This is not the type of topic I intended to cover early in this podcast. Still, the influence that Charlie Kirk had in some conservative religious circles made it necessary to address the response to his tragic murder and what it says about some people in the contemporary American civil religion called Christianity. It is appropriate to mourn Charlie Kirk's death while also responding to some of the ways his philosophy is at odds with the Way of Jesus.In Segment 1, I discuss why a topic like this is relevant to the themes of this podcast. Some of the basic reasons are:
1. A fuller understanding of the Gospel includes a commitment to justice.2. The movement Charlie Kirk represented coopts religious language to fit their political agenda. We need to recapture the meaning of those words for the sake of people who are unaware of their background.3. Friends who fit categories demonized by Christian Nationalism need to know that there are white, cisgendered, Christian males who do not see them through the "us vs. them" lens.4. We also need to respond when the character of God is misrepresented in the public square.
