Apparently only slain people of some political persuasions get memorials that include filling stadiums. And what does it take to get Trump and Vance, but oddly on their orders not members of their cabinet, to show up and speak and add to the many hours of the observance?
Across the river in Minnesota, dead men need to be Prince, I guess, not dead Democratic politicians and for sure not George Floyd to get huge rallies befitting rock stars, as he is not Pink Floyd or one of their contemporaries, also recently deceased Ozzy Osbourne. But in very stark contrast — even though between all of these instances, there are differences — in manner of death and ouch, skin color, over in Idaho, there continues after multiple years to be hubbub over killed and white college students, as they on recurring docu-dramas have the wholesome good looks of four fresh faces. Eye candy invoked.
But this post is about conservative evangelicals and, dare I say it, Charlie Kirk’s memorial and its prime-time-type, blow-by-blow news coverage. All intertwined.
I’d compare my reaction to this memorial as the equivalent of when again, Captain Kirk’s shuttlecraft comes crashing to the ground and then streaks back above to the sky … I felt like I was back in college having a preaching prof pour gallons of hot fudge down my throat. So rich, literally, that it was too much. Laid on way too thick.
It was almost more like a fundraiser for Kirk’s campus ministry events and beyond than a memorial. On this unfortunate note, but applicable because of themes and names, check out Megadeth and one of its staple songs, Holy Wars … The Punishment Due, which starts “Brother will kill brother, all across the land, killing for religion, something I don’t understand … Do you kill on God’s command?”
Starting off this political show, very heavy on references to God, was Kirk’s pastor, who noted another super-human figure, Moses in the Bible, never reached his promised land, dying instead while looking down a mountaintop. (I will cut the pastor some slack, as in the denomination of choice for many if not most modern Christians who seek to first of all dominate, Moses does not actually die, he is basically assumed into heaven.) A precursor to Christ’s method. This minor, if a spoken glitch, illustrates a more important problem.
You attract more flies with honey, not vinegar, so back off a bit, and see the size of your flock increase, loosen your verbal grip on the throats of sinners, and show them the way with less insistence on getting your own way with having them follow your ideas. So if your dogma is a bit different than that of another denomination, or religion, just deal with it, or at least truly and in good faith, debate those people. Heaven, not hell, might still await them.
Another pastor type did a version of bait and switch. Twice he asked a question that played well, but then went off into other tangents and didn’t really answer it.
You might convert more people to your cause if you gave thorough, complete answers. Complexity will win the game with me and many others.
An example is a discussion with one of my evangelical neighbors, which lasted less than a minute before I verbally ran a bit the other direction. I asked what he held as true. The answer: I believe Jesus Christ is my personal savior.
And? …
That’s it.
He at least could have added the synonym Lord, or the mantra often given, having an individual relationship with him. By comparison, I would love to have someone like Kirk ask me, not tell me, about the complexities of my own personal theology on the concept of God’s “qualified omnipotence.” And I now paraphrase a metal music reactor/composer — while I listen to Black Sabbath sing about God — who said we should all treat each other as people not commodities.
To wit: A middle aged wife, it is crucial to note that, and her husband had Kirk over for dinner and said they were taken by this nice young man — who was selling his fundraising — and he needed $50,000. By the time dessert had passed, Kirk had half by check and it was requested that he match the other half … which he raised in two days. So the matching money kept coming in from the couple.
OK. How many of us can just whip out that much dough that fast? Even for a good cause? The best I can do is pull the tops off pop can lids for a penny each, then donate it to charity when due to Dew it reaches a few dollars. If I was to emulate the couple he met, and get him that first windfall, that would be 2.5 million drops in the bucket.
The audience was just dripping with such privilege, and bright, shiny people, non-nattily dressed to kill. Donate designer duds? And that doesn’t even include — with the audience encouraged to be dressed if not to the hilt, in red and white and maybe blue, at least the tie — the speakers. Imagine what they wear to church.
Another thing that your parents said not to do, was something championed by another speaker. Instead of going off to college, he met Kirk brimming with his message, immediately gave up all such plans for future study, put away his school books and followed him and his group, almost instantly joining it. Probably Christ too, but specifically Kirk, who specializes in a task used by many, creating so much chaotic “noise” that it drowns out statements that are well put-together.
I can see his mom and dad reeling, unless they are of the same ilk. Don’t just up and bolt from school, spontaneously and before giving it any thought, not checking him out first. Only thus checking into the philosophy and theology of Us Versus Them, and therefore checking out. Seek to compromise, and again, add complexity. Don’t be the “bubble-headed bleach blonde” in the song Dirty Laundry, about what types of things usually make it onto the evening news.
So I issue this writ: You can’t evangelize if you isolate yourself.
Core principles? I suggest amending them slightly and thus have the increased audience to be able to truly take back America. And we all should get to decide what those principles will be.
Maybe this is what ABC did by airing the memorial, in all its running hours. Or it could be them finally caving in and selling out. Ironically, it was said at the memorial, “it takes no skill to be courageous.” I beg to differ.
And I offer this, concerning what I see as a flaw in the speeches made and their mantras, this time from Kirk’s widow: It appears that decision-making in their relationship was decidedly top-down, which eventually will bring trouble, and all that she said about faith appeared to be focused on HIM, not his dutiful wife.