“In the present ubiquity of ignorance, one cannot but suspect that many who call themselves Christians do not understand what the word means, and that some who would vigorously repudiate Christianity are more Christian than many who maintain it. p. 14. Towards the end of 1938 we experienced a wave of revivalism which should teach us that folly is not the prerogative of any one political party or any one religious communion, and that hysteria is not the privilege of the uneducated. … The religious fervor has been a fervor for democracy. It may engender nothing better than a disguised and peculiarly sanctimonious nationalism, accelerating our progress towards the paganism which we say we abhor. To justify Christianity because it provides a foundation of morality, instead of showing the necessity of Christian morality from the truth of Christianity, is a very dangerous inversion.” pp. 18-19.
T.S. Eliot
‘The Idea of a Christian Society’
I continue to comment on the Kirk extravaganza by way of random observations. I find this kind of extravaganza to be fascinating, in part because of my life long interests. My degree work in under-grad was politics, history, and religion-philosophy. My degree work in graduate school (Seminary) was theology and cross-cultural ministry. My reading since graduating from both has continued to be largely in these fields while also including sociology and economics. In the Kirk Extravaganza this all comes together as stirred in one pot. The attraction for me to this thing is like a honey bee’s attraction to a flower. I find it fascinating.
Yesterday’s observations earned for me the comment from another conservative clergy Baptist that the reasons for my observations and my unwillingness to jump on the MAGA Kirk extravaganza train is because I am a purist. To that accusation, I can only proclaim that “I am guilty as charged,” right along with the Apostle Paul, Athanasius, Chrysostom, Augustine, Gottschalk of Orbais, Hus, Luther, Calvin, Cromwell, Paisley, Knox, Goodman, Dabney, Machen, etc. There could be worse company to keep. Honestly though, it seems to me the only place left if one is not a purist is to admit that one is a compromiser.
It ought to be clear from yesterday’s post that I am very leery of what is happening. As I said yesterday, I am with St. Paul that we ought to rejoice that whether in pretense or truth Christ is proclaimed. You will see in today’s post that I point out where the Gospel was proclaimed.
Some have (I think rightly) pointed out that the Kirk extravaganza has more than a few parallels with the way the murder of Horst Wessel was used by the National Socialists in the 1930s. The 22 year old Wessel was murdered by the Communists and he became, by the arts of Joseph Goebbels, a martyr for the Nazis around which to rally the German people. That story is limned out a wee bit here;
https://goldengate.substack.com/p/remembering-horst-wessel
I don’t think there can be any doubt whatsoever that Charlie Kirk’s murder is being used in a way that can only be described as propaganda. This is also seen in the way that Kirk’s memory is being fought over. “Kirk was about to become Roman Catholic say the Roman Catholics.” “Kirk was on a trajectory wherein he was going to fully understand the Bagel problem say the Groypers .” “Charlie would want us to….” “Do it for Charlie…” “We are all Charlie Kirk now.” These are all examples of how Kirk is being apotheosized before our very eyes.
Like all symbols Kirk is transcending reasonable analysis that may properly critique real faults with the man and is being lifted up to an untouchable status . Think Abraham Lincoln, or Martin Luther King, or George Washington. Kirk is reaching pantheon status. I don’t do pantheon because the best of men are men at best.
So, the assassination of Kirk has become our Horst Wessel moment. True or not I have no problem with one possible result of our current Horst Wessel moment and that is the destruction of the Marxist left. Even if the memory of the martyred Kirk is being used to manipulate people into supporting the destruction of the Marxist left I am good with that. What I’m not good with is how easily this whole thing could “jump the shark.” I am not convinced that the MAGA movement is particularly Christian and this Horst Wessel moment could be easily used by the Peter Theils, Bill Gates, Larry Ellisons, Mark Zuckerbergs, Jeff Bezos and the rest of the NWO, AI tech villains whose money is behind much of the MAGA movement. Those people scare me almost as much as the Marxist left.
So, I remain cynical. Very cynical regarding this cultural moment. But, I am a cynical chap so that should surprise no one.
Well, on to my random observations;
1.) J. D. Vance went out of his way to proclaim “Christ is King.” A good amount of cheering resulted. You’ll know that MAGA and Republicans are serious about “Christ is King,” when we start seeing sodomites removed from the Government where “Christ is King.”
2.) “Politics at its core is a process of critiquing other people and getting them to change. Christianity … The Gospel message, the message of Jesus begins with repentance. Christianity calls upon you to change…. The only thing that really matters is when we repent of our sins.”
2.) Tulsi Gabbard talked about “God” a great deal in her speech last night. Gabbard is a practicing Hindu. Pray tell, what God was she talking about last night? She also talked about right and wrong a great deal. Since right and wrong are always descendent from some God or god concept it’s really important to know if Gabbard is talking about right and wrong per her god Vishnu.
3.) Rubio and Hegseth’s presentations were quite good except where Hegseth offered that the gates of hell will not prevail over Charlie Kirk. That was pretty close to idolatry.
My only question for Rubio is… “Where has this Christianity been before last night? Why have you never spoken of it before.” I’m pretty confident that Rubio had a good speechwriter and I find it hard to believe he really knew his material.
4.) In his speech Dr. Ben Carson reference W. Cleon Skousen’s book “The Naked Communist” written in the 1950s. Great book dealing with the Marxist intent to destroy the US from the inside out. I would highly recommend reading that book. Though dated the book still resonates. I thought Carson was sincere and the most genuine of all the politicians who spoke.
8.) “Charlie asked me if I were scared of dying and I said there’s a lot worse things than death and one of those things is if we lost the constitutional rights in this country and our children were raised as slaves. And I said to charlie sometimes the best consolation we can hope for is that we get to die with our boots on. Well Charlie died w/ his boots on to make sure we didn’t have to undergo those fates that are worse than death.”
9.) “Charlie Kirk is in heaven because his Savior sacrificed himself for Charlie Kirk.”
10.) Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. James 1:27
I am persuaded that Stacey Sheridan’s speech at the Kirk extravaganza was the most revealing of the character of Charlie Kirk. Kirk cared for the widow and the orphan and he did so in the name of Jesus the Christ. More than anything else I’ve ever read, heard, or listened from Charlie Kirk the way he took care of Sheridan and her daughter impressed me the most and brought me to tears.
11.) “Charlie knew that the purpose of life was to know Christ and to make him known so as to populate heaven.”
Another great pithy and well put truth from Turek.
12.) Vance invoked the idea that Charlie was a combination of Athens and Jerusalem. Tertullian, the Early Church Father, asked long ago; “What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?” Vance invoked Socrates. No Christian salutes Socrates. J. D. Vance revealed his Roman Catholic slip.
13.) J. D. Vance kept insisting that “we are all children of God.” This idea was communicated by most of the speakers. This is the liberal idea of “the Fatherhood of God over all.”
14.) Generally speaking those considered the lesser lights speaking at the Kirk Extravaganza were far superior to those considered to be the greater lights. People like Sheridan, Turek, Carson, were far better than the luminaries.
15.) Interesting that FBI director Kashyap Pramod Vinod Patel did not speak at this extravaganza.
I think I will have one more entry here. I have yet to listen closely to both Trump’s meanderings and to Erica Kirk’s speech. I have listened to both but now closely.
One thing I find interesting in all this is all the hostility pointed in my direction for critiquing this Kirk extravaganza. It’s almost as if there is a certain (MAGA) portion of the population that finds anyone suspicious if they do anything except cheer mindlessly. This is exactly what the Horst Wessel effect produces.
Instead, we must keep our eyes upon Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy set before Him, despised the Cross, enduring the shame.
Kirk Extravaganza…
Exactly, it wasn’t a Memorial Service. It was all for the cameras. Don’t get me wrong, extravaganzas have their place, and perhaps this was an appropriate time and place, but I’m certain the family and close friends have had their small and private gathering with, perhaps, a singular clergyman present.
TPUSA did a great job putting this together. It was professional, slick, organized, well secured and much more. It was the Kirk Extravaganza.
Kirk = Church
Trump is a form of the word “triumph”.
I don’t know what it all means but I’ve heard of the Church Triumphant.
I appreciate much of what you’ve written, and I’m inclining to think this may have been a psyop to advance a Judeo-Christianity stripped of almost all exclusiveness except for one preeminence … and it’s not Christ. If you watch the Charlie Kirk-Megan Kelly interview it’s plain that neither of them really understood the forces they’d questioned.
T.S. Eliot went on to write:
“To equate the conflict … with the contrast between democracies and dictatorships … is a dangerous simplification of the problem. … The basal truth is that the spiritual foundations of Western Civilization have been undermined. The systems which are in the ascendant on the continent may be regarded from one point of view as convulsive attempts to arrest the process of disintegration. … Does not the public repudiation of the whole Christian scheme of life in a large part of what was once known as Christendom force to the front the question whether the path of wisdom is not rather to attempt to work out a Christian doctrine of modern society and to order our national life in accordance with it? Those who would give a quick, easy or confident answer to this question have failed to understand it. It cannot even be seriously considered without a profound awareness of the extent to which Christian ideas have lost their hold over, or faded from the consciousness of, large sections of the population; of the far-reaching changes that would be called for in the structure, institutions and activities of existing society, which is in many of its features a complete denial of the Christian understanding of the meaning and end of man’s existence.” pp. 28-29.
T.S. Eliot, ‘The Idea of a Christian Society’
I didn’t know or follow Charlie Kirk, but he was no Horst Wessel.
My point about Horst Wessel was not that CK was his equivalent. The point was that they are using CK the same way the Nazis used Horst Wessel.
Regarding your comment that: “You’ll know that MAGA and Republicans are serious about “Christ is King,” when we start seeing sodomites removed from the Government where “Christ is King.” My understanding of Chrisitan law is that the civil magistrate would do more than just remove them from their governmental office. The civil magistrate would cleanse society of certain gross evils.
Joe,
You are correct.
I’d be happy with step #1 for now. Next year we can get to step #2.
Bret, you’re supposed to be the “bad cop”. What’s with all this “next year” stuff? Your going soft. That’s my job as “good cop”.
Chad,
Please forgive me for having a weak moment. 😉