Ministers Musing September 26th, 2025

We call this spot in the Friday message the Ministers’ Musings. We often use it to give a taste of what’s coming on Sunday, but really, it is a chance to let you in on what we are thinking.

A minister’s job is to think theologically about life, and Sunday afternoon, my mind was filled with a very particular kind of theology. It was Charlie Kirk’s funeral service. I was driving home hearing speakers claim him as a martyr for freedom and the Christian way. The next morning, I read Cameron Trimble’s reflections on what she heard. “Speaker after speaker framed Kirk as a Christian martyr. His political views were presented as spiritual truths. His ideology was elevated to gospel. The separation of church and state—the very principle that has protected both religion and democracy in this nation—was not just blurred. It was bulldozed.”

Two Christians look at the life of Charlie Kirk and what he stood for. One sees dangerously racist, sexist and xenophobic political theology. Another sees a Christ-like martyr for freedom and liberty. To me, the selective beatifying of Kirk for the sake of political gain is outrageous and so clearly opportunistic. But his death has not only revealed just how polarized things have become, but his funeral became a platform that has widened the gap further.

The one voice that I long for us to follow, and the one who I believe gets to have a voice in this situation more than any is Erika Kirk, Charlie’s widow. Speaking of the person who shot her husband she said, “I forgive him because it was what Christ did and it is what Charlie would do.” She continued, “The answer to hate is not hate. The answer we know from the Gospel is love.” That is the only thing I know that can bridge the gap.