Charlie Kirk and Idols
I was taught in evangelical churches that idolatry was a sin, as outlined in The Ten Commandments: you shall have no other gods before me.
It has me years now that the white evangelical church has worshipped Trump as an idol. There was literally a golden statue made of him, a fascist culty equivalent of the golden calf in the Book of Exodus. But this new wave of Charlie Kirk idolatry is really something to behold…and then shudder.
It’s been said a lot but it bears repeating: the way Kirk’s life was stolen is heinous and despicable and I condemn it. My heart hurts for his wife and his children; they are facing a loss no one should have to endure.
But as Virginia pastor Rev. Dr. Howard-John Wesley said in his viral sermon, “how you die does not redeem how you lived.”
How Kirk lived was as a vocal white supremacist, bigot, and Christian nationalist. He repeatedly aligned himself with Islamophobia, homophobia, misogyny, authoritarianism, and vile racism. And, he’s their idol. Their golden calf. Worthy of flags flown at half mast and government prayer circles.
No one who’s been paying attention is surprised by this. If you like one K-Pop Demon Hunters song, you like all of them. If you like Trump, you like his ilk. And still the veneration makes me ill.
They told us not to have ANY idols, and they were very clear that a good thing or person could easily become godlike in our estimations. To so blatantly martyr and posthumously worship a man antithetical to Christ takes my breath away. They do not expect the wrath of God for this sin, no. They expect praise and glory—and the God they believe in grants it.
They said no idols. But they meant only to keep us subservient, using religion as a tool to amass power. WE could not have idols. They can and have always had one idol above all others: power.