(RNS) — In the wake of Sunday’s memorial service for Charlie Kirk (Sept. 21), New York Times columnist David French tried to explain how a stadium packed with evangelical Christians could at once applaud Erika Kirk’s moving forgiveness of her husband’s assassin and the declarations of hatred for their enemies by President Trump and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller.
The two reactions, French wrote, displayed “the best and worst of MAGA Christianity.” The former was grounded on Jesus’ injunction in the Sermon on the Mount to love your enemies, while the latter expressed a “dangerous distortion” of St. Paul’s assertion in his Letter to the Romans that rulers are charged by God with punishing wrongdoing.
Paul’s message to the early Christian communities was that they should regard government (not least the one that had executed their savior) as divinely authorized, and that therefore they should obey the laws, pay their taxes and give rulers due respect and honor. It’s a message that American clergy who favored independence from England had to work around in order to justify rebellion against King George.
So it was a bit of a distortion when, at the memorial service, political commentator Benny Johnson characterized Paul’s charge in Romans as applying to “a godly government instituted by our savior.” When Johnson said he wanted “to live in a country where the evil are terrified” and thanked members of the federal government in the audience for “wielding the sword against evil,” he was hearkening less to Paul’s representation of governmental authority than to a different New Testament message — one that was far more prevalent at the service.
“It’s not a political war, it’s not a culture war, it’s a spiritual war,” said Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. Kirk “embodied the MAGA warrior,” said the director of the White House Personnel Office, Sergio Gor. “Every one of us needs to be a warrior like Charlie,” said National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard. “Are you ready to put on the full armor of God and face the evil in high places and the spiritual warfare before us?,” asked alt-right commentator Jack Posobiec.
Jack Posobiec holds up a rosary as he speaks at a memorial for conservative activist Charlie Kirk, Sunday, Sept. 21, 2025, at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Posobiec’s image comes from the Letter to the Ephesians, in sentences that encapsulate the worldview of Christian nationalist enterprises, notably leaders of a movement called the New Apostolic Reformation: “Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes,” Paul wrote in Ephesians. “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”
Or as Stephen Miller put it, “We are on the side of God … We will defeat the forces of darkness and evil.”
Kirk himself seemed anxious to bridge the divide between the politics of spiritual warfare that he pursued on behalf of the Republican Party and the beatific vision of the Sermon on the Mount. “He would tell me to pray for my enemies,” said JD Vance. “He would tell me to put on the full armor of God and get to work.”
In her remarks, Erika Kirk steered clear of martial imagery, preferring instead to quote the words of Christ on the cross: “Forgive them for they know not what they do.”
Under the circumstances, you can understand President Donald Trump’s ad-libbed pushback against the gospel of love. (“That’s where I disagreed with Charlie. I hate my opponents and I don’t want the best for them.”) The success of Turning Point USA had a lot more to do with Ephesians than with the Sermon on the Mount. With Erika as its new CEO, it may not be the political force it was under Charlie.