According to Wittgenstein, ‘Whereof we cannot speak, thereof we should remain silent’. This has always seemed wise to me (and it could function quite well as a slogan for Orthodox apophaticism). But recently it has struck me that it could usefully be adapted to ‘Whereof we do not know, thereof we should not speak’.
It seems that today in Western society we rush to judgement. We criticize. We condemn. All before we can possibly have taken the trouble to have grasped all the facts of a situation. The recent murder of Charlie Kirk is a case in point. Because society (and not just American society) has become so polarized, it is tempting to blurt out/rush into print with some definitive statement to reinforce the prejudices of our tribe. Tantalizing snippets of evidence or even mere rumours are seized upon and claimed as clear proof that his killer is a radical left-winger, was motivated by Kirk’s views on the LGBTQ community, and was covertly funded by George Soros. On the other side of the divide, it is seen as a false flag operation or at least a Trumpian Reichstag moment that is being exploited to further Trump’s authoritarian agenda and usher in a new McCarthy era.
I will resist the temptation to speculate on the motive(s) of Kirk’s assassin (establishing those motives is a job for those charged with investigating the killing). But, perhaps because I lean left myself, I can’t resist noting the alacrity with which centre and left-leaning commentators have rushed to whitewash his reputation. Do not speak ill of the dead, perhaps? Or, perhaps more likely, fear of a backlash from Trump and MAGA?
What I want to focus on is the increasing number of Christian commentators who have started referring to him as a ‘Christian martyr’!
Christian martyr? A true Christian martyr is one who dies bearing witness to the gospel of Christ and does so in a Christlike manner. They do not die advocating MAGA talking points (or any other political perspective for that matter). They certainly do not suggest that the appalling number of gun deaths in the USA is a fair price to pay for the maintenance of the American Constitution! And they do not use their rhetorical skills and a bully pulpit to browbeat people.
Christian? Kirk was certainly a Christian nationalist (specifically an advocate of the Seven Mountains Mandate). But ‘Christian nationalist’ is an oxymoron: It denotes one who is a nationalist first and who secondarily wishes to impose (selected) Christian values on their society. In reality, genuine Christian faith is subversive of nationalism (cf. the persecution of the early Christians because they threatened the state of Rome). Those who follow Christ regard themselves as citizens of a kingdom that transcends the national and ethnic divides of fallen humanity. In the words of Stanley Hauerwas, we are ‘resident aliens’.
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