Is Charlie Kirk a Christian martyr?

The Public Square
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New Warhorn Media post by Tim Bayly:

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Brother almost done with the podcast. Lots of audio issues especially around 1:35:42 mark.

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We’ve uploaded new audio. Filtering software we use (Auphonic) added audio (Spanish speaker?) and distortion (near the end)!!! Please let me know if it’s still whacked. It will probably take Apple Podcasts some time to update.

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I’ll give it a couple of days and try again

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Sorry, was driving today and teaching tonight. All’s well with the recording, with a big thank you to Andrew Dionne and also Joseph, who fixed the Substack feed.

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Sorry for the sound problems on our latest podcast, “Is Charlie Kirk a Christian martyr?” We’ve fixed things and you can download a clean version, now. (If you’re interested, Auphonic messed things up. But they’re still great.) Out of Our Minds | Is Charlie Kirk a Christian Martyr?

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I don’t think I can trust Auphonic after this mess-up. They explained: “Hallo! Sorry for the troubles, this was a bug due to an update yesterday - it is fixed now!” Adding distortion is one thing…adding audio is unacceptable. I won’t be using them because I don’t want to have to check a 1.5 hour file from them after having already closely worked through the whole thing!

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Here’s a link to my sermon, mentioned in the podcast:

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2 posts were merged into an existing topic: Bayly’s daily

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Dear Andrew, This problem highlights how very much work you do for “Out of Our Minds, and Andrew and I are so grateful and want to thank you, publicly. May God grow New Geneva Academy, blessing your work in this with much fruit.

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I noticed the Spanish at one point and thought it was my phone playing something in a different app. I also couldn’t find it again when I reported the issue. Thanks for your work brother.

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Gentlemen,

Thank you for your work on this podcast.

I wanted to add something to your discussion. I did not watch Kirk’s memorial service. One of the reasons I did not is I expected it to turn into a political rally, and I don’t think turning a man’s funeral into a political rally is appropriate. I credit you men for me having that moral sense by the way.

Ever since Kirk was killed I have thought about the memorial service that was held for Sen Paul Wellstone of Minnesota. This was 2002. He was killed tragically in a plane crash a month before the election. It was very sad.

Wellstone was a liberal Democrat, and whatever place Elizabeth Warren occupies for liberals in the Senate, Wellstone had that place at that time. I don’t remember that he professed Christian faith of any kind.

A big memorial service was held for Wellstone, and the memorial degenerated into a loud and brash political rally. If you didn’t watch it or hear it at the time, just the clips that went around on the news, it’s hard to describe, but it felt wrong. Something was way off about it. Maybe there’s a YouTube clip of it you can look up.

Wellstone had been running for re-election and the race was close. Minnesota is a center left state; you would have thought his Republican opponent was probably going to lose. Instead, the Republican ended up narrowly winning. Minnesota doesn’t normally elect Republicans, but that time it did.

There’s no way to prove it, but the sense of several observers was that turning this man’s funeral into a political rally turned enough voters against the Democrats that the Republican won. Keep in mind this is pre-social media. Maybe people had a sense, however faint, that you’re supposed to mourn. You’re not supposed to go right into your politics as you’re burying someone, even a political figure.

I share it as a cautionary tale and to add to your podcast discussion.

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Didn’t watch it either, but people who’ve mentioned it to me said it was filled with testimony to Jesus Christ. Praise the Lord!

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Some of the speakers were more overtly political (and to me it seems silly to ding President Trump for getting into politics there), but the most obviously gospel-focused speakers stayed pretty well out of politics. And they were the majority of speakers.

Repentance. The resurrection. Proclamation of Jesus as Savior. At an event with such massive viewership.

Was it perfect? No, and show me a service in any of our churches that is.

But the focus on Jesus as Savior and Lord and the need to trust in him was unlike anything I’ve ever seen in public life. I’m not sure I’ve been to many pastors gatherings that had that boldness and focus on the Savior. That should make us put bags on our heads and spur us to greater repentance and faithfulness rather than complain about how imperfect it was.

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I spoke with Joseph today at our kids’ school.

I told him that Charlie Kirk’s death lit a bit of a fire in me. I had long wanted to go to Northern Kentucky University (a 7 minute drive away from my church) to preach the Gospel, but I never did because of “life” or whatever excuse I came up with on any particular day.

The Tuesday after Charlie died, I went and read Scripture out loud outside of the student union. I got to have some one on one conversations with some students and I had an opportunity to encourage an adjunct professor in NKU’s music school to be a faithful witness to his students, but to be wise and precise with his words in a way that wouldn’t cost him his means of providing for his young and growing family.

This past Tuesday, I went again with an older man in our church. I preached while he handed out invitations to church and Gospel tracts. This same older man has started going door to door inviting people in the neighborhood to church. A husband and wife three doors down from our church has come the last two weeks because of his efforts and I pray that our efforts at NKU will yield tangible results that will encourage us to keep at it.

A couple of random thoughts. 1) “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church” -Tertullian. 2) The harvest is plentiful. This is always true, but I’m convinced that there is a unique opportunity to reach people, especially young people, with the Gospel right now. I sense an increasing desire in my congregation to make Christ known, and I’m thankful for that.

Joseph wanted me to log in here and respond to a comment about the efforts going on in my church, but after spending the last 30 minutes searching for the comment or comments he was referencing, I decided to just post it here.

I’ll try to remind myself to stop by here more often.

Love,
Alex Costa

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Apparently that conversation https://sanity.warhornmedia.com/t/responding-to-charlie-kirk-pastorally/4273/2 is in Hrothgar’s Hall. Here is a link for anyone who isn’t a citizen yet: Citizen invitation. Just click “Request” at the top of the page.