‘What Did Charlie Kirk Die For?’

 

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/.

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Holy Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!

Anathema to the Union!