Charlie Kirk, 9/11 And The Christian’s Response To Outrageous Acts Of Evil

Between yesterday’s assassination and the significance of today’s date on the calendar, today is a day for reflecting on heinous acts of evil. How shall a Christian respond to such acts of evil?

As Doug mentioned in a recent sermon unpacking text from The Apostle John’s first epistle, a Christian is commanded by none other than Christ himself to ‘be angry, but sin not’.

That tells us that anger is not the sin, but rather the wrong application of that anger.

When we are confronted with acts of dizzying cruelty, as we so often are in covering events the news cycle, the natural cry for justice might easily tempt anyone with a heart to feel the outrage to begin a path down terrible roads. Roads that are expressly forbidden to Christians.

Charlie Kirk was a man who would sit sipping his water bottle, engaging in honest exchanges of ideas with students many of whom did not merely disagree with him, but did so in the most profane and insulting of ways. That he was felled by an assassin’s bullet only underscores the vast difference in how he and the other side approached conflict.

The same evil that bubbled up yesterday takes many forms, and feeds many motivations. Twenty-four years ago, it fed a group of man, claiming to act in the name of their god to hijack four airplanes and send them, and some 3000 others to their destruction. But there too, we saw heroics amidst the tragedy, a gulf of difference between the jihadis and the Americans who responded ot an unexpected danger. We might think of Scott Beamer on Flight 93 saving untold lives, and probably Congress itself, at the cost of their own. We might think of first responders rushing into burning buildings to save others, or the crews meticulously searching the wreckage for some small fragment of a lost loved one under what was left of a toppled tower.

We see, too, the endless stream of headlines and videos on social media where a young blond woman bleeds out after being stabbed by a psycho on a train, or a 29yo black woman is found to be murdered in the home of a man out on bail. We see political parties who would rather keep borders open and criminals walking free for personal and political gain than to take the practical steps proven so effective in putting an end to the DC crime wave.

Be angry, but sin not is met with another Christian injunction from the words of Christ himself, as paraphrased in the Message translation:

“You’re familiar with the old written law, ‘Love your friend,’ and its unwritten companion, ‘Hate your enemy.’ I’m challenging that. I’m telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the supple moves of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that.

Some of those who hated Kirk are popping corks at the news of a stranger’s death. Other political insiders treat work-a-day folk as expendable pawns on a political chessboard embracing harmful domestic policies so long as it won’t endanger THEIR job or bring crime to THEIR gated community (we all saw how they NIMBY-d the migrants when they were bussed to Martha’s Vineyard instead of, say, Houston, Chicago, New York, and Philadelphia.

I’ve even seen a tweet where one man praised Allah that Charlie Kirk was dead after ‘disrespecting his religion’.

Is it outrageous and evil to celebrate the murder of a political rival, or how a few angry men forever changed the New York skyline 24 years ago, or the real-world negative consequences of corrupt and callous politicians who are more interested in perpetuating their power than they are serving the interests of the electorate? Those are evils worthy of our anger.

Anger, rightly channeled, can be harnessed for great good. Jesus himself flipped tables and braided a whip to clear out the shysters and crooks that had taken the opportunity of the feast days to fleece pilgrims headed to the temple.

Anger about situations can be harnessed, too. Sending law enforcement to remove known public safety threats from the streets, either to lock them away where they can do no harm, or to send them back to whichever country they came from? Valid.

Despite all evidence to the contrary, the political left already assumes we are angry, bitter, bigoted people who wish harm on anyone not like us. Even that kind of slander is exactly what Jesus told us to expect we’d face. But just because THEY want to make it personal, and elevate policy fights to hot wars along lines of race, religion, politics, and sexual ethics, does not mean WE have. to take the bait.

We can best honor Jesus by taking our bold stands for him and for our general principles in such a way that we can actually persuade rather than attack our persecutors. We win by not becoming the angry, bitter, or bigoted monsters they pretend that we are.

When you persuade one person to receive faith, it costs the Enemy of our Souls twice over. Once because he lost a citizen of the darkness, and once because he has gained himself a dangerous new foe.

We do the something simililar when we persuade political antagonists with sound thinking. Turning an enemy into an ally is winning twice.

As for the horrors of 9/11? Much like the persecutions in Rome where the public saw the courage and injustice of the martyrdom of Christians and faith began to grow in spite of the pagan crackdowns, we are seeing something similar in — would you believe it — Iran!

Did you know the fastest growing sect in Islam is neither Sunni nor Shiite?

Shockingly, Islam is experiencing disfavor with young Muslims and agnosticism is being embraced with the under 30 age group. In Iran, over 60% of the population is under 30.

Also, many Iranians are turning to Jesus Christ in spite of the dangers they face. The numbers are so large that this nation could be at a crucial turning point.

Consider this important statement made by an Iranian cleric earlier in June 2023:

“A senior Iranian cleric says around 50,000 of Iran’s 75,000 mosques are closed, showing the declining numbers of Iranians attending. Expressing regret over the low numbers engaged in worship, Mohammad Doulabi said ‘that the numbers are a worrying admission for a state built around the principles of Islam.’” (https://www.iranintl.com/en/202306027255).

Tom Doyle from Uncharted Ministries says, “It’s part of a broader trend. There’s just not that general excitement, that fervency to spread Islam that we saw when we started going to the Middle East 25 years ago…”

He went on to say, “Muslims in the Middle East are not only turning away from Islam. Many are turning to Jesus. With this powerful move of God sweeping across the world, I believe we are living in the second greatest generation of the church; the first being the early church.” — Uncharted Ministies

And it should go without saying that ‘thoughts and prayers’ are more than mere happy thoughts and good vibes. It is an invocation of the name of God asking him to act on his promises and according to his nature in any given situation.

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