CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist, 103d edition. The tragic co-opting of death and politics.

I posted this the other day:

Lex Anteinternet: What's the meaning of Charlie Kirk? Sometimes the...: This is not intended, I'd note, to be a hagiography of any kind for Charlie Kirk.  The populist far right is already trying to do that, ...

I'll note that I'm already tired of commenting on Charlie Kirk and his murder.  I guess I'm like a lot of Americans that way.  But I will note some things here, which I hope will be my last commentary on this event, although it probably will not be.

The first one is that I still really don't know anything about Kirk.

It's becoming increasingly difficult to.  The populist right's latching on to the story, not the man, has created a full blown set of hagiography.  Kirk was a wonderful family man, and a man of God, we're told.  Those not buying into this propaganda, which is now what it's become, have pointed out that he said some really horrific things.  I saw a short clip of an African American pastor lambasting the late Kirk from the pulpit in one effort to address the record.  

Where does this leave us with Kirk's character. . . the real one?

Well, there were things to admire about him, and things to detest, but where he seems to come out is on the end of populism that creeps up on being fascist in some ways.  He's not the only one on the far right who hold those views.

Indeed, National Conservatives and Christian Nationalist come really close in some instances to holding these views, and they have Trump's ear, or more accurately, perhaps, his inattention.

Those who do hold those views appear to be making a dedicated effort not only to form the record, but to suppress anything counter to it.  It's amazing.  We've never been closer to an outright crackdown on dissent in the US than right now.  

I'm also amazed by how people are intermixing religion in this.  

As readers here know, I"m a Catholic and Mrs. Kirk is as well.  Charlie Kirk was headed in that direction.  It'd have been interesting to see what would have happened had he become a Catholic.  I've never been in a Catholic parish that wasn't multiracial.  Catholics have been reminded from time to time that while they are citizens of many nations, they're just passing through.

I support the Second Amendment, I'd note, but one other thing that I'm just baffled with is how some people seemingly must mix things that are political with their religion in odd ways.  One example is the flood of Twitter commentators who are appalled that their pastors didn't mention Kirk last Sunday.  If that's not odd enough, there's this:

This morning I walked into a church I’d never heard of, let alone stepped foot in. I prayed with strangers. I cried with people I’ve never met before. I held hands with them and sang about God. 

The Pastor openly talked about how important our gun rights are. How you cannot legislate against evil. How we cannot be afraid to speak out for fear of consequences from the HR department (this is an actual quote!!). He honored and spoke genuinely about the life and impact of Charlie Kirk for *the entire* service. It was absolutely amazing. 

If I told y’all how improbable it was that of all the churches I could have chosen to attend for the first time in many many many years that it would be this one…and that it would be so perfect…you’d believe me when I say that God absolutely led me there….He led me back home.

The pastor preached on gun right?  He preached on Kirk for the entire service?

This is a very Catholic thing for me to say, but it's bizarre to me in the first instance that Protestants of some denominations will listen for an hour or more to some pastor talk.  This isn't the way Apostolic Faiths work at all. And frankly, only an audience that is fully convinced of what you are saying will listen to that sort of address.  Effective deliveries often tend to be short, and conclude suddenly, leaving the listener with a "oh crud" feeling.

Here's the reading that Catholics, and some others who follow the Latin lectionary, heard last Sunday.

Numbers 21:4b-9

With their patience worn out by the journey,

the people complained against God and Moses,

"Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in this desert,

where there is no food or water?

We are disgusted with this wretched food!"

In punishment the LORD sent among the people saraph serpents,

which bit the people so that many of them died.

Then the people came to Moses and said,

"We have sinned in complaining against the LORD and you.

Pray the LORD to take the serpents from us."

So Moses prayed for the people, and the LORD said to Moses,

"Make a saraph and mount it on a pole,

and if any who have been bitten look at it, they will live."

Moses accordingly made a bronze serpent and mounted it on a pole,

and whenever anyone who had been bitten by a serpent

looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.

Philippians 2:6-11

Brothers and sisters:

Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God,

did not regard equality with God something to be grasped.

Rather, he emptied himself,

taking the form of a slave,

coming in human likeness;

and found human in appearance,

he humbled himself,

becoming obedient to death,

even death on a cross.

Because of this, God greatly exalted him

and bestowed on him the name

that is above every name,

that at the name of Jesus

every knee should bend,

of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

and every tongue confess that

Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.

John 3:13-17

Jesus said to Nicodemus:

"No one has gone up to heaven

except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man.

And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert,

so must the Son of Man be lifted up,

so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life."

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,

so that everyone who believes in him might not perish

but might have eternal life.

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,

but that the world might be saved through him.

As already noted here, it was the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross. Most pastors of the Apostolic Faiths preached on that.

People have a strong tendency to want the Church to reflect their political views.  That's a lot easier for people who are members of Protestant Evangelical churches which are often sort of do it yourself type of faiths.  That doesn't challenge people in the pews at all.  Here locally there's a massive Evangelical congregation which, I know, contains unmarried couples living in sin, people who have multiple marriages, and the like.  They go to hear the Good News, and they should be hearing the Good News.  But part of that news is a person needs to confess and repent.  

We're not hearing much of that out there on the net.

Last edition:

CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist, 102nd edition. Short attention span and a Ballroom Blitz*. And self sabotage.