I’ve persistently argued that we must be careful of the extremes in responding to Charlie Kirk’s death. He was neither monster/demon nor martyr/angel. At the same time I think it is legitimate, unavoidable even to discuss his legacy and to engage both with the positives and the negatives.
This becomes even more pertinent if it is right that he has had a significant influence in terms of Gen Z, male engagement with Christianity it’s been mentioned quite a bit that the “Quiet Revival” has been driven heavily by this demographic. I don’t think we can just assume this happens from nowhere or in a vacuum. These young men are having their worldview shaped by online influencers. The big hitters will be Jordan Peterson, Charlie Kirk and Andrew Tate. The algorithms mean that if you are hitting the online content one of the three you will at some point be seeing the rest too.
And this is important. Positively they may have picked up on Peterson’s interest in the Bible and Christianity., even so on Kirk’s more overt and confident evangelical faith. However, it also means that they have picked up on a lot of other things too from those guys, things we may not consider as good at times.
What is going to happen to these Gen Z lads? Well really 3 things are possible.
- They may arrive at church and discover that the Christians reject and are suspicious of their wider philosophical worldview. They then feel rejected and leave.
- They may find a church where their world view is accepted and agreed with. This may mean that they never get challenged, never realise what others may be seeing. They may even get to influence the church. This may become a church that others who experience the world view as malign may feel forced out.
- They may simply go along, separating out their world view from church. This means they never are challenged but also the disconnect will leave them dissatisfied.
I want to suggest a better way. We need to be committed to discipling young men. This may require patience as we and they learn each other’s language. It means being willing to recognise the good in their influences, ambitions and desires.
It also means though that we need to be willing and able to challenge unhelpful stuff and to show why care or even a big rethink is required
Discipling includes helping young Christians to grow in Christ likeness and their gifts. This means being willing to challenge presumptions and prejudices
Faithroots 