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As almost everybody knows by now: just a few days ago (at the time of this writing), Charlie Kirk was shot and killed.
It’s depressing to think about it, but throughout human history we’ve been killing each other. Wherever there are human beings, there are murders, executions, assassinations, and wars. Among some groups, people are eager to point out that the Christian church has been responsible for the deaths of large numbers of people. And that’s true! The Inquisition, the Crusades, and other church undertakings have indeed resulted in a substantial number of deaths. (Sources cited in the notes section below.)
But there’s an enormous difference between those killed down through history by the church’s authority, and those killed by the authority of government organizations whose atheism was central to their ideology. For instance, the Crusades were primarily defensive with the goal of protecting pilgrims and holy sites from invading armies. The Inquisition was mainly a judicial process aimed at rooting out heresy at a time when heresy was a crime in the eyes of both church and state. There were massive abuses and tragic loss of life to be sure; The Spanish Inquisition alone, regarded as the harshest of the inquisitions, saw anywhere from 3,000 to 5,000 executions in its 350 year period. The Crusades saw the deaths of between 1 and 3 million in the nearly 200 years they were happening.
Now, let’s compare that to the killings committed in the name of atheistic governments. The difference is staggering.
Mao Zedong was the leader of one such government: “Mao’s policies resulted in the deaths of tens of millions of people in China during his tenure, mainly due to starvation, but also through persecution, prison labor, and mass executions” (Wikipedia). The estimated number is anywhere from 30 to 80 million. Pol Pot was another such leader; he killed almost 25% of his own citizens in Cambodia, the number between 1.5 and 2 million. And according to official records from the Soviet archives, about 3.3 million people were victims of Joseph Stalin, which is pretty widely recognized to be a very low estimate. The general historical consensus is that the number is closer to 15-20 million, with at least one Soviet historian on record saying the number is at least 17 million (Sources cited in the notes section below).
Why so many? Why did these atheistic governments kill millions of their own people?
I have to say, I don’t find it surprising. Without a belief in God, and by extension that human beings are created in God’s image, a human being is nothing more than one animal among many. And if an animal becomes a problem, an acceptable solution is to kill that animal. I’ve said it before: atheism opens all the doors to all the dark places. These atheistic governments subscribed to the idea that eliminating people with opposing political views was simply necessary. Their actions were completely consistent with their atheistic ideology: no God, no soul, no reason not to kill those who “cause trouble.”
An ideology that’s in complete opposition of Jesus’ command for us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us.
Without the Imago Dei and the commands of Christ, society devolves into Nietzsche’s will to power, and whatever is necessary to achieve your ends is permissible. Without the Imago Dei and the commands of Christ, we’re left with chaos — chaos of the sort that results in a culture of death, a culture that says it’s okay to hurt or even kill someone because he’s “other.” We see it in atheistic governments. We see it in laws that permit mothers to kill their own unborn children. We see it wherever people kill those who hold different political ideals.
Whatever your thoughts about Charlie Kirk and his ideas, I hope you’re on the side of condemning the act of violence against him.
Jesus is opposed to a culture of death. Jesus said of himself, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” (John 14:6)
I hope you’re on the side of life.
I hope you’re on the side of Jesus.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?” (Jesus Christ, Matthew 5:43-46)
Notes and References:
Spanish Inquisition, Wikipedia
Crusades, Wikipedia
Mao Zedong, Wikipedia
Cambodian Genocide, Wikipedia
Excess Mortality in the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin, Wikipedia
Friedrich Nietzsche, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
French Revolution, Wikipedia
Martyrs of Compiègne, Wikipedia
The Blessed Carmelite Martyrs of Compiègne, Carmelite Nuns of Great Britain
Political Polarization in the United States, Wikipedia
Motivated numeracy and enlightened self-government, Cambridge University Press
Image of Charlie Kirk via Gage Skidmore on flickr–Creative Commons
https://www.ereticopedia.org/printer–friendly/number-of-victims-spanish-inquisition for more information on the Spanish Inquisition
https://www.upi.com/Archives/1988/11/24/Soviet-historian-says-Stalin-reign-caused-17-million-deaths/4245596350800 A Soviet historian on how many Stalin killed
As an aside, I found this information about polarization from Wikipedia to be fascinating:
Affective polarization is closely related to political tribalism and “us-them” thinking. There is mounting psychological evidence that humans are hardwired to display loyalty towards in-groups and hostility and distrust towards out-groups, however they are defined.[25] One way to describe this is to say that humans evolved to be partial empathizers, ready to empathize with those from whom they can expect reciprocity, while being incredibly skeptical towards outsiders.[26] Recent research has shown that the interplay between out-group hostility and in-group empathy can in fact be the driver of ideological ideological polarization.[4] Indeed, many of our cognitive biases and failures of reason can be traced directly back to our apparent need to defend our group against threats, even when those threats consist mainly of ideas and words.[27] Motivated reasoning and confirmation bias (or myside bias) help to explain the cognitive blindspots that lead us to dismiss or discredit challenging information while granting unwarranted credence to information that supports our pre-existing views.[28][29][30]
For example, in one study, subjects were asked to evaluate “neutral” quantitative data regarding the efficacy of skin cream. In this treatment, subjects’ performance was determined simply by their numeracy, that is, their mathematical skill level. In a second treatment, however, subjects were presented with data concerning the efficacy of gun control laws. Partisans performed much more poorly when asked to evaluate data that challenged their pre-existing views about gun control laws; moreover, high mathematical skill levels did not prevent this. In fact, those who had the strongest mathematical skills were best able to rationalize a false interpretation of the data that conformed with their pre-existing views.[31] Similarly, Americans’ views on gun control seem to stem almost entirely from their cultural worldview and how they position themselves in that cultural schema; statistics do not persuade them to change their minds.[32] In fact, cognitive scientists Mercier and Sperber argue that human reason did not evolve in order to produce logical arguments, but rather to finesse social relationships. On this view, the evolutionary purpose of reason is not truth but rather persuasion and collaboration.[33] These studies suggest that our social and partisan identities (often discussed in the context of identity politics) affect the ways in which we engage information and may sometimes drive political polarization.[34]
The Love Like Jesus Book
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Love Like Jesus: How Jesus Loved People (and how you can love like Jesus)
In this heartfelt, Scripture-rich journey, Kurt Bennett invites you to study not just the words of Jesus, but His actions—His love, His mercy, His boundaries, and even His naps.
Honest. Practical. Deeply human.
Love Like Jesus begins with the story of how after a life of regular church attendance and Bible study, Bennett was challenged by a pastor to study Jesus. That led to an obsessive seven year deep dive. After pouring over Jesus’ every interaction with another human being, he realized he was doing a much better job of studying Jesus’ words than he was following Jesus’ words and example. The honest and fearless revelations of Bennett’s own moral failures affirm he wrote this book for himself as much as for others. Love Like Jesus examines a variety of stories, examples, and research, including:
- Specific examples of how Jesus communicated God’s love to others.
- How Jesus demonstrated all five of Gary Chapman’s love languages (and how you can too).
- The story of how Billy Graham extended Christ’s extraordinary love and grace toward a man who misrepresented Jesus to millions.
- How to respond to critics the way Jesus did.
- How to love unlovable people the way Jesus did.
- How to survive a life of loving like Jesus (or how not to become a Christian doormat).
- How Jesus didn’t love everyone the same (and why you shouldn’t either).
- How Jesus guarded his heart by taking care of himself–he even napped–and why you should do the same.
- How Jesus loved his betrayer Judas, even to the very end.
With genuine unfiltered honesty, Love Like Jesus, shows you how to live a life according to God’s definition of success: A life of loving God well, and loving the people around you well too.
A life of loving like Jesus.
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Now you can take Love Like Jesus with you wherever life happens.
We recently released the audiobook version, beautifully narrated by Jonathan St. John. And it’s available on the following platforms:
It’s also available on Amazon, Hoopla, Audiobooksnow, Chirp, Libro, Overdrive, and virtually everywhere audiobooks are offered.
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