Charlie Kirk: Part 7: Was He a Christian Apologist?

How do we evaluate this? How do we determine if someone was an effective witness of the gospel? We can’t go by conversions – Adoniram Judson was a missionary in Burma for six years before he saw a single convert. David Livingstone reportedly only had one convert in his entire missionary career. But we don’t consider them poor missionaries, do we?

Is it true that someone who claimed a lot of conversions is therefore a great Christian evangelist? I read a story one time about Billy Graham, who was discouraged because later in life his organizations did research, and found only 3-6% of the people who came forward at his crusades were in a worshipping community or church a year later. Was he therefore ineffective?

We don’t really know those answers, so I’m reluctant to judge whether or not Charlie Kirk was a good evangelist. That’s between him and God.

However, I do think we can look at what he focused his life on, and see if spreading the Gospel was the center of it, or something else.

In His Own Words

First of all, it seems that Kirk himself did not consider himself much of an apologist. He certainly did not really claim that in his self-descriptions. In his 2016 book, Time for a Turning Point, God is hardly mentioned. The bio describing Kirk says:

“Charlie Kirk is the Founder and Executive Director of Turning Point USA, a national student movement dedicated to identifying, organizing, and empowering young people to promote the principles of free markets and limited government. Since the inception of Turning Point USA in 2012, Kirk has grown Turning Point USA from nothing to having representation on over 1,100 high schools and college campuses nationwide and a full time field staff of over 75.

The 22 year-old Kirk has appeared on Fox News, CNBC, and FOX Business News over 200 times. In addition to his entrepreneurial political endeavors, Charlie plays every type of saxophone, was captain of his school’s varsity basketball team, and is a proud Eagle Scout.”

A lot in there, but no mention of Jesus, the Church, or even vague references to “faith.”

I have not read the book (though I might in the near future), but to my understanding he does briefly mention God in the book, but said his job as a political activist was not to proselytize his faith. That may be true, but hardly sounds like a person who saw reaching the lost as a primary goal.

The intro is called “Why I write, Why I fight.” There is not one mention of God or Jesus or the Church. (This was in 2016, so let’s give some leeway for growth, but even at that time he was 22 and considered the rising star.) He does however talk a lot about “Team Left.”

So what is he writing about then? A few quotes:

“I’m just a 22 year old who loves individual freedom.”

Well, yeah. What 22 year old doesn’t? We all think that when we’re young, until we grow up and realize real freedom has some limits. That’s kind of what college or the military or getting your first job does for ya.

“Chosen to commit my still early life to fighting to restore an America that was envisioned by our Founding Fathers.”

Ok. Fair enough, but is that the Gospel?

“This deep and abiding belief in free markets and individual liberty is what drove me to start Turning Point USA.”

Again, fair enough, but no mention of God? No mention of faith? No mention of ‘I believe this is God’s view for the good of others’?

Just a quick aside here: Does everything a Christian does have to reference Jesus a certain number of times? I remember Carman was asked one time if he would ever run out of songs about God, and he said, “Does the secular market ever run out of songs about girls?” In other words, when you think about something and you love something, it comes out of you sooner or later. It does seem strange to me that this is a book by someone who is held up as one of the greatest Christian voices of our time, and not one thing about God or Jesus slips through in the beginning?

I want to be clear that I do not think the number of mentions indicates whether or not Kirk was a Christian. But what I do think is important is focus – Was Charlie Kirk’s focus on Jesus and teaching others His Words? Or was it teaching others about conservative politics, and defeating “the Left”?

In 2018 he said there was a separation of church and state, and stood against the Christian “sanctimonious approach” to homosexuality. He said politics should be secular, and that the Christian Right in the 80s was wrong to “impose” their views on others, because “you don’t have to be too offsetting and off-putting.” I’ll let you draw your own conclusions about that.

The Orgs

Alright, what about his organizations? Maybe he himself didn’t focus on Jesus, but I’ve seen people talk about the organizations he founded, Turning Point and its offshoots, as being a great vehicle of the gospel. Does it impact our view of him personally? Kirk himself said he tried to separate himself from the orgs, but in the end, he realized “Turning Point and I share the identical goals.” So let’s look.

I did some googling on his organizations websites and and his personal radio show website: TPUSA.com, theCharlieKirkShow.com, and TPUSAFaith.com. If you are unaware, you can do site specific searches in Google if you format it like this: “jesus site:tpusa.com” I share my methodology here because I want to be clear what I’m referring to. I understand that Kirk did a lot of video work, and that won’t turn up in these searches. It’s possible I’m making a mistake, but this is how I came to my conclusions.

In the last year, the word “Jesus” did not appear once on TPUSA.com . I couldn’t even find one that was for the last five years, aside from saying “Jesus did not endorse sinful lifestyles.” For thecharliekirkshow.com, it was only a handful, most of which were things like “was Jesus a refugee” or something along those lines. That is, they were sometimes talking “about” Jesus, or in my opinion, using Jesus to make a political or cultural point, rather than talking specifically about what Jesus taught. Even on the TPFaith site, the one that is supposed to be focused on faith, Jesus is only used twice, and God less than five. Again, the number of mentions isn’t definitive.

Yet Donald Trump is mentioned hundreds of times on these sites, just in the last year.

Hundreds.

So, I will ask you to consider again, what was the purpose of these organizations? Was is to share Jesus with the world? Was it a great evangelistic or apologetic ministry? Was it Charlie Kirk’s focus? In his two paragraph bio on TPUSA, there’s not one mention of God, the Church, or Christianity.

“With a presence on over 3,500 high school and college campuses nationwide, over 250,000 student members, and over 450 full- and part-time staff all across the country, Turning Point USA is the largest and fastest growing conservative youth activist organization in the country. At just 28-years-old, Charlie has appeared on Fox News, FOX Business News, and CNBC over a thousand times. He’s also a columnist at Newsweek and his writings can be seen on Fox News, The Hill, RealClearPolitics, The Washington Times, Breitbart, American Greatness, Daily Caller, and Human Events. Charlie was named to the Forbes “30 under 30” list, was the youngest speaker at the 2016 Republican National Convention and was the opening speaker at the 2020 RNC. He’s the author of three books including the #1 Amazon and New York Times best seller, “The MAGA Doctrine: The Only Ideas that Will Win the Future” from Broadside Books, an imprint of Harper Collins.

In 2020, Charlie chaired Students for Trump, which activated hundreds of thousands of new college voters through its more than 350 chapters present on campuses in battleground states. His social media reaches over 100 million people per month and Axios has listed Charlie as one of the “top 10 most engaged” Twitter handles in the world. Charlie is the host of “The Charlie Kirk Show” podcast, which regularly ranks among the top 10 shows on Apple News podcast charts, and as of October 2020, Charlie took his podcast to broadcast and became the host of the new, nationally syndicated daily radio show broadcasting on the Salem Radio Network live from 12 – 3 PM ET all across the country.“

The organization’s self-description is:

“Turning point is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded in 2012 by Charlie Kirk. The organization’s mission is to identify, educate, train, and organize students to promote the principles of fiscal responsibility, free markets, and limited government.

We are committed to identifying, educating, training, and organizing students to promote freedom. “

And in another promo:

“Turning Point USA guides citizens through development of knowledge, skills, values, and motivation, so they can meaningfully engage in the communities to restore traditional American values like patriotism, respect for life, liberty, family and fiscal responsibility.”

No mention of God, faith, or neighbor. Once Kirk himself was asked in an interview what he wanted to promote or what he stood for, and he said “traditional values.” I know some people read that and see “Biblical,” but unfortunately, traditional values are usually just “middle class white values,” and that’s not the same as Biblical. (and this is what I’ll be getting to in a second).

Even the “faith” organization, TPFaith, the one that is supposed to be less political and more church focused, is more about using the Church to advance political goals, rather than submission to Christ, love of neighbor, or sacrificing oneself for the enemy. This is their promo line:

“TPUSA Faith exists to unite the Church around primary doctrine and to eliminate wokeism from the American pulpit.”

Whatever you feel about fighting “wokeism,” my friend, it is not the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The site has courses for study, and the Biblical citizenship course is about “Biblical principles for the foundation of freedom in society and must be upheld for America to thrive.” Do you see the concern here? We want to study the Bible, so that we can have freedom and to thrive. We use the Bible to get what we want. My friends, this is the prosperity gospel dressed up as faithfulness.

In another spot:

“TPUSA Faith is dedicated to empowering Christians to put their faith into action. We engage, equip and empower millions of grateful Americans who are prepared to defend our God-given rights, by giving them the tool to expose lies and articulate the connection between Faith and Freedom.”

Again, to me, this feels a lot like using the Church to accomplish temporal goals. Where is submission to others? Where is giving up our possessions to follow Jesus? I mean, in their own words, the want to ‘address America’s crumbling religious foundation by engaging thousands of pastors nationwide’ in order to ‘breathe renewed civic engagement into our churches.’” That sounds a lot more like using the church than leading the church or sharing Jesus.

Speeches

I know people will say, “well, he just wanted to be close to power, so he could speak truth to power.” Ok, I have real doubts about that, but what about when Kirk got a chance to speak to power? He spoke multiple times at large rallies, including CPAC. So I went and watched some of his speeches:

“For years, I came to CPAC and I heard, “If only we had someone that stood up against Iran. If only we could move the embassy. If only we could cut corporate taxes. If only we could have more conservatives on the judicial bench. If only we could deregulate the economy. If only we could rebuild our military. If only we had someone that took immigration seriously. If only we had someone that stood for the flag. If only we had someone that finally called out the relationship between big business and big government and big tech. Folks, we have that president and he’s fighting for us every single day. “

Throughout his speeches, I find almost no mention of God (and no, I didn’t listen to them all. I’m sure there’s something if someone goes looking.) But I find lots of conservative values: lower taxes on business, military, immigration, etc. No mention of Jesus though.

If you spoke there, would Jesus come out of you? What would be the overflow of your heart?

Another quote:

“I get asked quite often, Charlie, what do you see coming from the next generation? And traveling the country and going to these college campuses, I could tell you there’s a lot to be concerned about. The socialist movement is growing, but there’s also a lot to be optimistic about. There’s a culture war brewing right now. And it’s a culture war different from the 80s and 90s. It’s one fundamental question. What is America? Is America a place for victims or for victors? Is America a place where you can achieve your dreams or dwell in mediocrity? Is America a socialist place or is America a place that embraces freedom and is a refuge for those that have flee totalitarian Marxist dictatorships? That will be the question of the 2020 election. It will be the most important culture war in American history and we will win.”

Couple things here: First of all, no, the Republican Party did not win in 2020. And yet, here we are. If it was such an important culture war, how did we survive losing? Keep that in mind the next time an election is coming around and it’s “the most important ever in the history of the universe.”

Secondly, where’s God in this? Where’s Christian love? Where’s loving the neighbor? I suppose we could argue we could say we’re a “refuge for those that have to flee,” but remember this is the same man that said we should have ZERO immigration, so it’s hard to make that argument. Is Christian life about winning and achieving your dreams?

Here’s the thing: I think a lot of Christians would read that and say to themselves, “yes.” “Yes, that is what God will give me. I should have a peaceful and properous life. I should have a country where the majority believes as I do. I should win this culture. I should have my freedom. I should be a victor.”

But we aren’t. We aren’t victors. We are servants. Jesus is the victor. He defeated sin and death, not the Left. Hard as may be to believe, he didn’t even defeat socialism or the LGBTQ agenda. The victory in Jesus is over the sin in me, not the sin in them. It’s about the divide in my own heart, not overcoming the divide in the country. Is it about getting us what we want, or laying down our wants for others?

Did Charlie Kirk preach good news to the poor? Or did he preach good news and comfort to the powerful and wealthy? Did he lay his life in submission, or was he killed in the midst of a battle to “win the culture” to “our side”? When he died, was he on a missions tour, or the “American Comeback Tour”?

Not All Bad

I heard recently that Kirk reportedly told his pastor that he was seeing his work as less political and more as a ministry. Fair enough, I don’t know. But what has he been before that? What was he when all of my conservative Christian friends have been sending me his videos.

Yes, he may have been growing closer in the Lord, he may have been switching to more Christian themes, but isn’t that why Paul says we shouldn’t be too quick to lift young people into ministry leadership? That maybe they are still shifting what they actually believe?

Here is a list of his books:

Time for a Turning Point: Setting a Course Toward Free Markets and Limited Government for Future Generations (2016)
Campus Battlefield: How Conservatives Can WIN the Battle on Campus and Why It Matters (2018)
The MAGA Doctrine: The Only Ideas That Will Win the Future (2020)
The College Scam: How America’s Universities Are Bankrupting and Brainwashing Away the Future of America’s Youth (2022)
Right Wing Revolution: How to Beat the Woke and Save the West (2024)
Stop, in the Name of God: Why Honoring the Sabbath Will Transform Your Life (2025)

You can see that the last one could possibly be a Christian work, but from what I understand it’s more about how a Sabbath can give you more focus, more energy, and so forth. In any case, the majority of his life’s public work was not on the church, the gospel or Jesus. (and just to clarify again, that does not mean I think he wasn’t saved. I don’t know that. I’m referring to output here. )

Why is it a problem for me, or why do I think it’s a problem for the church?

I do believe Charlie Kirk was an apologist, but not for the Biblical faith. His energy, by his own words, by his own actions, by his organizations was put into promoting and defending American Conservative politics. That is not Christian Apologetics, my friends.

People have told me he “staunchly defended the gospel.” I simply do not think that’s true. He may have defended a belief system, but it was not the Gospel of Jesus Christ as described in the New Testament. It was a mix of conservative politics, some fundamentalism, some American nostalgia, and yes, some Bible. That’s what makes it so dangerous.

The mixing of conservatism and Christianity, sometimes to the point that people can’t even distinguish where one ends and the other begins, is the big problem I see in my branch of Christianity. So when people tell me what a great apologist Kirk was, what it says to me is that they also believe in that mixture as the “true” gospel, and I think that is unfaithful to the teachings of Jesus. It means that they, in some small way, were proselytized into this way of thinking and way of seeing Christ and the Church, and I am compelled to speak against it.

Again, it does not mean I think people who espouse this are demonic, or even not Christian. It does mean I think they have been led astray, with good intentions, away from the radical sacrificial life under Christ’s headship. I think we have fallen victim to rhetoric of fear and the longing for an imagined past when “we” were in charge, and the world was as it should be.

And I think Charlie Kirk was a great apologist for that gospel.