America: A Light to the World
Reflections from Abroad on the Charlie Kirk Memorial Service
Allow me to begin this article about Charlie Kirk’s Memorial Service with what may seem like an aside, though I assure you it is not. I am not American. I come from Northern Ireland. And every Christmas Day at 3 p.m., millions of Brits gather to hear the Royal Christmas Address reflecting on the prior year. Before Queen Elizabeth II passed away, she would often make an overt reference to Jesus Christ, usually with reference to his love or compassion. She was by all accounts a devout believer, and meant it. We British Christians would delight in this solitary occasion when a public figure could give an open expression of Christian faith, however mild and vague it may have been. And we are deeply saddened that she has been succeeded by her son Charles, who lacks any such faith.
Such a paucity of Christian public witness stands in stark contrast to what the world observed yesterday at Charlie Kirk’s Memorial Service. There, before the entire watching world, the whole leadership of the American Right (both within and without government) gathered to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ with the kind of boldness and clarity that would have been considered too hard-hitting even for a Billy Graham rally.
It commenced with several hours of worship as 70,000 people gathered in State Farm Stadium (with some 20,000 more at a nearby arena and thousands more outside), led by figures like Kari Jobe, Cody Carnes, Brandon Lake, Phil Wickham and Chris Tomlin. These mainstream evangelical figures perhaps surprised some by taking part in such a right-wing-coded event, even if it was a memorial. But these are surprising times, and one can almost hear the steel being infused into 100 million normie Christian spines. They led with excellence, passion, and biblical truth.
Rob McCoy, Charlie’s pastor and head of TPUSA Faith, opened the proceedings with a clear, direct gospel presentation. “There is no effort that will bring us back into the presence of [a] righteous God. You see, the wages of sin is death. Charlie knew this, and at an early age he entrusted his life to the Savior of the world. Jesus came to this earth, was tempted in all ways, yet was without sin, was crucified upon a cross. His blood was poured out because blood must be shed for the remission of sins, and his death upon that cross was sufficient for all the world’s sins, but only efficient for those who, like Charlie, would receive him as their Savior.” He closed with an altar call, inviting those who did not profess faith in Christ to stand and receive him as Lord and Savior. Hundreds inside State Farm Stadium did just that. Who knows how many more at home did the same? TPUSA reported that over 3 million watched the service across livestream platforms.
Many likely assumed that this would be the end of the preaching portion of the memorial, and the remainder would consist mostly of personal stories, reflections on Charlie’s life and impact, and given his political bent, how he would want to see America change in the years and decades ahead. Sure, we’d get some faith references as part of that; it would be impossible not to. But that would be the height of it, right?
Wrong. Instead, what we got was five hours of hot gospel. Rivers of truth from the mouth of God were poured out upon hearers from every single mouth and every single angle. What could have been a bleak, sorrowful affair was breathed on by the Spirit of the Living God and became an outpouring of mercy and grace that may well transform the United States.
If you had written a checklist for a fundamentalist Pentecostal’s dream tent revival, this would have ticked every box. Dozens of personal testimonies of lives transformed by the work of Christ? Check. An apologist, say like Frank Turek, showing up to talk about someone’s final moments before death, and then telling everyone that in the afterlife you can get either justice or grace? Check. Passionate calls for a return to biblical marriage and family? Check. The weeping friends of a Christian martyr declaring with unyielding resolve, “His movement is only beginning. The voices of millions globally have been awakened… We won’t cower in fear. We will never surrender. We are resolved to live free from lies and seek out what is true. We will respectfully, boldly, challenge what is accepted by culture in order to seek out what is true and acceptable to God Almighty alone”? Check.
It was at times hard to fathom what we were hearing.
Did Ben Carson call out Hollywood for “making sexual perversion [seem] normal, natural and healthy?” Did Benny Johnson really exhort the chief executives of the Trump administration to “wield the sword for the protection of good men and for the terror of evil men”? Did Jack Posobiec really urge everyone to “put on the full armor of God” and “fight the evil in high places”? Did Tucker Carlson really declare that politics cannot save but Christianity can because it is primarily a call to personal repentance, declaring boldly and unashamedly, “Real change begins, and the only change that matters, [is] when we repent of our sins. We! Me! A recognition that the real problem is me and how fallen I am!”
Then the politicians stood up. And by some miracle of God, they didn’t ruin it. Tulsi Gabbard referenced 2 Corinthians 5:8: to be at home with the body is to be absent from the Lord. Pete Hegseth reminded everyone that “Only Christ is king… Fear God and fear no man. RFK Jr, who seemed particularly moved, called on people to turn every moment and every interaction into a prayer. Marco Rubio briefly turned into a Baptist preacher, talking about God who took on the form of a man who “suffered like men, and died like a man. But then he rose again unlike any mortal man,” and declared the reality of his coming return, and the new heaven and new earth. Donald Trump Jr spoke about the first martyr, Steven, who was welcomed to heaven not by a Jesus who was seated, but a Jesus who was standing to welcome him into glory. JD Vance, who said early on in his message, “Most of all, Charlie brought the truth that Jesus Christ is the King of kings and that all truth flows from this first and most important one,” then declared, “It is better to be persecuted for your faith than to deny the kingship of Christ.” And please note, these quotes were not just momentary asides in otherwise political or secular messages; they were the clear theme of each.
None of this is to say that the speakers did not reminisce with love and tears about Charlie’s life. There was story after story about the kind of leader, thinker, friend, father and husband he was. But above all, he was a Christian. And, as I’m absolutely certain he would have wanted, this was far more about Christ than it was about Charlie.
And Erika Kirk. Many words will be written about her in the years to come. In a world saturated with feminist propaganda, it is no surprise that God selected a housewife who devoted her life to making the home a place of nourishment and warmth for her battle-weary husband, who publicly and joyfully embraced the term ‘helper’, and who declared that she prayed every day to be the wife God needed her to be for her husband, to be the very embodiment of feminine strength.
Praying fervently as she gathered herself to speak through tears, Mrs Kirk spoke with what can only be described as supernatural grace. She spoke of her love for her husband, whose single grey hair she never told him about. She spoke of his love notes to her. She spoke of him, in the middle of doing what he loved, blinking, and seeing Jesus in paradise. She spoke of her accepting the Lord’s will for her life. She spoke of the need for young women to pursue virtue. She spoke of marriage being two people becoming one flesh working for the glory of God. She spoke of the need for those who went to church last Sunday to keep going and have true, real, lasting faith.
And then she did perhaps the most profound thing any widow, a mere eleven days after she was robbed of her husband and her children were robbed of their father, could ever do. She said this: “My husband Charlie, he wanted to save young men just like the one who took his life. That young man… that young man… On the cross, our Savior said, ‘Father, forgive them for they [know not] what they do.’”
“That man, that young man…” She visibly fought back the anger, the tears, the sorrow…
“I forgive him… I forgive him. Because it was what Christ did and is what Charlie would do. The answer to hate is not hate. The answer we know from the gospel is love and always love. Love for our enemies and love for those who persecute us.”
I am not a skillful enough writer to sufficiently honor the power of God revealed in that moment. I don’t know that any writer could be. It was the most Christian thing I have ever seen. The gospel was not merely declared. It was demonstrated. It was glory. It was agony. It was Calvary. It was Jesus, dead and raised, at work among his people. The whole thing lasted for five hours. It was watched live by tens of millions. Billions will see clips. Heaven will be fuller as a result. Heaven on earth is nearer after it.
Tyler Bowen, COO of Turning Point, said that Charlie always used to say to him, “If we could just figure out how to bring the Holy Spirit into a Trump rally.” They did. The Vice President perhaps put it best when he said, “The evil murderer who took Charlie from us expected us to have a funeral today. Instead, my friends, we have had a revival.” All of it done before, and through, the most powerful people in your nation and the world.
The fact that almost nobody remembers the words of the President, whose speech was delivered with his usual charm but lacked the weight of Christian conviction found in the others, shows something else. The Make America Great Again movement is heading towards its inevitable conclusion: in order to be great, America must be Christian. MAGA will become MACA. It happened last night.
As I sit here in the United Kingdom, I am full of righteous envy. Our government despises God, our people have disowned him, and our church, in some fit of demonic madness, thinks that right-wing Christians like you are carnal, tribal and power-hungry—not only to be avoided, but to be publicly rebuked. We are Lewis’ Earthmen under the spell of a serpentine witch, slaves in the underground darkness, railing against the light above the surface. I pray by the grace of God for mercy, but my faith is currently in a fistfight with my doubts.
On the other hand, you American Christians should be on your knees thanking God for your country. It is a beautiful place because it is still a Christian place. It’s a light to the world. It’s not finished yet because God is not finished with it yet. Never stop fighting for it.
Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons.