The responses to Charlie
Kirk’s murder have so far been very visceral.
We wanted to step away from that and take a more dispassionate look at
what Mr Kirk’s death means.
The eulogies and encomiums
for Charlie Kirk are multiplying as the multitudes of people whom he touched
come to terms with his death. There are
some recurring themes in them – of Mr Kirk as a happy, Christian warrior
advocating for a renewal of America; as a husband and father; and so on.
One of the most striking
recurrences is the proclamation that Mr Kirk is a martyr. Examples:
‘A Martyred Apostle for
Liberty’ – Mike
Bayham
‘America’s greatest martyr to
the freedom of speech he so adored’ – Turning
Point USA
‘Charlie Kirk, Martyr’ – Joshua Treviño: ‘American liberty requires sacrifice, and it
requires martyrdom too.’
‘Charlie Kirk will be a free
speech martyr’ – Ben
Shapiro
‘Charlie Kirk is a martyr’ – Pastor
Jack Graham
And so on.
In Christianity, to become a
martyr is one of the highest achievements possible. However, in Mr Kirk’s case something other
than Christian martyrdom seems to be at work.
As we see above, Mr Kirk’s martyrdom is more associated with modern
American ideals – liberty, free speech – than with Christ. His comparison with Martin Luther King, Jr,
is revealing in this respect:
Intercessors for America, a Christian group with ties to the
Trump administration, emailed supporters on Wednesday night with a suggested
prayer in response to Kirk’s death. The subject line referred to “Charlie Kirk,
a modern day MLK.”
Terry Schilling, the president of American Principles Project,
a social conservative advocacy group, shut down his office upon hearing the
news of his friend’s death.
“I’m racking my brain trying to think of another political
figure that had a similar impact and following who was assassinated, and the
only person I can think of is Martin Luther King Jr.,” Schilling said (The
Salt Lake Tribune).
MLK, Jr, was rather notorious
for turning the Holy Gospel into an ideological tool to push a political
program centered around various human rights.
Mr Kirk followed suit:
Kirk built a massive political movement with viral video clips
of sharp comebacks and quick counterarguments in all-comers debates. He described himself as a disruptor and argued disruption
was the only way to make America great again. Adopting Donald Trump’s signature
political slogan, Kirk called it “the MAGA doctrine, which is a doctrine of
American renewal, revival … that America is the greatest country in the history
of the world” (Christianity
Today).
His dedication to worldly
ideology is even more pronounced on the web
page of the organization he started, Turning Point USA. The three pillars of his version of
Americanism are what one would expect.
Quoting from the web site:
The US Constitution is the most exceptional political document
ever written.
The United States of America is the greatest country in the
history of the world.
Capitalism is the most moral and proven economic system ever
discovered.
These are statements of blind
faith. They must be accepted
uncritically as articles of the false American religious creed, for they do not
hold up under scrutiny.
As to the first, there has
never been unanimity amongst the peoples of the States regarding the
beneficence of the Philadelphia charter.
The Anti-Federalists at the time of its writing and ratification were
quite opposed to it, and their warnings are still relevant today. And its deficiencies are still regularly
pointed out and discussed amongst significant minority groups such as
libertarians and Southern
traditionalists.
As to the second, what
metrics have earned us ‘greatest nation’ status? There are only two things at which the US
excel all other nations: making money
and bragging about our political system (indeed, the theme of Mr Kirk’s 2024 RNC speech could be
summed up as ‘Make Gen Z Americans Rich Again’). In traditional metrics like culture
(production of original paintings, music, architecture, etc.) and holiness
(i.e., the birth of saints), they are quite deficient. Worse, in the US having large amounts of
money is more or less equivalent to holiness/saintliness, which leads to the
third pillar.
How moral is a system that
allows a few billionaire oligarchs to control the US economy and make it work
in their favor instead for the common good?
Whether one looks at the Old Testament law and prophets or New Testament
warnings or the laws of Orthodox countries, one does not meet with capitalism
as the ideal economic system of God’s people but rather a system of wide
property distribution that intentionally discourages wealth concentration.
Nevertheless, it is said that
Mr Kirk’s focus turned more toward Christianity over the years, and thus he
formed Turning Point USA Faith. But even
here, the mission is tainted by worldly Americanism. Per the TPUSA Faith web site:
We engage, equip, and empower millions of grateful Americans
who are prepared to defend our God-given rights, by giving them the tools to
expose lies and articulate the connection between Faith and Freedom.
As per usual with
Americanism, Christ (and religion in general) is not the end, but a means to an
end: to ensuring the survival of the
rights and freedoms of Americans. It is
a powerful temptation; we were once trapped in that paradigm. But that does not justify it.
. . .
The rest is at https://orthodoxreflections.com/what-did-charlie-kirk-die-for/.
--
Holy
Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!
Anathema
to the Union!
