Charlie Kirk’s murder unmasks the myth of the dangerous evangelical

“Christofascist.” “Hateful.” “Violent.”

Leftists have ominously warned for a decade one group of people represent a unique threat to the American experiment: conservative evangelicals.

Progressive elites published book after book, with titles such as “The Violent Take It by Force: The Christian Movement That Is Threatening Our Democracy,” “Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation” and “Christians Against Christianity: How Right-Wing Evangelicals Are Destroying Our Nation and Our Faith.”

One commentator sums up this narrative: Everyday churchgoing Christians who vote Republican and speak their minds are dangerous, “homegrown radicals who prioritize White Christian supremacy over multiracial democracy.”

Antagonism toward politically active Christians has been slowly rising ever since the media freaked out over George W. Bush’s 2000 primary declaration that Christ is his favorite philosopher.

But in the Trump era, this went into overdrive, with left-wing academics, politicians and even some Christian leaders conflating Jan. 6’s worst behavior with Trump-supporting church ladies whose primary concern is finding enough staff for kids’ Sunday school.

The problem, critics might argue, is when Christians get into politics. That’s when their fascism comes out.

Yet the shocking assassination of Christian political activist Charlie Kirk should cause some introspection among those whose hatred for conservatives blinds them to the hate on their own side.

In a tragic irony, the one targeted for death was the supposedly dangerous, conservative, churchgoing Christian who purposely planted himself among a crowd of people he knew disagreed with him.

And the one who killed him was catechized in the language of the left.

I don’t think it’s right or fair to blame every Democrat or left-leaning activist for Kirk’s murder, and like Vice President J.D. Vance, I acknowledge our side has its share of crazies. Ben Shapiro correctly rejected the use of “they” because pronouns don’t kill people; a sick and twisted individual did it. I don’t think it helps preserve the American experiment to demonize half the country. I didn’t like it when President Joe Biden did it, and I don’t think we should do it now. But we have to be honest and admit that much of the recent political violence has come from loners radicalized by the left-wing Internet.

Several recent incidents of left-wing terror include a baseball-game shooting that nearly killed House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and a pro-Palestinian shooter’s alleged killing of two Israeli embassy staffers. Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro was attacked by someone to his left, and Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman was allegedly murdered by a man with a confusing mix of ideological connections.

Political violence, in any direction, is always wrong and should be condemned. Most Democratic public officials have indeed condemned Kirk’s murder in strong terms. Still, too many who hold left-wing views have celebrated Kirk’s assassination, just as they celebrated Brian Thompson’s murder while lionizing his alleged killer, Luigi Mangione, about whom a musical has been written and for whom staffers on Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show showed swooning admiration.

Yet if you listened solely to elites over the last few years, you’d think the only fever swamps of hate and anti-democratic fervor in America exist on the Christian right.

You’d think every single evangelical or Catholic church is a terrorist-training cell.

You’d think the real danger to the republic are the Sunday churchgoing faithful, despite numerous attacks on churches, as well as synagogues, and people of faith in recent years.

One left-wing organization even has a “hate map” that labels anyone slightly to the right of Mitt Romney a menace to the country. Words like “fascist” are routinely wielded against conservatives by people who know better.

This kind of rhetoric has an impact. It cements in the minds of many that ordinary, faithful Christians are not merely ideological opponents but enemies.

The reality is better reflected by the reaction around the country to Kirk’s brutal murder: peaceful prayer vigils, full churches and a generation of young people committed to engaging in open debate with fellow citizens.

Pastors didn’t give a violent call to arms but echoed Charlie’s challenge to go to church and his call to young men to be responsible, get married and start a family. Hardly the stuff of violent revolution.

It can be hard to make sense of events like this. The faith Charlie believed tells us these tragedies happen because we are in a world beset by spiritual darkness. Yet we have hope that one day Christ will make all things new. 

As Utah’s governor so eloquently stated, every one of us has a responsibility to resist political violence, invest in the health of our great country and ensure our differences are worked through debate and political action.

Both conservatives and liberals, right and left, bear responsibility for preserving the American experiment. In our communities, we must see those who disagree with us not as avatars to be crushed but as people with dignity and worth. Perhaps we begin with Lincoln’s immortal words from his first inaugural: “We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies.” We must also find creative solutions to prevent disaffected and lonely actors from being radicalized by the dark regions of the Internet.

Ultimately, America’s issues are not political but moral and spiritual.

Perhaps we might start by abandoning the notion that the people most likely to be on their knees are the problem.

Daniel Darling’s book “In Defense of Christian Patriotism” is out Sept. 30.