Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk was a true leader for Christian, conservative values and a mighty soldier in the culture war against leftist ideology. For that, he was assassinated on September 10 at a campus event in Utah.
Pastor Rich Lusk joined "1819 News: The Podcast" recently to discuss Kirk's impact on the culture and how his supporters can carry on his legacy with courage.
Lusk, who pastors Trinity Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, said Kirk wasn't afraid to mix religion and politics, using one as a platform for the other.
"He would have these debates, and he would move seamlessly back and forth between his political views and the gospel," Lusk said. "So instead of saying, I've got to keep the culture war separate from evangelism, the culture war actually became a platform for doing evangelism. And I think he was so much more effective than those evangelical leaders and others who have said we've got to keep these things separate because we don't want to offend anybody. But I think part of what happened because of that, because of Charlie's approach, is that people saw that the Christian faith answers not only what we might consider theological questions, it answers the big salvation question."
In his words and actions, Kirk embodied the courage necessary to reclaim the culture and turn the country around. His success in shaping young minds is what led to his murder, Lusk said.
"We do have a culture full of cowards... Cowardice got us into this mess, so it'll take courage to get us out," he said, identifying attacks on masculinity and "addiction to safetyism" as the root cause of cowardice and fear in America.
"We have attacked masculinity, and we have branded all expressions of masculinity, all overt displays of masculinity as toxic," he said. "And courage is primarily a masculine virtue. That doesn't mean women don't need to show courage. They do. But courage is especially expected of our men to carry out their manly responsibilities."
He continued, "Charlie Kirk was doing something dangerous all the time. If Charlie wanted to play it safe, he never would have stepped foot on a college campus as a conservative. I can tell you, when leftists set foot on a college campus, they're perfectly safe."
Lusk said more pastors need to overcome their cowardice and not hide behind political neutrality, especially when it comes to addressing the evil that led to Kirk's assassination.
"If your pastor has not declared war on progressivism and feminism, and let's just say safetyism and socialism and transgenderism and Marxism and pro-choiceism, that's, I guess, just basically feminism," he said. "We can go on and on, but if your pastor hasn't declared war on those things, it's time to find a new church because if your pastor can't see it now, he's never going to see it; it's too late."
He added, "My guess is the same pastors who would not mention what happened with Charlie Kirk, his martyrdom, the most important Christian leader in the public square, at least for young people, was slain. You know, he was martyred. If you're the kind of pastors who wouldn't mention that last Sunday, you are probably the kind of pastors who did mention the whole George Floyd thing."
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