By Cassy Benefield and Aaron Hedge | FāVS News Reporters
Since Sept. 10, when Charlie Kirk was assassinated, conservative groups including Turning Point USA have increased their presence in public spaces, using religious messaging to promote their political views.
“If Christians just voted their biblical worldview, we would win,” said Brian Noble, the former Spokane Valley pastor who is now the CEO and president of the Family Policy Institute of Washington (FPIW). He said this on Oct. 12 in Franklin Park at the “Take Action Liberty Rally, which used Kirk’s murder as inspiration to “stand boldly like Charlie” for their shared values. “And why do we want to win? It’s not so that we can have power. It’s so that we can love our neighbor and have a government that … stays in their lane.”
But that language ignores some of the more controversial ideas Kirk espoused — and not that all Christians agree with. Those stances include the superiority of the Western world because it’s an outgrowth of the Bible, that LGBTQ+ activists “want to corrupt your children” by encouraging them to be gay or transgender and that “Islam is the sword the left is using to slit the throat of America.”
Travis R. Pardo is a research fellow at FPIW, whose mission is to defend and advance biblical values in state policy. He wrote a four-part series of articles for the nonprofit’s website in September titled “Renewing American Identity,” which ascribes America’s identity crisis to a perceived erosion of the English language, waning Christianity and lack of honor given to America’s British (not immigrant) roots.
The series begins with a discussion on mass immigration and its impacts on America’s identity due to waves of people entering illegally and if they do enter legally, their immigration is detrimental because they do not assimilate.
“The concern is basically this: Do you want to be an American? People are coming into the nation — often illegally — and then living in their own enclaves, living as if they still lived in their original country, but accepting an American paycheck, not to mention receiving no small amount of welfare goods,” Pardo writes. “They are settlers, essentially building their own nation within a nation, and not converts who assimilate.”
Also included in this article is an X post of Kirk saying, “Immigration without assimilation is an invasion.”
But such rhetoric doesn’t resonate with all Christians. Shane Claiborne, a Christian author and speaker who travels the world to oppose war and help underrepresented groups, said this definition of nationality is antithetical to true Christianity, which he described as inclusive to everyone.
“The problem with America first is that it’s too small,” he said. “To think that there’s a hierarchy of human value and the people here matter more than someone else. And the Bible doesn’t say God so loved America, but that God so loved the world.”
Rally attendees ask for dialogue
At the rally on Oct. 12, speakers invoked the Bible and Christianity while also using combative language against political opponents.
On one hand, several speakers referenced the Bible, Christianity and used war terminology as they spoke against “tyranny,” “leftists” and the “battle between good and evil.”
“This is no longer a battle versus right and left,” said Shea Thompson, president of Gonzaga University’s TPUSA chapter, during a speech at the rally. “We have a culture war to win … and we have to acknowledge that, move forward and make this country a better place.”
TPUSA and other Turning Point offshoots were co-founded by Kirk to promote conservative values, not political parties, Thompson added later in an interview. These principles are based upon Judeo-Christian ethics, he said.
“Whether that is the importance of a free market economy, the importance of capitalism, the importance of freedom of speech, the importance [of having] the freedom of religion, and actually putting God in the basis of all the things that we do,” Thompson said, “I think we’re forgetting where we came from as Americans. We’re taking God out of the equation.”
He said Americans are doing this by expanding the definition of marriage beyond the union of a man and a woman, by saying men and women have no biological differences, that restrooms should not be based on biological differences but gender identity and by the sanctity of life “being attacked through abortion.”
On the other hand, the audience also heard language filled with exhortations about bridging divides, sharpening critical thinking skills and getting to know Jesus. Two high school students who have joined TPUSA school chapters, now named Club America, spoke some of these exhortations.
Eli Schwartz is a Freeman High School junior, and before he went to the stage to speak, he passed out TPUSA buttons, one saying, “You don’t need a degree to be successful.”
This matched Kirk’s trajectory, as he dropped out of community college and became a very successful political pundit that students like Schwartz looked up to. So much so, he started a Club America chapter last year at his school.
On stage, Schwartz said Kirk wanted to teach young people to think critically. He said Kirk knew public schools say they teach critical thinking, but actually “spoon feed” ideas they want you to believe like “God is dead.”
“He also knew some of these really good truths, which is that God is real, God is good and God is in control,” he said. “And [Kirk] also knew that Generation Z is getting a fire and understanding and will make America great again.”
Another high school student, Gracie Kepner, a student from North Idaho STEM Charter Academy in Rathdrum, Idaho, shared why she joined her school’s Club America (formerly TPUSA high school club) after Schwartz. She said she had spent several years thinking about political violence and hate that comes from “often a lack of understanding” between “people who think differently.”
“I believe change starts with conversation,” Kepner said. “Charlie Kirk started Turning Point to do exactly that, to create spaces where young people can talk about their ideas freely, bridge the gap between liberals and conservatives and learn to challenge each other without tearing each other down.”
At flag-wave and rallying cries
The “National Day of Remembrance for Charlie Kirk” flag wave event on Oct. 14, however, did not offer opportunities for conversation for most people as the fast Division Street traffic roared by.
Kirk would have turned 32 that day, and the crowd on the corner of Division Street and Hastings Road in North Spokane was there to oppose people who didn’t fit into Kirk’s worldview.
A man carrying a huge speaker that blasted Christian rap music and a Christian flag — the banner with a white field and a blue section on the top left containing a red cross often flown. Other flags were emblazoned with “FREEDOM,” “I am Charlie Kirk” and “King Jesus” — rallying cries of the Christian right that have been popularized since Kirk’s assassination.
Ron Wright was one of these demonstrators. A former retired detective, he pens a conspiracy column for The American Thinker, a far-right website that warns Americans their elections have been stolen. His latest column is titled, “The Charlie Kirk Assassination Forces Us to Face the Left’s Damage to America.” (The political views of Kirk’s assassin are far from clear — though some conservative politicians said he was left-wing, investigators found a complicated story of a young man who tried to obscure his political identity.)
He believes conservative Americans are in a legal and physical battle with forces that are controlled by “globalists” like George Soros, the Hungarian-American billionaire who, as a child, survived the Holocaust and funds some left-wing causes. Wright said Soros and people like him were fomenting violence in American streets.
“If you’re familiar with Jurassic Park, what happens when you let the velociraptors out?” Wright said in an interview.
Just a few feet away, Matt Hawkins, a former Republican candidate for Washington state auditor, waved a sign that said “Big Government Sucks.”
He told FāVS that he had “a lot of kids” and raised them to believe that God intended marriage to be reserved only for one man and one woman. Because of this, he believes that schools should only represent traditional straight marriages when they talk about romantic relationships in the classroom.
“Parents should know that when they send their kids to school, that the schools will reinforce what’s going on within their community,” Hawkins said.
He would not make the same concession for families in which the parents are of the same sex.
Kirk had gone a lot further, once saying that “God’s perfect law” was stone to death people who engaged in gay activity.
Claiborne, speaking with FāVS in a phone interview, said this is another distortion of Christian values.
“You just can’t miss the 2,000 scriptures that talk about the poor and the vulnerable and justice for those [who] are hurting,” he said. “One of the most famous evangelicals in the world, Billy Graham, said it’s God’s job to judge, the Holy Spirit’s job to convict and our job to love.”
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Thanks, Cassy, for your report on the Charlie Kirk rallies. You covered a lot of ground in your interviews as well. Perhaps you might consider a series of columns that present “the other side” in more depth (e.g., Shane’s comments expanded by other folks?)
Peace,
Paul
Thanks Paul! I don’t want us to ignore Aaron Hedges’ part in the reporting though! And I think on our website we do a fairly reasonable job presenting what the “other” side of Christianity says in response to what we define as more conservative, right-leaning ideas (as they are defined today) … I want to see more reporting done on what’s going on in the minds and hearts of those like we wrote about above in more depth. But it’s very difficult to get this community to go on record and be vulnerable in this way. I believe we saw a glimpse however for this story that helped bring nuance to this community in our area. It’s a difficult but necessary (and needed) balance.
Excellent reporting Cassy.
I sense that there is a rather diverse group of people that are all there, not necessarily with the same views or motives, but, like Jesus, Charlie attracted a large swath of ideas and ideals.
Like most all rallies, there are those that want to be part of something bigger, those that are looking for freebees (fishes and loaves), those that want to be seen, those that want to be heard, those that want to ride on the back of others to raise themselves and their agendas higher and those that want to spy out to report back to those that sent them from a variety of agendas.
I find few that seem to understand the free speech issue that Charlie promoted. They like that he came very prepared to defend his view against people that were less prepared to defend their view. But they lack the ability to allow a free flow of ideas themselves and the ability to acknowledge the right to hold those views in a secular society. I find this most troubling by those that want to make this a “Christian” nation. That is NOT what Christ came to do. His commission was for us to make disciples, not a theocracy. And that can only be done to the willing, not the forced.
People that use clips of Charlie, rarely take the time to give him context. It is sound bites that promote their agenda, negative or positive. I tend to like what Charlie tried to do: engage in dialog, but few are able to stand up in front of crowds and express themselves fluently. Most matches were uneven and that gave the impression, deliberate or not, of Goliath attacking David without his sling.
Well said, Chuck. I think you really nail it in your last paragraph. Really his dialogue was not set up as an even match. Also, this piece was definitely one done in partnership with Aaron Hedges. He writes for both us and RANGE Media and one of his areas of interest and reporting is on extremism, especially that on what we define as the “right.” He does good work for us and for RANGE Media.