God and live life for God and with God.
President Trump, as
expected, raised his voice for Americanism.
Some of the key thoughts from his speech (rough transcription):
--‘Our
greatest evangelist for American liberty became immortal’ when he was murdered.
--‘He
is a martyr for American freedom.’
--He
will live forever because he is now in the ‘eternal chronicle’ of America’s
greatest patriots.
Trump also tied Americanism
openly to the Enlightenment, saying that reason and open debate were the
greatest legacy of the Enlightenment, and that America shows her greatness by
harboring them within her. The Enlightenment,
for those who may not be aware, was designed by its creators precisely to be a
replacement for Christianity.
So we have these contrasting
visions offered to us at Mr Kirk’s memorial, the Kingdom of God (Christianity)
and the Kingdom of Man (Americanism). A
lot of Christians, particularly the Evangelical Protestants, think that between
these two there is no antagonism – indeed, that the United States are the
Kingdom of God.
But we beg to differ. We will illustrate our reasoning through the
opposing triads that define Americanism and Christianity.
Americanism is defined by the
triad found in the Declaration of Independence:
that man is given three chief inalienable rights by his ‘Creator’
(Jefferson doesn’t specify who that creator is.
Is this Allah, the Gnostic demiurge, etc.?) – at any rate, the three
main rights being life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
The triad of the Christian
life is found amongst the Lord Jesus Christ’s final words to His Holy Apostles,
that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
Americanism begins with
biological life, and by means of free individual choices, man arrives at
temporal happiness (which many interpreters of the Declaration identify with
earthly property). This is an inversion
of the Christian Way.
Christianity begins with
man’s crucifixion of himself, with his conformity to Christ’s Way. Through this rejection of his own will and
the purification of his soul and body by keeping Christ’s commandments, the
Truth is revealed to him; more than that, he is united to Truth Himself, Jesus
Christ. This process of deification in
Christ allows him to experience authentic life, which transcends the mere
biological life and happiness of Americanism:
the life in Christ, together with the Father and the Holy Ghost.
Once again we come to the
point of agony for the followers of the religion of Americanism: the realization that Christianity is
incompatible with their un-Christian Enlightenment project (or ‘experiment’ as
they like to call it, which is true to form for the science-obsessed
Enlightenment culture).
What options do the peoples
of the States have, then? VP Vance gave
them a clue. He mentioned in his
memorial speech how Charlie Kirk built an organization out of nothing in the
hot Arizona desert. So too did another
remarkable man: Elder Ephraim of Arizona
(+2019):
. . .
The rest is at https://orthodoxreflections.com/charlie-kirk-memorial-offers-the-u-s-a-choice-americanism-or-christianity/.
--
Holy
Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!
Anathema
to the Union!
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