"God is the Ruler Yet"

Meditations on a Week We Won't Soon Forget

The longer I go without writing, the more of a struggle to resume with the next post. The delusion dissolves, the delusion that readers out there are hanging on every thought. In August, life intruded and disrupted. (Those of you waiting for the next part of The Westfield Gardener, my sincere apologies.)

It took a heavy week (one in which the 24th anniversary of 9/11 almost became an afterthought) to prompt a return here. Yet a few days were needed to marinate and meditate.

In sum, there are two ways I will choose to remember Charlie Kirk:

1. As he wanted to be remembered—for being courageously outspoken about his faith in Christ. (My friend, if you don’t have the confidence of knowing that you are in Christ, a gift that can only be secured through faith in the perfect Savior, please don’t delay.)

2. As a champion of humble, honest debate, who was murdered while practicing one of our nation’s most treasured birthrights, the freedom of speech. So yes - Je suis Charlie, a powerful slogan that eerily echoes the rallying cry after a terrorist attack in France a decade ago.

That being said, let me confess: I’ve spent more time the past few days watching Charlie Kirk than I had before his life was violently snuffed out this week.

Let me also state the obvious but important: what took place at Utah Valley University was a horrifically evil act that must be condemned from all quarters, as loudly and as publicly as the evil that was committed.

Young Mr. Kirk’s passing cannot leave us untouched. His clear and courageous testimony of faith and his winsome, cheerful approach cannot help but inspire. I choose today to be faithful to my much more modest calling, to use this writing platform to ponder, proclaim, and persuade.

And that means also an openness to being persuaded, where appropriate. Hours after we collectively learned of Charlie Kirk’s death, I read this worthy reflection from Samuel James, including this excerpt:

In the coming days many will write and speak of the brokenness of American political culture. They will, rightly, mourn our violence, our polarization, the loss of cross-ideological friendship, and the curated information islands of the social media age. Yes and amen. But some of this could be misleading. It could imply that what’s ailing us is meanness. It could imply that what we really need is to rediscover civility and tolerance. This is not correct. The truth is that it’s precisely the embarrassment over spirituality and unwillingness to submit to transcendent truths that has turned our civic life so gangrenous. What keeps people from shooting the necks of people they dislike? A commitment to individualism, free speech, or pluralism? No. In the end, it is only the fear of God that preserves the center. In losing God, we are burying ourselves.

James’ observation touches on the two aspects of Kirk’s legacy that I highlighted above: the courageous Christian and free speech avatar. The author’s admonition helps us sort through and prioritize their relative importance. Our nation badly needs a renewal of civility and tolerance. But James helped me to see more clearly that while such a renewal may be necessary, it’s not sufficient.

Thus, the story here cannot be completely told if we neglect to highlight the destructive nature of some of the insidious secular ideologies that Kirk dedicated much of his energy and abilities to counter. Churches in our prosperous West should not compromise on these moral issues, nor fail to “speak the truth in love” as Kirk so often modeled effectively.

It is indeed “the fear of God that preserves the center.” But we also can’t forget that the state and our politics can do nothing to build that healthy fear of God. This is the work of the church and the faithful citizen, through prayer, obedience, and the gifts of the Spirit.

A little over a year ago, when then-candidate Donald Trump narrowly avoided the same unjust fate as Charlie Kirk, I earnestly prayed for many days that it would lead to a humble renewal and repentance in his life. In the wake of this week’s events, should we children of our Father in heaven not also similarly pray for our nation’s leaders and influencers?

Because there is plenty to be concerned about. Some of it is why I have taken another sabbatical from social media, that corrosive agent on the virtue of the body politic and perhaps on the thin veneer of civilization itself. The more my mind soaks in the worst responses fed by the algorithm, the more it starts to venture into unhealthy places.

It’s not just social media, though that’s a powerful amplifier of the problem. There is a media rage machine that Christians should not be naive about. We tend to see through the rage machine that occupies space on the left, the one distorting Kirk’s words and affixing egregious slurs to people like him. Exactly how much its rhetoric fed the suspect in custody remains to be seen, though the early evidence has begun to form a case against indoctrination from the radical Left.

Evidence from this poll (hat tip to Erick Erickson) raises a bright red flag. Only 38% of Democrats say it’s always unacceptable “for a person to be happy about the death of a public figure they oppose”. That’s exactly half the rate of Republicans who agree, a number that I would argue is still too low. (It’s hard to detach these numbers from their immediate context, but it’s a big part of the problem that cannot be ignored.)

There’s also a corresponding rage machine on the right, several examples provided here by Jonah Goldberg. Voices like these “need” the killer to fit a certain profile to propel their narrative of war and retribution forward, just as voices on the other side “need” the killer to fit a different profile for their own reasons.

I don’t want to venture down the rabbit hole of keeping score on instances of political violence—that’s a topic for another time. But it might also be interesting to see the results of a survey, broken down by political party, that shows what percentage of Americans agree it’s always acceptable to call for retribution on political opponents who celebrate the death of a public figure you support.

There is a lot of soul-searching to be done on the Left. I truly hope more voices from that side of the aisle come forward to earnestly promote that level of soul-searching.

Meanwhile, we Christians of a conservative bent need so much more discernment ourselves. We can and should be inspired to gain a greater boldness for our faith and to make serious judgments on moral issues, and to be mindful of how we fight against evil [edited addition]. We need the fortitude to question blind allegiance to any political party or leader, when deviations from biblical faith come. Those opportunities will continue to come. Jesus demands much more of us.

Remember, God is still on the throne. A closing musical meditation that came to my mind as I wandered quietly through the woods yesterday:

This is my Father’s world:
Oh, let me ne’er forget
That though the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the ruler yet.
This is my Father’s world,
The battle is not done:
Jesus who died shall be satisfied,
And earth and Heav’n be one.