Redaction Criticism (Of Charlie Kirk)

Pastors are no joke.

I’m tempted today to call Charlie Kirk a real [redacted].

I know. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t speak that way, especially on this family-friendly Substack. It’s just that he said something that really [redacted] made me [redacted] angry. In a recent “Freedom Night in America” event held at Dream City Church, Kirk remarked, “Pastors in this country are largely a joke.”

And why are they a joke? Is it because they haven’t preached the gospel or held the hand of the dying? Is it that they haven’t visited the sick or taken up the cause of the poor? No, it is something much worse, I’m afraid.

They aren’t political enough.

Those who are political enough are presumably not a joke. Of course they probably have to be political in the right way. They have to be political in the way Jesus likes, and do you know who can tell us what that is? Like some great prophet of old, here is Charlie Kirk, standing athwart a nation of squishes. “And the Lord said, ‘I have seen your squishiness, O Israel! I despise your squishy words, your solemn assemblies and non-partisan potlucks.’” Get with the program, pastors, says Charlie Kirk, standing in the wilderness, beclad in a hair garment with a leather belt around his waist. Stop being a joke.

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

According to the article on Ministry Watch, Kirk continued,

“We need a spirit of Elijah right now in this country. By the way, [the story of Elijah] is a great example if anyone ever tells you you shouldn’t be political, Elijah was political,” Kirk said. “How is that not political to confront the powers that be of who is actually god in your land? I want to emphasize that. Elijah is one of the most important figures of the Bible.”

He also told the crowd he thinks “Jezebel is Hillary Clinton. I was doing a deep study, it’s not even an opinion, it’s just a fact.”

It’s not even an opinion, people. It’s a fact, as certain as the Pythagorean theorem or the freezing point of water. It’s understandable, however, that you may not have seen this. He was doing a deep study, after all—A DEEP STUDY. And if you do a deep study, as opposed to, say, a shallow study or even a study of medium depth, you will come to understand with unavoidable clarity, with absolute metaphysical certitude, that Jezebel is Hillary Clinton. One might conjecture that Bill Clinton is thus Ahab, but I haven’t done a deep study, so I can’t be sure.

As for the “spirit of Elijah,” does Kirk mean living a life of total devotion to God, or performing acts of mercy for a destitute widow? Maybe he means fasting for forty days and forty nights. Perhaps he means so expending himself in the work of God that he lies down under a solitary broom tree in despair and cries, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors” (1 Kgs 19:4). On closer examination, however, none of this seems to be what he’s getting at. In fact, I suspect that all he means by an “Elijah spirit” is involvement in politics. He seems to like the idea of being a “truth-teller” as Elijah was. But if you’re going to be a truth-teller, you’d [redacted] well better be sure you’re telling the truth. I wrote recently on the danger of false prophecy. Elijah was a true prophet, as evidenced in part by the hardship of his life. He wasn’t making scads of cash by stirring up controversy. He wasn’t a slave to the attention economy.

Some time back I reviewed Carl Trueman’s The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self. One of Trueman’s criques of progressivism is that, for progressives, nothing is pre-political. The philosophers upon whom they rely have cast the world entirely in terms of relationships of power and class struggle. Politics and power govern all other concepts. One could make the same criticism of Kirk, however. No doubt he would shudder at being tarred with the same brush as the progressives he so despises. He nevertheless has nothing to say that precedes or transcends the concepts of politics and power.

Theologically, this is a critical error. God’s self-revelation is pre-political. Before there were governments or politics or internet influencers, there was the divine Word, through whom all things came into being. All of our political machinations are preceded not only by our createdness, but our God-given ability to relate to one another. Apart from the divine Word—the Word who became flesh in Jesus Christ—none of this would be possible. God’s self-expression through the Word is the precondition for everything else in creation, including the political world.

Yes, once Jesus entered into the circumstances of human life, he faced the political realities of his historical context. Jesus’ kingdom, however, is in this world, but not of it. It comes to bear on politics, but its truth claims precede politics and ultimately transcend them. A faith we cannot distinguish from this-worldly politics is anemic at best, heretical at worst. It turns Christianity into one more lever for the acquisition of power.

I have taught pastors at the seminary level for two decades. I’ve seen the burdens they carry, the pain born of love for their congregations. I’ve seen pastors in tears at funerals because they are grieving even as they minister. Many pastors take on second jobs because their ministerial work cannot support their families. I’ll never forget the story a pastor told me of cleaning brains off the wall after the son of a parishioner shot himself. The people who do this work are not a joke. They are quietly serving as the hands and feet of Christ. One humble pastor will surpass a hundred Charlie Kirks in the work of the kingdom.

If you are a pastor, your congregation needs to know where you stand on things. It’s okay—even important—to speak plainly, with conviction, about the way you understand the implications of the gospel for everyday life. This includes “hot button” issues, such as abortion, end-of-life care, and transgenderism. Most likely, your congregants will appreciate your guidance on these matters. But take care that it is, in fact, the Good News of Jesus Christ that animates your words. The temptation across the ages has been to substitute our preferences for the unrelenting demands of the gospel. But our own preferences cannot save us or anyone else. Only the Good News of Jesus Christ leads us to salvation.

Jesus is not a platform. He is not a brand. He is neither a cudgel by which we subdue our opponents nor a key by which we open the halls of political power. He is Lord, and he warns us of the danger of using his name while ignoring his teachings. We may say, “Lord, Lord” until we’re blue in the face, and that same Lord may someday look at us and say, “I never knew you.”

And what will our response be at that point? Probably something along the lines of, “Oh [redacted].”