{"id":22926,"date":"2024-06-18T11:21:05","date_gmt":"2024-06-18T15:21:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=22926"},"modified":"2024-06-18T11:21:05","modified_gmt":"2024-06-18T15:21:05","slug":"charlie-kirk-who-once-pushed-a-secular-worldview-now-fights-to-make-america-christian-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/06\/charlie-kirk-who-once-pushed-a-secular-worldview-now-fights-to-make-america-christian-again","title":{"rendered":"Charlie Kirk, Who Once Pushed a &#8216;Secular Worldview,&#8217; Now Fights to Make America Christian Again"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_22935\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-22935\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2024\/06\/charlie-kirk-credit-valerio-pucci-shutterstock.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-22935\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2024\/06\/charlie-kirk-credit-valerio-pucci-shutterstock.jpg\" alt=\"charlie kirk\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-22935\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Valerio Pucci\/Shutterstock.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In 2018, Charlie Kirk, a right-wing provocateur who founded the conservative activist group Turning Point USA, strongly criticized the evangelical political movement he now helps lead. Known then for primarily his work mobilizing college-age Republicans, Kirk described Jesus as tolerant and welcoming and denounced Christians\u2019 \u201csanctimonious approach\u201d to homosexuality and other issues. He argued politics should be advanced through a \u201csecular worldview\u201d and slammed attempts by the evangelical right, starting in the 1970s, to \u201cimpose\u201d their version of morality \u201cthrough government policy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kirk told the conservative commentator Dave Rubin\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?si=VF856Rmm1qs_1GGq&amp;t=166&amp;v=FhCKfxy83BQ&amp;feature=youtu.be\">in 2018<\/a>, \u201cWe do have a separation of church and state, and we should support that.\u201d Kirk, now 30, has since reversed his position. It\u2019s a transformation that, according to political and religious scholars, embodies and reinforces a growing embrace of Christian nationalist thinking within the Republican Party in the era of Donald Trump. \u201cThere is no separation of church and state,\u201d\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediamatters.org\/charlie-kirk\/charlie-kirk-there-no-separation-church-and-state\">Kirk said<\/a>\u00a0on his podcast in 2022. \u201cIt\u2019s a fabrication. It\u2019s a fiction. It\u2019s not in the Constitution. It\u2019s made up by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/family\/archive\/2024\/05\/conservative-parent-activism-public-school\/678309\/\">secular humanists<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Today, Kirk and Turning Point are dominant forces in the Republican Party and MAGA movement, working directly with the Trump campaign\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2024\/06\/07\/nx-s1-4992927\/trump-turns-over-many-campaign-responsibilities-to-outside-group-turning-point-usa\">on voter outreach<\/a>\u00a0while reaching millions of listeners through Kirk\u2019s daily radio show and podcast. Along the way, Kirk has become one of the nation\u2019s most prominent voices calling on Christians to view conservative political activism as central to Jesus\u2019 calling for their lives.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/apSBPCRIuks?si=BysGDpenW0J_XRXA\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Kirk routinely rails against what he calls the \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/charliekirk11\/status\/1646232802856407040?lang=en\">LGBTQ agenda<\/a>,\u201d which he claims is harming children. He has\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/c-WiaPPxIHc?si=B708ERcwoPPCRR3W&amp;t=813\">invoked<\/a>\u00a0the Seven Mountains Mandate, a philosophy\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/religioninpublic.blog\/2024\/05\/13\/belief-in-the-7-mountain-mandate-appears-to-be-growing-in-the-last-year\/\">increasingly popular<\/a>\u00a0among Trump supporters that calls on conservative Christians to claim positions of power in seven key mountains of society, including government, media, business and education. He also promotes Trump as being crucial to restoring Christian morality in America. \u201cI worship a God that defeats evil,\u201d Kirk said while introducing the former president at a rally hosted by Turning Point and the Trump campaign at an Arizona megachurch. \u201cAnd we worship a God that wins in the end.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>By appealing to conservative Christians\u2019 fears of shifting cultural norms around LGBTQ acceptance and by portraying the election as part of a spiritual struggle, Kirk and Turning Point are banking that they can drive evangelical turnout to secure Trump victories in key swing states. But extremism experts warn that this framing \u2014 the idea Trump is on a mission from God to restore Christian righteousness in America \u2014 could lead followers to take radical action if he doesn\u2019t prevail in November.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s this growing sense that American politics are so broken,\u201d said Paul Matzko, a historian of American conservatism, \u201cthat there\u2019s a decreasing willingness to imagine the other side being allowed to exercise power without doing it in apocalyptic terms, which fuels things like the insurrection on Jan. 6.\u201d Kirk\u2019s organization\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/man-charged-capitol-riot-went-dc-bus-turning-point-usa-2021-3\">bused supporters<\/a>\u00a0to Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021, to rally Congress to reject the presidential election outcome.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 2018, Charlie Kirk, a right-wing provocateur who founded the conservative activist group Turning Point USA, strongly criticized the evangelical political movement he now helps lead. Known then for primarily his work mobilizing college-age Republicans, Kirk described Jesus as tolerant and welcoming and denounced Christians\u2019 \u201csanctimonious approach\u201d to homosexuality and other issues. He argued politics&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":657,"featured_media":22935,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2444,32,2140,4,8],"tags":[3945,2420],"class_list":["post-22926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-america","category-christian","category-election-center","category-faith","category-news","tag-charlie-kirk","tag-election"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Charlie Kirk, Who Once Pushed a &#039;Secular Worldview,&#039; Now Fights to Make America Christian Again<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In 2018, Charlie Kirk, who founded the conservative activist group Turning Point USA, strongly criticized the evangelical political movement he now leads.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" 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