To paraphrase Shakespeare, there are times when you need to “fight fire with fire.”
When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, refusing to respond would only have encouraged more attacks on American soldiers. Russia’s recent drone incursions into NATO countries Poland and now Romania are raising fears of war; Poland’s prime minister said his country is “the closest we have been to open conflict since World War Two.” Ignoring such aggression is likely to encourage further aggression.
However, there are other times when “fighting fire with fire” only accelerates the conflagration. For evangelical Christians in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, this is one of those times.
“If I had to use a single word to capture him”
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La) told “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on Sunday, “I think this could be a turning point for our country.” He urged leaders to “turn down the rhetoric” amid a divisive political climate, saying lawmakers should stop treating policy disputes as an “existential threat to democracy or the Republic.”
“Calling people Nazis and fascists is not helpful,” Johnson said. “There are some deranged people in society, and when they see leaders using that kind of language so often now increasingly, it spurs them on to action. We have to recognize that reality and address it appropriately.” He added that he’s “heartened to know” that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle “are stepping up and saying that and addressing it.”
Charlie Kirk would agree. A commentator who knew him personally for many years wrote on the day he was killed: “If I had to use a single word to capture him, it would be gracious. We could disagree about anything—and we did—but he would, without fail, engage civilly and explain his point of view” (his emphasis). Others have described him in the same way.
I would like to respond by simply encouraging our nation to follow Charlie Kirk’s example. But our divisive culture has gotten where we are for a reason, and it’s not from a lack of examples to the contrary.
“How the West lost its soul”
Paul Kingsnorth is an Oxford graduate, novelist, poet, and cultural commentator who has been called “England’s greatest living writer.” In a recent Free Press article, he explains “how the West lost its soul.” In essence:
We’ve abandoned the founding religious story that sustained us for 1,500 years. The result is the greatest age of abundance we’ve ever known—and a complete lack of meaning.
His brilliant essay is an excerpt from his upcoming book (which I’ve already ordered). I urge you to read the article in its entirety, but for our purposes I’ll focus on this assertion:
The modern experiment has been the act of dethroning both literal human sovereigns and the representatives of the sacred order, and replacing them with purely human, and purely abstract, notions.
He shows that the secularism of our culture, while rejecting the unifying moral compass of Christendom, has nothing with which to replace it. Thus we are left with a “post-truth” society in which “our politics have become religion,” as scholar Ryan Burge notes. Political parties have replaced denominations; stump speeches have the feel of a tent revival; donating to candidates is like tithing.
But unlike biblical religion, political religion is a zero-sum battle in which the other side is dangerous and our side must do whatever it takes to win. The future of the nation is at stake, we tell ourselves.
And we’re right, but for the wrong reasons.
“The better angels of our nature”
If Americans decide that those with whom we disagree are our enemies, our decision becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. When we treat people like enemies, we make them enemies. When they treat us in the same way, a vicious cycle of vengeance and retribution infects our politics and rhetoric and leads to violence and more violence.
We’ve been here before.
In the immortal conclusion to his First Inaugural Address, Abraham Lincoln pleaded with a nation on the brink of civil war:
We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break the bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.
But the “better angels of our nature” did not arrive, and the nation descended into the most devastating war in our history.
This is because “our nature” is the cause of our division, not its solution. From Eden to today, our will to power has driven us to be our own gods at the expense of any who would usurp our throne.
This is why the gospel is still our only hope. The transforming power of God’s Spirit alone can cleanse our prideful hearts, replace our quest for power with a passion for service, and turn us into carriers of forgiveness and grace.
“Speaking the truth in love” is our only way forward (Ephesians 4:15). But to do either, much less both, we must be empowered by the One who is the truth and who is love.
A hard question
Jesus wants our love for others to be as unconditional as his love for us. He prayed for his Father’s forgiveness for those who crucified him (Luke 23:34); Stephen prayed for his executioners to be forgiven as well (Acts 7:60).
Here’s a hard question: Can you pray for God to forgive the alleged murderer of Charlie Kirk and save his soul?
I’m not suggesting that the shooter should not face legal consequences for his crime (cf. Romans 13:4). But I am asking if you can ask your Father to make him a child of God and “new creation” in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). This is as hard for me as I assume it is for you. But Jesus’ command to “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” has no loopholes or exceptions (Matthew 5:44).
So, I am asking God to:
- Lead his people to submit our hearts to his Spirit and manifest his love as a result.
- Help us pray for the alleged killer and all others who foment and ferment hatred and animosity in our culture.
- Empower us to break the cycle of vengeance with the radical gift of forgiveness.
- Make us catalysts for a movement of grace that leads the West to find its “soul” again.
Will you join me today?
Quote for the day:
“To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you” —C. S. Lewis
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