Introduction
The bullet that killed Charlie Kirk appears to have shattered the conservative right in America. Many are talking about it.
There was already a growing shadow long before September 10th. A generation of young white men has grown up in an America badgered daily that they are the problem. They were told that their testosterone is toxic. They were told that their whiteness is oppressive. Even many churches preached versions of these lies. And the constant, adhanic droning of the media has been the “empowering” of minorities. First it was empowering women, then it was blacks and foreigners of every stripe, and then it was homosexuals and finally transgenders and drag queens, with the overt subtext pounding through it all that white males are worthless scum. Meanwhile, many of these young men were growing up in broken homes, with hurt and angry mothers and absent, cowering fathers, and all with full access to reddit threads and internet pornography on demand.
What could go wrong?
Right on schedule: racialist ideologies, ethnic malice, hatred of women, reviling of “boomers,” conspiracy theories, and more.
Charlie Kirk & the Demons
Charlie Kirk said that he went to the college campuses for those young men. Arguably, he went into the belly of the beast, where those ideologies were being injected into young people like so much meth, where those lies were being laced through the entire curriculums and cultures. Charlie went there to answer questions, to tell the truth, to be a big brother, even a sort of father that many never had, and to offer an alternative conservative message that was increasingly centered on the power and hope of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Charlie Kirk’s memorial was likely the largest proclamation of the gospel in the history of the world to this point. Given the reach of Youtube, social media, and the internet, coupled with the presence of the most powerful people in the world, the President of the United States, the Vice President, and many members of the cabinet, estimates speculate that a hundred million people may have now heard the message that Charlie gave his life to spread.
But what may have looked like a glimmer of a revival in the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s memorial seems blasted to pieces with infighting, accusations, and calls for cancelation.
But Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson are not causing the fracturing of the conservative right. American Israeli foreign policy is not the seething center of the storm. These are the lightning rods of this generation’s angst and despair. But sensationalism burns out. You cannot maintain a frenzy. Even if demons are involved, their human hosts eventually break under the pressure. And speaking of demons, I tend to think there are many more legions infesting our institutions than swarming around controversial podcasters. Our capital buildings and courthouses are where the real demonic activity festers with bureaucratic efficiency. Deceit signed into law with a smile. Murder approved by committees in suits. Corruption crawling with maggots holding press conferences and meeting in board rooms. I’m talking about deep state racketeering, foreign fraud, democrat devilry, republican promiscuity, denominational mischief, ecclesiastical perversion, like a few thousand boxes of moldy fruit in a shipping container in an Arizona summer. We can smell the rot from here.
All of this is the convulsions of our corruptions, the dry heaves of secular idolatry, the static electricity of our collective apostasy. Charlie Kirk was not holding everything together; his death merely revealed our situation more clearly.
The Emmanuel Who Comes
This morning I sang O Come, O Come Emmanuel with several other teachers at Logos School, like many of you have sung or will sing this Advent and Christmas season. And it struck me that we are not merely asking God to be with us in some generic, benevolent way. We are not merely remembering how Jesus came some two thousand years ago upon a midnight clear. Nor are we even merely asking that Jesus would one day return in glory to make all things new. No, what struck me is that we are asking Jesus Himself to come now. Right now. We are calling out like the blind man on the road to Jericho. We are calling out like the mother of the demon possessed girl. We are praying like the father whose son is tormented by an evil spirit. We are asking Jesus to come now, and ransom us from this captivity, to free us from Satan’s tyranny, to cheer our spirits, and disperse the gloomy clouds of this dark night. We are not asking for a moderate improvement to our circumstances. We are crying out in desperation for salvation from our 2025 captivity, from the satanic tyranny of this historical moment, from this gloom that hangs over us all.
Jesus said before He ascended back into Heaven after His resurrection that it was better that He go so that He could send His Spirit to be with us, to comfort us, to help us, and to lead us into all truth. He said it was better for Him to go, so that He could come. Do you hear that? He said that if He went away bodily, He would come with even more power by His Spirit. He would come when we call. He would not leave us or forsake us. He promised to come when we call. And I don’t believe He has ever refused.
Conclusion
I suspect that there will be more people in church this holiday season in this country than perhaps in many years. This doesn’t guarantee that anything good will come of it. And some folks may have the misfortune to land in a church that will tell them that since Joseph and Mary were refugees everyone should vote for democrats. But oh well. Even in some of those churches there will be young men who shuffle in off the streets looking for something, and they will sing, “O Come, O Come Emmanuel,” and perhaps for the first time ever, they will actually mean it, despite the chaos, despite the vitriol, despite the gnawing despair, despite the corruption, despite the guy in the dress up front, despite everything. Or maybe because of it all. And Jesus will hear, and He will come. And He will set us free.
I do not believe the conservative right is nearly as shattered as some would have us believe. I know there are grifters. I know there are cons. I know there are mad groyper toads and filthy boomer snakes. And I know there are real fault lines between good and evil that run through the right. But I don’t believe the death of Charlie Kirk was an accident, and I don’t believe his memorial was an accident either. I believe millions have heard the gospel, have begun reading their Bibles, and are turning to the Lord. And I don’t believe that Twitter/X or Youtube is a fully accurate picture of reality. Millions of seeds have been sown by Charlie Kirk’s death. Millions more have been sown by the invisible ministries of faithful parents, teachers, pastors, roommates, and friends. What men mean for evil, God turns to good. And God turns the course of history so that our faith will be firmly placed in Him and not a movement, not a man, not a party, not a mood, not a vibe, but in Christ alone.
It’s still early in the morning of the Kingdom, and there are still many dark shadows looming around us, but Christ was born for this — and He is risen and He is putting all of death’s dark shadows to flight. And He always comes when we truly call. And that is why we have the audacity to sing: “Rejoice, Rejoice, Emmanuel, shall come to thee, O Israel.”
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