Insufficient 

Yesterday, we bore witness to horrific videos of Charlie Kirk being shot while speaking at UVU. How awful for him and his family. How awful for our country. 

But I have found so many reactions — including my own, to be insufficient. 

“This means war.” Obviously, this reaction from the far right is deeply troubling and will only lead us to reap more of what was just sown. 

“He deserved it.” This only further codifies the literal hatred, polarization, enemy-ification that has become what feels like an intractable reality in our country. And it just feeds the “this is war” stuff. 

“Killing someone over a disagreement is wrong.” YES! And yet, this seems to miss that this wasn’t just two dudes having a private disagreement. And somehow lets us all off the hook. 

“Please pray for his family.” ABSOLUTELY. I can’t imagine his family seeing him murdered like that. And yet, if that is all we say, we perhaps miss that Kirk was more than just a husband, father, etc. But himself a key participant in the very things that have made our country such a politically energized but also volatile place. 

As Habakkuk once said: “Must I forever see these evil deeds? Why must I watch all this misery? Wherever I look, I see destruction and violence. I am surrounded by people who love to argue and fight.” Habakkuk‬ ‭1‬:‭3‬ ‭NLT‬‬

But I have struggled too. What do I make of all this? How do I respond? Everything has felt like only half true, at best. Everything woefully insufficient. 

I just know this was wrong. But I also know, given our political climate, this was shocking but not entirely surprising (think of the political/ideological shootings in the last couple years, another school was shot up yesterday too). I know we’re gonna  sadly see more. Thank God, I don’t have to always know what to pray.

Researchers say that what we are in now isn’t just around a couple of bad actors, but an ecosystem of political violence. Some factors include: hyper polarization/extremism (which I think may be due to finding our identity in certain ideologies, sides, or figures – fed by online algorithms), media “outrage industrial complex” (how many times have we been fed this borderline R rated video?), grievance culture, conspiracy theories, loneliness and isolation, access to guns. 

When I see a soil such polluted, what comes to my mind are the words of the Apostle Paul: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Romans‬ ‭12‬:‭21‬. These weren’t trite words, he says this after talking about how to respond to your enemies. 

While not the most inspiring, what I know for now is – church, we may not be able to change/fix all this right now (was that ever our job?), but I know this: We can do the OPPOSITE of all those things that are poison the ecosystem of our nation. We can SUBVERT evil with good. As a counterwitness to this awful state of affairs.

Fight extremism with humble listening and rooting our identity in Christ. 

Fight the media outrage industrial complex by turning it off. 

Fight grievance culture through a culture of reconciling grace (which means resolving conflicts). Speaking truth with love.

Fight conspiracy theories with a love for the truth. 

Fight isolation with embodied community (again, hard).

Fight guns with … well, refusing to arm ourselves. 

Insufficient? Probably. But perhaps we can stand as a witness to an another ecosystem.