In the wake of his assassination, 90,000 people were in attendance the day of the Glendale, Arizona vigil for Charlie Kirk. President Trump, JD Vance and RFK Jr. were just a few of the notables in attendance. American politics has a unique and long history of assassination. However, at that rally, Kirk was compared to neither Lincoln nor Lennon. Instead, the leaders of our country likened him to Jesus. RFK Jr., in the most literal of terms, compared the death of Kirk to the death of Christ, saying his death “changed the trajectory of history” just as Jesus’ death did.
The Republicans, amidst pushing a narrative that characterizes them as the Christian party, have simultaneously descended into borderline blasphemy. No RFK, Kirk cannot be compared to Christ.
I don’t know how appreciative Christ would be after being compared to someone who supported the bombing and genocide in the Christian homeland. In the same memorial, Trump referred to Kirk as a “martyr” — someone who dies for their religious beliefs — “for American freedom.” It’s more than a stretch to call someone a martyr when much of their preaching was based on hatred and division. I mean, Donald Trump, who is a member of this supposedly Christian party, righteously stated at Kirk’s memorial: “That’s where I disagree with [Kirk] … I hate my opponent and don’t want the best for them.”
Despite Trump’s testimonial, it’s not at all crazy to say that Kirk held much the same viewpoint. After all, there are countless videos and quotes of him using racial slurs, being apologetic of gun violence in order to keep the “second amendment to protect our God-given rights” and openly expressing his distaste towards anyone who disagreed with him. Having grown up in the church, and still regularly attending, I don’t remember a single Sunday service or verse in the Bible encouraging this level of animosity.
Regardless of denomination, the core teachings of Jesus Christ are love, compassion and empathy. Most Christians would agree that life well lived is built on these foundational principles, but in MAGA’s brand of conservative Christianity I’ve noticed that a majority of its members fail to display — or even denounce — these Christ-like values. Instead, they choose to self-promote and self-aggrandize. With MAGA’s hostile yet non-secular presence in America, it is becoming more and more common that non-Christians associate Christianity with hate and exclusion. In order to oppose MAGA’s co-opting and perversion of the name of Christianity, there is no higher use of our time, even as Christians, than to vehemently support the separation of church and state.
MAGA, more and more so, seems to practice political idolatry with figures like Trump, and now Kirk. Yet isn’t one of the ten commandments “you shall have no other God?”
MAGA conservatism flies in the face of this commandment with the quantity of praise, even worship, its followers have for Trump and his truly anti-Christian agenda. The MAGA party itself is slowly beginning to take its “Christian” views and branch off to create a whole new religion that puts Trump and other party loyalists on the same pedestal as Christ. This blasphemy-by-definition is alarming, but I think one of the greater points of concern is the fact that Trump and his cronies, despite their ascent to conservative Christian demi-god status, do not display any semblance of the human decency that Christ preached. The fundamentals of Christianity and the MAGA ideology cannot and will never be comparable to each other. MAGA’s members revere the example of Trump, whose agenda is built on the idea of domination and exclusion of outsiders. Captioning a video of immigrants in shackles, “ASMR: Illegal alien deportation flight,” and posting it on the official White House account doesn’t seem like it fulfills any part of Christ’s teachings, yet MAGA supremacists eat it up.
Christ teaches compassion and kindness towards others, while MAGA embraces power, fear and hatred as a way to control and divide. The MAGA party cannot claim to be devoted members of the church while also supporting everything that the church condemns.
Christianity is one of the largest religions in the world, but in order for Americans to really understand Christ’s ideology, there must be a recognition that MAGA conservatism does not align with a single thing said in the Bible. In a speech given as part of the U.N. meeting on Sept. 23, Trump decried his view that Christians were “the most persecuted religious denomination in the world.” While there’s no doubt that thousands of Christians around the world face violence and discrimination, Trump needs to acknowledge that his hateful, distorted Christian agenda only fuels more hostility towards the religion, further injuring those who strive to follow the teachings of Christianity. Throughout his presidency, Trump has done so much to spread his own hateful political agenda while calling it “Christian teachings” that he has painted Christianity with a label of hate and cruelty.
The lines between church and state have become more blurred than ever, but the “church” that is invading the state is one that Trump created in order to implement his hateful agenda. Pushing towards the separation of church and state is crucial in a time when our nation is governed by an anti-Christian agenda masked behind false preaching.
To “love thy neighbor” was one of Christ’s greatest commandments, and this is just one of the many teachings that stand in direct opposition to the hostility and division promoted by MAGA conservatism. Yes, Kirk was brutally and senselessly murdered in front of a crowd of innocent onlookers. But to be very clear, this was not martyrdom. Kirk was not the reincarnation of Christ, nor is Trump. Both are just people who think that practicing empathy “does a lot of damage” and who need to learn how to be decent human beings.
Resisting MAGA conservatism’s false Christian teachings is an essential step in separating church and state. MAGA conservatism has brought a surge of hateful ideology to our nation, and in a time when we need love, compassion and empathy more than ever. To call this hate ‘Christian values’ is simply setting our nation up for moral decay.
Ansley Kang SC ’29 has concepts of an article for the next issue.
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