Within a two-month span — almost to the day — American evangelicalism lost three of its most virulent and revered spokesmen. I’ve spent the last three days pondering what that means.
John MacArthur was the first to go, July 14, after a long illness. The 86-year-old Calvinist pastor from California was equally beloved and reviled for his narrow view of authentic Christian faith and his cold certainty about everything. His puritanical influence cannot be overstated.
James Dobson was next, Aug. 21, passing after a brief illness at age 89. Dobson and his Focus on the Family and its nest of affiliated advocacy groups shaped the modern evangelical understanding of family and all but defined the political term “family values.” (Also see a new article on James Dobson’s America by Ryan Clark.)
Charlie Kirk is the latest death, Sept. 10, but he died prematurely at age 31, felled by an assassin’s bullet. Although Kirk was a third of the age of Dobson or MacArthur, he had amassed a huge following and was building a political machine equal to or greater than anything his two elders could have imagined.
In the world of conservative evangelicalism, it’s hard to name three more influential people who have shaped the rise of Donald Trump and his MAGA mentality. Those who paved the way — Jerry Falwell Sr. and Pat Robertson, for example — already are gone.
Yes, Trump continues to surround himself with clergy and faux clergy who fawn over him in the Oval Office and bless his cruel policies, but none of them has the stature or influence of these three men now gone. Paula White, head of Trump’s White House Faith Office, is such an obvious huckster that mainstream evangelicals do not take her seriously. Robert Jeffress and Jack Graham have limited audiences and never have enjoyed the stature of MacArthur, Dobson or Kirk.
“There is no conservative evangelical leader left with the kind of national platform influence once wielded by these three.”
Simply put, there is no conservative evangelical leader left with the kind of national platform influence once wielded by these three. Even if I’m not sure what all that means, it’s interesting.
Also interesting is the number of folks I’ve seen who were oblivious to Charlie Kirk’s rise to fame and influence within evangelicalism. Some of my friends responded with a “Charlie Who?” And others knew the name but not the power behind it.
An article our Mara Richards Bim wrote in April explaining who Kirk is and how he rose to influence with dark money has been resurrected this week and likely will become one of our most-read articles of the year. This is the essential starting place to understand what all the fuss is about.
And as I pointed out in a day-after opinion piece, your views on Kirk’s life and death suddenly became the most accurate litmus test we’ve seen yet of your support for the MAGA agenda. We all saw friends on social media praising Kirk and his influence — much to our surprise.
Which also made me wonder if those people really understood who Kirk was and what he was doing. I’ve seen so many folks describe Kirk as kind and compassionate and open to conversation. Yet if you pay even the slightest attention to his rhetoric, you’ll understand he was a flame thrower for the MAGA agenda. His comments were mean and cruel and ill-informed and misleading.
Don’t believe me? Go check out this small sample of his actual statements we published today. What’s really twisted is that often people in the groups Kirk slammed have been the very ones praising him as a prophet. Clearly they missed or overlooked the mean things he said about them.
“What’s really twisted is that often people in the groups Kirk slammed have been the very ones praising him as a prophet.”
That’s not too different than the way folks treat Trump, though. How else can we explain the peculiar fact that immigrants voted for the man who hates immigrants, or that gay people voted for the man who mocks them, or that Black people voted for the most racist president since Andrew Jackson, or that women voted for a known sexual predator?
Charlie Kirk and Donald Trump are cut from the same cloth. It’s just that Kirk was more performatively evangelical Christian.
Which leads to another fascinating question: Was Charlie Kirk a martyr? A lot of his supporters already are claiming he was. The only way that’s possible is if he was killed specifically for his Christian faith. And I don’t think that’s the case. It appears he was killed for his political activism, not because he emulated Jesus Christ.
Our Rodney Kennedy is working on a piece about this question that I hope we’ll have published this afternoon. To claim Kirk was a martyr is to associate his brand of political activism as one and the same with Christian faith.
While Kirk came from and spoke to the evangelical world, he was first and foremost a political activist. He spoke the language of evangelicals in the same sense Trump does — by perverting the message of the gospel to something it is not and saying it so convincingly that people naturally believed he was telling the truth.
Just to be clear, because some folks want to ascribe evil intent to me, I do not condone Charlie Kirk’s assassination. If you’ve been paying attention to my writing over the years, you’ll know I wish guns weren’t readily available in the United States. I loathe gun violence of all kinds.
“Can you imagine what it must feel like to know a huge swath of the nation would be happy you’re dead and gone?”
Yet with the deaths of MacArthur, Dobson and Kirk, I’ve been wondering — as someone who officiates a whole lot of funerals — about legacy. Can you imagine what it must feel like to know a huge swath of the nation would be happy you’re dead and gone? That they would rejoice you can’t harm them anymore?
While there are clearly evangelicals who believe these three men stood for truth and faith, that will turn out to be a minority opinion. And history will not look kindly on any of them.
In other BNG coverage this week, Val Fisk ponders the question of whether Christians ever should rejoice in someone’s death. Edmond Davis explains the American Age of Rage.
Meanwhile, Trump and his allies already are blaming the “radical left” for Kirk’s death. But Rodney Kennedy says we’re all complicit in this death.
Obviously, there’s much more to be written and said about all this. We’ll be adding new content today and through the weekend, so please keep checking back.
Page 2
Now for something totally different:
I want to call your attention again to three recent episodes of our “Stuck in the Middle with You” podcast. Ben Cole and I have engaged four veteran pastors and worship leaders in conversation about the changes they’ve experienced across the last five decades. If you’re a church nerd like me, you’ll appreciate these fascinating insights.
Our newest episode, which dropped just this morning, is a conversation with Doug Haney and Benjamin Harlan about changes in church music and worship. Doug is my longtime friend and former colleague at Wilshire Baptist Churchwho now leads a national association of church musicians called Polyphony. Benji is a former minister of music who served as dean of the School of Church Music at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
The first two episodes in this arc were with O.S. Hawkins and George Mason, both longtime pastors with high profiles. Yet each went a different path in the controversy that divided the Southern Baptist Convention. Listen to our conversation with O.S. here and our conversation with George here.
And speaking of podcasts, we’ve got a big event happening next Wednesday. That’s when we’ll introduce the new limited podcast series “Non-Disclosure” about years of sexual abuse at Kamp Kanakuk in Missouri. What’s staggering about this story is how the same people who overlooked the abuse, discounted it and then tried to cover it up are still in charge at this popular Christian camp.
Page 3
In other news this week:
It’s hard to remember way back to Monday, but the week began with Donald Trump addressing a gathering of his Religious Liberty Commission and pledging to bring prayer “back” into schools. Cynthia Astle has a message for the president: Prayer never left.
Congregations across cultural and theological lines must see hunger as an affront to justice and unite in the struggle to eradicate food insecurity, according to a new campaign launched by Church World Service.
After 17 months of silence, a three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has ruled 2-1 against Will McRaney and in favor of the Southern Baptist Convention North American Mission Board.
People and institutions of faith are needed in the effort to rescue Ukrainian children forcibly taken by invading Russianforces from their homes and families, child advocates say.
Immigration advocates pressed a federal appeals court to reinstate injunctions against the Trump administration’s indefinite suspension of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program.
In a volley of court decisions, the latest ruling says “Alligator Alcatraz” can stay open.
The nonprofit Faith in Public Life has laid off 90% of its staff due to reduced contributions.
Page 4
In other analysis this week:
Asha Wasuge explains how the “housing first” model of helping the unhoused actually works best but is being abandoned by the Trump administration, which is advocating policies documented not to work.
Christopher Armitage delves into the data to tell us what actually works as a form of protest against unjust governments. It’s not what you think.
Bill Leonard looks at the historical record and says chattel slavery was bad in the past and is still bad today. No whitewashing can change that.
Page 5
In other opinion this week:
Dave Glasebrook is a member of Doug Wilson’s church in Moscow, Idaho, and has a different perspective on the recent Grace Agenda event than we originally reported. We offered space to tell his side of the story.
Edmond Davis and Monica Davis wonder what it would look like for Donald Trump — or any U.S. president — to actually follow the teachings of Jesus.
Texas legislators were quick to pass laws in response to the deaths of children in flooding in Central Texas this summer but refuse to act in similar ways to the deaths of children in mass shootings, Mara Richards Bim points out.
I weighed in on the horrible effects of the Texas Legislature’s new “bathroom bill” that is preventing my friend from seeking medical care at a large state-supported hospital because there is no place for him to pee.
Greg Garrett says it’s time for white Christians to take to the streets in protest.
Will McCorkle brought us a firsthand account of veterans marching in Washington, D.C., to protest the police state there.
A final word
From inside the news biz, this has been a wild week. You’d have to go back to January 6 or Election Day to find anything comparable. I’ve got a dozen articles we intended to run this week but that will have to wait until next week now. I am thankful for my colleagues who turned on a dime and helped us produce the articles needed for this week that we had no idea would be needed for this week.
Ironically, this is the central week of our fall fundraising drive. Even that has not gotten as much attention as it should because publishing the news comes first.
It’s not too late, however! We still urgently need your financial support. We’ve expanded our written content and added new podcasts this year, and all that takes money. Your gift of $50 or $500 (or more!) makes all this possible. We are truly a reader-supported news service.
Thanks for your help even today with a gift to support BNG through our online portal.
Mark Wingfield
Executive Director and Publisher
Baptist News Global