It's hardly surprising to watch the Right turn Kirk into a martyr. It's also obvious the White House is hoping to gain traction from this death. It's turning the conversation away from the Epstein scandal and Trump's sordid connections to that evil. Hegseth is using Kirk's death to clamp down on dissent in the military. Federal workers that have been justifiably outraged over Trump's order to lower flags and said so in social media posts have led to their firings. The Right-wing media machine is in full swing - the legend is already being created and history is being re-written. The already violent political campaign and ongoing cultural purge is set to increase. A weaponized justice system is ready. In good Orwellian fashion, the destruction of Cancel Culture will be pursued by its own Right-wing version of the same.
On Friday I listened to Right-wing pundits and others on Christian radio talk about how the Left is responsible for this culture of dehumanisation and violence - ignoring the fact that the chief culprit for the cultural shift is none other than Donald Trump who has all but given carte blanche to political violence. Aside from his unflinching support for the January 6th insurrectionists, he frequently demonizes his opponents and immigrants referring to them as animals and scum. The vast majority of incidents, killings, and other attacks in recent years have been perpetrated by Right-wing fanatics.
Charlie Kirk was part of this culture of fear, anger, lies, and violence. His murder is of course unjustified. It was a wicked deed. But he's not innocent. He played an important role in the 2020 Election disinformation campaign and the 'Stop the Steal' rally that led to the violence on January 6, 2021. He stood on stage with fascists and murderers like Kyle Rittenhouse - endorsing their words and deeds. He promoted racist ideology and the Great Replacement theory which is a key plank in 21st century Right-wing and fascistic ideology and its violent campaign against minorities. It also promotes violent deeds against those connected to the Establishment. A documented racist, he aggressively promoted anti-immigrant sentiment and no one in the Trump movement sheds a tear for immigrants who are killed and the families that are destroyed by ICE and other branches of law enforcement.
He lived by lies, promoting myths about American history and (in Christian terms) outright heresy - actively mixing and confusing American identity and the Kingdom of God. All nationalism is idolatry and Kirk sold his soul to this Baal and worse through bait-and-switch tactics deceived thousands in the Church by promoting the American Beast as the means for God to bring the Kingdom on Earth - the vessel for the Holy Spirit's operation. One commentator said he was a gift from God promoting freedom of speech, liberty, and American Exceptionalism.
These are lies and myths heaped upon lies. Freedom of speech is not a Christian concept, nor did Kirk hold to it. We see the active suppression of free speech by his movement and its political allies. Liberty is selective, limited to those who agree with the dictates of Trumpism - and American Exceptionalism is an evil doctrine that suspends all ethics and accountability when it comes to the United States. When the Christian gloss is added to this evil doctrine that justifies American Imperialism and its atrocities, it can only be described as Satanic.
There is something tragic about Kirk's death. This deceived man who sold his soul died at a young age and had no opportunity to repent of his idolatry, lies, and the other sins he gave himself to. Did he really believe that he was representing New Testament Christianity? If so, he was one of the deceived deceivers Paul speaks of. If not, then he was but one of the many charlatans who have entered the Church - not a few of them becoming leaders within the Evangelical and Confessional movements.
The Evangelical response to his death is also tragic as many of these equally deceived leaders would make him into a martyr. He was a political martyr for Trumpism - the vehicle and manifestation of 21st century American Fascism. This is nothing to celebrate and it has nothing to do with Christianity. Until the American Church learns that Charlie Kirk was more dangerous and destructive to its interests than AOC, then there is little cause for optimism.
The notion that he was a Christian Martyr is repugnant and must be categorically rejected. The Christian leaders that view him in these terms have played their hand and need to marked as false teachers and deceivers. They are untrustworthy and unqualified to lead and teach doctrine. If there's something to lament about his death it is this - the fact the Church embraces this man and has turned him into what is effectively a saint.
It will be interesting to see if they try to turn him into a Martin Luther King for the Right - a martyr whose true character is obscured. Kirk defamed King as a phoney even as others within the Right have attempted to re-write the history and 'claim' King as one of their own. The truth of these matters has little to do with it. We've seen such revisionism in the past with figures like McCarthy, Reagan, and more recently George Bush.
Kirk misrepresented Christianity while he promoted and stood for evil. He fomented hatred and avarice. He celebrated mammonism, political violence, and war. He advocated for those who exploit the poor and the weak. He was not pro-life. The Christian Right abandoned any claim to that label long ago. While we can lament this culture's embrace of sodomy and other forms of perversion and degeneracy, there's something profoundly insincere about how the Right pursues these matters and how it is used by them to manipulate the Church.
Certainly American culture has problems with gender roles and the emasculation of manhood - but the answer is not found in the violent deranged posture of a sadist like Hegseth nor in the culture of guns promoted by Kirk.
Likewise the response to feminism is not found in the embrace of lipstick feminism as an alternative, and the Barbie-doll strumpet-style typified by the women on FOX, those who surround Trump, and now Kirk's widow, the former Miss Arizona. Somehow in this distorted formula, the ideal or the 'thing to do' or the thing desired is for the Christian man to take up with a beauty queen. Once viewed as immoral and indecent women, the Church has embraced this twisted feminity and now it is celebrated without regret or repentance and to have a beauty queen who strutted on stage in a state of nakedness is somehow a badge of honour and a sure sign of masculinity, and instead of shame, a celebration of Christian virtue. But I'm afraid this discussion is beyond most, and those who know better look the other way because the end justifies the means. All that matters is winning and thus deceit and deceitful tactics are fair game and as such all morality and moral judgment are quickly lost. This is the tragedy of the Christian Right and post-war Evangelicalism.
I've long despised Kirk, Shapiro, and this new crop of pseudo-intellectual demagogic Right-wing mouthpieces, and I have been appalled to watch their embrace by Christian leaders. But Kirk in particular was troubling because of the way he targeted the Church and was used by the Trumpite movement to brow-beat and manipulate Evangelical pastors and congregants into political activism and into joining the MAGA cult. This is Kirk's legacy - he played an important role in pushing Evangelicals and college students into the Trump movement. He convinced these people to support a degenerate charlatan, adulterer, murderer, rapist, and reprobate - and did all he could to confuse this support with Christian virtue and duty. The enemy could not have had a more loyal and effective servant. From the standpoint of Hell he is worthy of the accolade, 'Well done'.
If we know them by their fruits then it's safe to say he should not be called a Christian but an idolater, an adherent of a syncretistic religion - once Christo-Americanism, it has now become the utterly fascistic ideology of Christo-Trumpism. If it wasn't for the state of the Church, men like Kirk (and sadly much of the Evangelical leadership) should be excommunicated and denounced for their heresy.
In the end we can only say that Kirk lived by the sword. People refuse to see this because he was not personally on ICE raids or with the Pentagon's death squads, or dropping the bombs on Gaza (of which he was a zealous proponent). He did not personally storm the US Capitol, but he advocated for all these things and celebrated them and he certainly stood for the gun culture and police violence that has made American streets run red with blood. He wielded the weapons of anger and fear - he made every attempt to get people wound up, and to push them into a state of frenzy and rage. And it came back to bite him. He said that in order to maintain his libertarian framing of gun rights the deaths of the innocent were worth it - a great irony, maybe even poetic. Or we could just see it all as judgment. I hope his widow and children think it was worth it for they must bear his blood-stained legacy.
He was not a Christian martyr. Those that think he is a Christian martyr have lost their way and because of them and men like Kirk - the label of Christian has become all but meaningless in the context of American and Western culture. That's his legacy. I cannot think of anything more anti-Christian or more in service to the designs of the enemy.
His murderer should and will be punished. It was a heinous thing to do and that needs to be acknowledged. The fact that Kirk was an evil person does not justify the deed. The fact that the Church celebrates Kirk and eulogizes him and in some cases are calling him a martyr is a clear signal that Evangelicalism has fallen into apostasy.