Pretty much every UK based comment from my generation and above have started along the lines of “I hadn’t heard of Charlie Kirk until this week .” Personally I’d heard a little. I knew about Turning Point and had an awareness of some of the politics. However, I also realised that I had seen a lot of his videos without making the connection of who it was.
Now, first of all, I think there is a risk for those of us who knew very little. What we are seeing now are carefully curated portrayals of his life. Those portrayals will reflect where our own political leanings lie. Some are designed to give a wholly positive view and others a wholly negative. We are getting snap shots and not the full picture.
We also aren’t getting context. I think we are seeing that with some of the quotes and paraphrases around race. From what I can tell, Kirk’s concern was to do with DEI, Diversity, Equality and Inclusion. He was opposed to this approach. Some of the ways he made his points come across awfully. Does that mean he was racist and fascist though? I think you would need to know more about the guy and hear from those who knew him well from other ethnic backgrounds.
This is particularly why we need to be wary of getting sucked into making 2 dimensional assessments of him and joining those turning him into a monster or angel.
There is something important to be alert to here. We rightly want to emphasise objective truth and reject subjective relativism. However even when dealing with objective facts, so much of what we hear and see is curated and interpreted for us to present a particular story and viewpoint. This is not in and if itself bad. Preachers curate, the Gospel writers did too. However, there are dangers associated and an alertness required.
The other consideration is this. Whilst my contemporaries and me may not have been very aware of him, that doesn’t mean others haven’t. As I said, I had seen lots of his videos. His work was prevalent online and he was tapping into a particular zeitgeist.
I think this means that there will be people in the UK here were already very aware of him and his thinking. It also means that if he wasn’t a household name, that the horrific events are likely to have a particularly strong cut through this week. This is likely to be with the same people who have been influenced by the likes of Andrew Tate and Jordan Peterson, the same people being affecting the surge in Reform UK and who feel strongly about putting up flags at the moment. In other words we are talking primarily though not exclusively about those who are likely to be younger (Gen Z), white and male.
This is important because we are talking about the same kinds of people who seem to be driving what has become known as the Quiet Revival. These are the same young men showing up at our churches seemingly unprompted. Indeed, whilst we have not been able to detect prompts,but may well be that some are in church exactly because they saw a Charlie Kirk video in amongst a feed of Tate and Peterson.
Now, I think our presumption tends to be that this isn’t that big and isn’t going to resonate much in our congregations on Sunday. For quite a few of us that will be true. I am not convinced it will be something particularly on the minds of our congregation beyond that it’s a big news story in the States but our demographic is different to the mentioned above. We haven’t seen the influx of white Gen Z lads yet.
However for others it may mean being prepared for the fact that this is more than just a news story, it cuts deeper. In many respects this may well turn out to be similar for that demographic to George Floyd’s death. A lot of church leaders in the UK back then made the mistake of seeing it as an interesting news story but not of particular resonance here. We need to be alert to not making the same mistake and of course not over correcting the other way.
And mentioning George Floyd has made me think that there may be cut through in other ways for churches like ours. If you perceive someone as racist or if not racist at least using the kind of language that creates space for racism and after they die, all you see is a white washed sanitised, curated version of their life and words put forward by prominent Christians and your church leaders are at best silent, then I wonder how that will feel. I suspect for a lot of people, there will be a sense of “you still don’t get it.”
I’m not saying you should prepare special sermons and statements. I am saying be listening and talking to those guys in your church and community.
It should also cause us to reflect more on both the positive and the more challenging aspects of what our young people are picking up and the implications for discipleship.
Faithroots 