September 11, 2025 • 33 mins
On this episode of The Kylee Cast, Federalist Managing Editor Kylee Griswold honors Charlie Kirk's faith, life, and legacy and addresses what's next for everyone left behind. Plus, Rev. Hans Fiene shares how, like Kirk, you too can be assured of life after death.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hi, everybody, and welcome to the Kylie Cast. Today is
a horrible day. The world today is truly a different
place than it was yesterday, and that's because yesterday, Charlie
Kirk was taken from this world violently, sadly, and suddenly
at the hands of an assassin who fired a single
(00:23):
fatal shot during a turning point event on the campus
of Utah Valley University. Charlie Kirk was a thirty one
year old, devoted and faithful husband, a loving father to
two beautiful children, an outspoken Christian, a stalwart Conservative, and
a true patriot in every sense of the word. I
(00:45):
didn't know Charlie Kirk personally, we weren't friends, but my
life and my beliefs have no doubt been shaped by
Charlie's just massive influence on the conservative movement. Many of
my friends were brought into the movement by Charlie Kirk
and his organization. And it's just remarkable to watch the
maturity of Charlie Kirk as a leader, as a Christian,
(01:05):
and as a father. Since his firebrand days of being
a teenager in the public eye, Charlie Kirk turned into
such an important figure for the make America Great Again
movement such an important figure for conservatism broadly. He had
a way of guiding people back to reality on a
whole range of topics. He talked frequently about things like
(01:26):
abortion in euthanasia. He basically educated gen Z on the
founding of our great country when public schools failed them.
He reiterated often that boys are boys, girls are girls.
Boys cannot become girls and girls cannot become boys. He
opposed the institutional racism of the diversity, equity and Inclusion complex,
(01:46):
and also oppose the violence and the racism of the
Black Lives Matter movement. He condemned law fair and champion
law and order. He helped move our foreign policy away
from the old way of shutting down debate and into
a far more productive way of thinking. He fought warmongers
and censors and propagandists and the swamp, and he did
it all with a smile. He advocated for secure elections,
(02:08):
and he helped define what America First really means. He
really helped reshape the Republican Party as a whole, and
Democrats hated him for all of this because he was
a force to be reckoned with. And while some people
are now using this horrific assassination as evidence that the
Charlie Kirk approached to civic debate didn't work. I would
argue that his death proves the exact opposite. People don't
(02:31):
get assassinated like this unless they're effective. At the same time,
there's still this somber sense that if there was an
off ramp for political violence, Charlie Kirk was it. He
courageously and calmly engaged his opponents in dialogue, and yet
he was still murdered for it. So we're left with
this feeling that something has changed. Nobody knows what's coming,
(02:52):
but we're all unsettled, like we've crossed a cultural rubicon,
like we've crossed a point of no return, like we
need to do something. And I think the fact that
today is the twenty fourth anniversary of nine to eleven
just adds to this feeling, because in many ways, this
seems like a similar Lynchpin moment that's going to change everything,
which is kind of waiting for the next shoe to drop.
And I think one of the reasons it's so hard
(03:14):
and unsettling is that Charlie Kirk wasn't a fringe figure
in any sense. Of the word. He wasn't an extremist,
he wasn't a radical. He was a normy. He was
a civilian Christian dad. He held no actual political power,
and he shared the same ideas as half the country,
the same ideas as you and I and many of
our friends and loved ones. And so it all just
(03:34):
feels so very close to home. I really resonated with
these words from Mark Hemingway today in The Federalist. He said, quote,
I do not want to live in a society where
half the country simply uses whatever power is available to
them to go after the other half. I do not
believe the average Democrat voter believes that successfully engaging in
good faith debates on college campuses Warren's death. But and
(03:58):
I am hardly alone here. I am increasingly concerned that
there are forces on the left that cannot be debated.
They must be made to feel pain until they stop.
I pray that this can be done within the bounds
of the law and the constitution, not that the left
has much cared about those restraints.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
End quote.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
He makes a really good point. But I think in
moments like this we need to take a lesson from
Charlie himself. Back in June, Charlie Kirk tweeted, quote, when
things are moving very fast and people are losing their minds,
it's important to stay grounded, turn off your phone, read scripture,
spend time with friends, and remember Internet fury is not
(04:36):
real life. It's going to be okay. End quote. So
even though we are sick of negotiating with left wing terrorists,
and it truly feels many days like we're at war,
we really really need to be thoughtful and prudent and
prayerful about how we respond in this very frought moment.
First off, we need to resist any temptation to violence ourselves,
(04:57):
and we need our anger, although it's wholly justified and
even righteous, to be productive, not just cathartic. So how
do we do that? Well, there's political power conservatives absolutely
need to wield. Trump was right to call this attack
not only an assassination but terrorism, and we need to
treat it like that. Violent left wing organizations such as
Antifa and George Soros and Goo's should be investigated and
(05:20):
brought to heal. Follow the money, hit them with RICO charges,
throw them in prison, use whatever tools we have at
our disposal. This is a nothing short of organized crime.
The media also need to face a serious reckoning, and
the federal government should be combing through their lives and
finances with a fine tooth comb. People need to be
not only fired, but also never taken seriously ever again.
(05:43):
Matthew Dowd's firing was a start, but only the bare minimum.
Just in the past day, Jensaki blamed Trump for escalating
the situation. ABC's Kyra Phillips tried to justify the attack,
and Katie Tourists coverage was despicable and there is plenty
more where that came from. After law enforcement found the murder,
weis including rounds of ammunition that had been reportedly engraved
(06:03):
with Antifa and transgender ideology, CNN obscured those facts with
a headline that read quote federal officials probe rifle and
AMMO scrolled with cultural phrases after Charlie Kirk killing end quote.
And this is while Democrats, including even former President Barack
Obama himself, continue to scratch their heads and pretend that
(06:24):
we can't possibly discern a motive for this literal assassination.
Speaking of the AMMO engravings, Republican lawmakers also seriously need
to do something about transgender ideology. We've all seen where
affirming people in their mentally ill delusions and then pumping
them full of hormones leads, and it is nowhere good.
The doctors and teachers and administrators and parents who indulge
(06:45):
these fantasies should be held criminally liable. No more. American
schools and cities and families cannot be playgrounds for mentally
ill activists to carry out their fantasies and experiments were done.
There are also productive responses we should have on a
cultural and individual level. We need to hold people to account.
Make it hard for them to celebrate his death. When
(07:08):
you see people you know grave dancing online or laughing
about how Charlie Kirk deserved what happened to him, don't
be silent. Speak up. This is honestly why the Yankees'
response to the assassination was so important and so powerful.
It shouldn't be normal and easy for people and organizations
to hang transgender and BLM flags, but unheard of to
expect them to mourn death. Okay, this is a cultural
(07:29):
tide that needs turning. But more than any of these
other responses, we must pray for Charlie's wife, and his
dear children, for this country and our social bonds, for
Christians to be courageous, and for non Christians to repent
and believe the gospel. We need to pray for wisdom
for Donald Trump and members of Congress and law enforcement.
We must pray for justice and prudence and for self control.
(07:52):
Pray for more Charlie Kirks to rise up and take
the torch. And most importantly, I cannot stress this enough.
If you don't know Jesus personally, then you should pray
in repentance and faith for salvation. The apostle Paul wrote, quote,
if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is the Lord,
and believe in your heart that God raised him from
the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart
(08:15):
one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one
confesses and is saved. End quote. So please do not
just admire Charlie Kirk's faith from afar. Christianity is not
a spectator sport. Call out to God and receive his
salvation as your own. Repent and believe the gospel today.
It's simply the good news that there is a God
and you are not him. You have sin that separated
(08:38):
you from God, but in his love he offers you
salvation through Jesus's perfect life, death, and resurrection. Give your
life to him, believe it, receive it. I am confident
that this is how Charlie Kirk would want us to respond.
Because he was assassinated, yes, but not just that. He
was also martyred. Charlie Kirk successfully fought policy battles in
(08:59):
the pub square, yes, but those were all second tier issues,
and he knew that he worked really hard for political victory.
But the fruit of Charlie Kirk's life showed that he
was under no delusion that Donald Trump or the Republican
Party were his saviors. The core of his identity, of
his very life, was an unwavering and public faith in
(09:20):
Jesus Christ for the salvation of his soul from sin
and death. Charlie Kirk wasn't ultimately killed for his second
order political beliefs, but for his first order belief in Jesus,
out of which all his other beliefs flowed.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
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(10:00):
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it's affecting you financially.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Be informed.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
Check out the Watchdot on Wall Street podcast with Chris
Markowski on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Joining me now is Reverend Hans Feene. Thanks so much,
Hans for being here today.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Yeah, happy to be here.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Thanks Hans. You know a lot of people right now
are seeking answers. I'm seeing it all of our social media.
I'm seeing it in my personal life. I've heard people
say things like I feel like I should pray but
I don't know how, or I'm feeling the poll to
go to church, and I saw one person even say
give my life to Jesus. Or I've never been religious,
but I feel like I've stared evil in the face
(10:44):
and I know that I don't want to be on
evil's side. You and I know there's a solution to that.
It's called the Gospel, because, whether we like it or not,
we all start on evil's side. We're all born in sin.
We deserve death and hell for that. So basic question,
how does a person switch sides? How can they begin
a relationship with God and be brought from death and
(11:05):
despair to life? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (11:07):
You know, so, I think oftentimes God will use the
suffering and the sorrow of this world to stoke within
us what I oftentimes call the hunger for Eden.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
So this is an argument I've often.
Speaker 4 (11:20):
Used with atheists when I've talked with them, where they'll
try to make the case for the non existence of God.
They'll bring up the problem of evil, right, the idea
of how could there be a loving God? If there's
so much suffering in the world? How could there so,
you know, in an instance like the assassination at Charlie Kirk,
how could there be a loving God? When you know
a man in his young thirties has got two young children,
(11:41):
is just senselessly murdered. And I think the proper response
to that from a Christian standpoint is, well, if there's
no God and there's no order to anything, why would
that bother you?
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Right?
Speaker 4 (11:56):
Why would why would one person destroying one.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Whom he opposes bother you does?
Speaker 4 (12:05):
Why does the destruction of the innocent bother you the
or the destruction of the weak at the hands of
the strong, whatever forms of evil people are looking at
in the world, right and I And ultimately the answer
to that is because there's something within you that perceives
that the world is out of joint and it's disordered.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Right, So you would if you went to a movie
and a.
Speaker 4 (12:28):
Fight broke out, that would upset you, that would garner
your attention, you'd wonder what's going on. But if you
went to a boxing match and people are punching each other,
that wouldn't upset you, because that's the whole purpose of
this thing. So why are you expecting the world to
be orderly? And why are you expecting there to be
justice in the world. Why isn't it just organisms devouring organisms?
(12:49):
And the answer ultimately is because there is a god
who created this world. He created this world to be perfect,
and in our very bones we sense that that has
and lost when we perceive the wickedness and the evil
of this world. And so the solution to that pain
is not to say that there is no God and
(13:11):
to sort of surrender ourselves to kind of the hopelessness
of saying the universes just came about by chance and
there's no real purpose to any suffering. But ultimately it's
to say, well, if there is a God who created
us to live with him forever, surely that wasn't the
end of our union with him or the end of
our connection to him when this world fell apart. And so,
(13:35):
whoever that God is, he, if he loves us, he
must have spoken to us.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
Right.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
That's what you do when you love someone is you
communicate with them. And ultimately God's communication has found. God's
speaking to us is found in the words of the
scriptures and in the ministry of Jesus Christ. So a
man is born into this world. He claims that he
is the son of God, claims that he will prove
that he's the son of God by dying and rising again.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
On the third day.
Speaker 4 (14:02):
And then he does, and this is witnessed by multiple people,
and the words of this are written down for us.
And in his life he shows that he is the
fulfillment of all of these promises that have been given
over the course of many centuries of prophets writing down
the promise of the one who is to come, and
so so ultimately that we're when we perceive evil and sorrow,
(14:26):
that we don't need to just sort of sit in
the hopelessness of it, but we can recognize that there
is actually an answer to this, that there is a
promise of the one who is going to give us
victory over this, victory over our tears. And we find
that promise in Jesus Christ, who died upon the cross
forgiving the sins of this world, taking away everything that
(14:46):
made us unworthy to live with God forever, taking away
the flaming sword that kept us out of the garden
of Paradise where everything was perfect, and that he is,
in his resurrection and his victory the grave, He's given
us the right to live in an even better Eden,
and Eden that can never be lost in the life
to come. And so as Christians, we have the confidence
(15:11):
that even amidst the sorrows of this world, that we
have the promise that Christ has already overcome this world,
as the scriptures tell us, as Saint John tells us,
that Christ has already won the victory over death and
the grave, so that even in the case of something
like what happened with Charlie Kirk, that despite all of
the violence and horror, that we can still have a
(15:33):
measure of comfort and peace because we can recognize that
through faith. Jesus claimed Charlie is his own and has
delivered him into the presence of God, and that all
who believe in Christ will be with him, and would
be with all the saints of the Kingdom, and ultimately
be with our Lord on the last day.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (15:52):
Amen.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
Amen. In the New Testament, the disciples ask Jesus during
his earthly ministry to teach them to pray. He does,
and I think, you know, for people who haven't haven't
begun a relationship with Christ, or even for people who
are new Christians, you get to this moment that just
feels heavy and somber and difficult, and you know, it's
(16:15):
hard to know sometimes even how to pray. So the
disciples asked Jesus, I'll ask you, for new Christians, how
do they pray?
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (16:22):
Well, I mean the easiest answer is just open up
the Bible, look at the Psalms, and look to the
Gospel of Matthew, for example, and the Sermon on the
Mount where Jesus gives us the Lord's prayer, and there
are a few other obviously a few other.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Examples in the scriptures of prayers that we're given.
Speaker 4 (16:39):
So in a lot of ways, praying is like any
other discipline, you learn by doing what people before you
have done. Right, So you know, when you're in kindergarten
or first grade and you're learning to write and you're
tracing the.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Letters on the sort of stenciled out.
Speaker 4 (16:52):
Letters that in all of that you're learning based on
the template that someone has set before you.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
How the structure of this works.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
So on the one hand, it's a really really great
way to start is just by simply speaking the words
that others have spoken before you and trusting that God
will give you the understanding of those words as you
speak them. And then on the other hand, there's also
a sense in which you say, well, prayer is ultimately
a conversation with your Father in heaven. So we don't
(17:22):
need to be any more confused about how to speak
to God than we would be to our earthly fathers,
at least certainly if we have loving earthly fathers. And
that's not a a terrifying proposition for people just open
your mouth and start speaking. And in particular, prayer is
asking of God. So ask God what it is that
you need from him. Ask him for comfort, ask him
(17:43):
for understanding, ask him for strength, ask him for guidance
in all of these things. It's important to remember that
prayer is not like a you know, in the movie.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
I've never actually seen the Harry Potter movies.
Speaker 4 (17:58):
I was too old to read the book as a kid,
and too young to read them ironically when they came out,
I guess, so.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
I never read them.
Speaker 4 (18:06):
But I think this is, you know, kind of the
shtick of sorcery type movies is that if you mess
up the words of the spell, it doesn't work right
and something something terrible might happen if you get the
utterance wrong. Well, that's not what prayer is, right, So
in the same way that if you know, I have
a six year old son.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
He's pretty good with speaking at this point.
Speaker 4 (18:27):
But if he were to ask me for something and
mispronounce the name of it, you know, if he asked
me for spaghetti he wanted spaghetti, and he asked me
for pasquetti, I wouldn't make him go hungry. I know
what he means, and I'm able to give him what
it is that he needs. And in the same way,
you don't have to find the perfect words for God
to give you what it is that he needs, what
it is that you need. He's your father in heaven.
(18:47):
He knows what you need, right, and He's promised to
give you all of that according to his will.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Right right. Yeah, And he's good, He's so good, and
he delights in hearing the prayers of his children. So
all right, that's very helpful. Yeah. I think one thing
I'm really struggling with, and I imagine others are too,
is just the darkness of this moment. You know, this
followed so closely after the train stabbing, which followed so
(19:13):
closely after multiple you know, transgender related school shootings, and
it just feels like you can't even keep up with
the news without seeing just endless and senseless acts of
violence and political attacks. I mean, it's just NonStop. How
do you think Christians can best stay engaged politically without
just being consumed by darkness and despair? And you know,
(19:35):
I know the Sunday School answer. We know that the
darkness has not overcome the light, and that the gates
of hell will not prevail against the church. But it's
all just still practically, it's all so heavy. So what
are some real, tangible, practical steps we can take not
to get sucked into to the darkness.
Speaker 4 (19:49):
Yeah, well, I think one of the ways to not
probably the best way to not surrender to despair when
looking at the world from a political angle or figuring
out how to be politically engaged, is to recognize the
limits of political action. And there are problems that can
be solved through politics. It's so politics is not an
inherently dirty or corrupt thing. It can become that way,
(20:10):
but it's not in and of itself. And so there's
a there's a sense in which if you rely on
it to do what it is that it does, then
that's great, and you won't get burned out by trying
to make it accomplish what it can accomplish. But if
you look for it to fix what it can't fix,
(20:32):
then you're going to end up in a world of hurt.
You know, there's probably a sense in which it's a
bit like you know, I don't know how people feel
about chiropractic like chiropractic care. I'm I'm willing to try it.
I've gone to chiropractors, but I always get really nervous
when they start telling you it can fix things, where
you're like, there's no way it can fix that.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
You know.
Speaker 4 (20:52):
So they tell you, like, and you're talking about how
you have an ear infection, and they go, oh, come
in for that and will adjust your ears and.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
You won't get ear infections anymore, and you're like that.
Speaker 4 (21:01):
I think I'm going to do medicine because if I start,
if I start trusting, I'm gonna trust antibiotics, because if
I trust chiropractic to fix a you know, a sinus
infection or an ear infection, I'm just going to end
up in a worse place. And I think that's kind
of the same thing with politics. So politics can't in
and of itself cure the human heart, which is, you know,
we don't so obviously don't know who the person was
(21:22):
that that committed this murder, don't know specifically why beyond
the demonic, demonic desire to take life. So but so
the heart is something that can only ultimately be healed
by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Obviously, it doesn't mean
that everyone who's not a Christian is going to do
things of this nature, but those who under the power
(21:43):
of the devil. The solution to that is for the
strong man to be cast out, as the scriptures described,
and the stronger man to take residence in the heart
of someone. And so if we look to if we
recognize that the way to bring the old time way
to find peace is to recognize that our righteousness comes
(22:04):
from Jesus alone. This is I think a big problem
in politics today, where so much of it is is
theater where people are simply trying to say the words
that will get them affirmation from their own group, and
regardless of whether or not they actually think those words
are even true or whether they do anything, it's a
matter of they want to know that they're good people.
(22:26):
And like, I think you can see this, for example,
in the unwillingness on the left to even sort of
acknowledge that, you know that this church school shooting up
in Minnesota was done by someone who was under the
spell of the transgender ideology, and so the same thing
with this school shooting in Nashville, And it seems like
sort of the mindset is well, I become from for
people on the left, the mindset is I'm a righteous
(22:48):
person by supporting the marginalized, which is the trans community.
And so if I were to acknowledge maybe some of
them need to be marginalized, right, maybe there are aspects
of this that need to be marginalize. I'm going to
lose my righteousness and I'm not the good person that
I thought I was, and I need to find some
other way to sort of accomplish that. The great thing
(23:09):
about the Christian faith is that it says to you,
your righteousness is not found in you.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
It's not found in your own actions.
Speaker 4 (23:15):
It's found in the perfect life of Jesus Christ, which
he gave up for you upon the cross. And so
that while that calls you to a life of faithfulness,
it doesn't enslave you to a life of constantly trying
to figure out how like being a man lost in
the darkness, trying to find his way out in a
room that's just sort of like endless walls, you know,
(23:37):
trying to find the one door in a room where
there's no light. So so what politics can't give you
peace with God, It can't give you peace with your neighbor.
It can order society, and it can hinder evil people
from doing evil things. But ultimately, what truly gives us
peace is knowing that God loves us and knowing that
(23:58):
the one who's going to judge us finds us to
be not just acceptable, but that he cherishes us and
wants to be in our presence forever and wants us
to be in His presence forever. And you can't accomplish
that through politics. That's only received through the Gospel of
Jesus Christ. It's only received through the blood that won
the salvation of the world.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
And so.
Speaker 4 (24:22):
The way to not become embittered with politics is to
recognize all of the peace that you're looking for, all
of the restlessness of your soul that you're trying to calm.
The solution to that is found at the foot of
the cross. Yes, not found at the ballot box. It's
not found in any specific political action. And then if
you want to treat politics as politics, then you'll be
(24:45):
in a much better place where you're not trying to
withdraw from it or mind from it something that it
can't possibly give you, which only sends you into a
kind of spiritual freefall.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
Right right, and Scripture agrees with this. I mean, we
know that we are not wrestling against flesh and blood.
It's a spiritual war, and that there's only a spiritual
solution that can solve our spiritual ills. So that's a
great reminder. I think there can be a temptation as
Christians all the time, but probably especially when tragedy like
this happens, or attacks like this happen, to shy away
(25:19):
from the public square or to focus on you know,
so called winsomeness, as Russell Moore and many other many
other Christian leaders like him have often done at the
expense of the truth, and also I think at the
expense of being effective, often for the cause of Christ.
And I think Charlie Kirk in many ways showed the
fallacy of that approach. And I'm curious what you think
(25:40):
the lesson is to other young Christians who are now
left to take up the torch courageously that he left behind.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (25:49):
So, I think every generation kind of has its particular
worldview that may have been fairly accurate in its own day,
and then there are sort ofultural changes that make it
not so accurate anymore. So I think, for example, if
you're if you were a pastor fifty years ago and
and someone said to you, pastor, I think you know
(26:12):
your sermons need to be a bit more political, and
you'd say, no, what are you talking about. You know,
the the difference between Republicans and Democrats is the difference
between you know, management versus labor, and you know, small
government versus bigger government. There's no reason for the church
to weigh in on that at all. Christians of goodwill
can disagree on all of that stuff.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
Well, the problem that's.
Speaker 4 (26:31):
Happened more recently is that the political left is in
many ways just sort of animated on an almost kind
of sub atomic level, animated with animus towards the Christian faith,
and they very much see the Christian Faith as the
number one political power that they need to disarm. So
(26:53):
so the realcity. So when you look at just the
why it took three seconds for the political left to
embrace the transgender asm issue, Why why does it take
like you look at an issue like surrogacy, right, that's
an Historically, that's a that's a layup for opposition from
the left because you go, oh, here you have a
(27:15):
bunch of rich people, oftentimes rich white people, renting the
wombs of poor women who don't have any other options
for making money, like that's a that's a classic, kind
of typical left wing issue of the exploitation of the poor,
and yet they can't do it because there just seems
to be this recognition of no, no, that Christians would agree
(27:37):
with us on that. So whatever is, whatever the Christian
position is, we stand in opposition towards that. And I
think there's oftentimes a I'm a Lutheran, so I don't
I'm not in sort of the evangelical world as much,
so I don't always kind of know, you know, who
the big movers and shakespas are. But I think that
this is this is something you can kind of see
in any denomination, is that the people who grew up
(27:59):
where the world kind of worked one way don't always
transition well to when things just kind of change. And
and on account of that, there is a they oftentimes
feel like that that the truth is being hijacked. So
if you look at someone like Charlie Kirk, Now I'm
a bit older than Charlie Kirk, and so I'm not
(28:20):
I'm not a boomer by any stretch of the imagination.
But his style was something that was just not the
way that anything was done when I was coming up,
and so you know, there was a long while where
it kind of struck me as more combative than it
really needed to be, and and a bit too, you know,
a bit to mixing of politics and religion. And yet
(28:41):
at the same time, what I didn't quite sort of
realize with him at first was and with kind of
speakers and you know, thinkers of his generation, is they
fully came up and I came up in a world
that was kind of a hybrid of the old divide
between conservatives and Republicans and then the current divide, and
he grew up in a world where it was just
(29:02):
entirely uh the uh, this kind of this hostility of
the left being animated by hatred of the church. So
for him, those worlds are far more intertwined. And he's
speaking to an audience that has that's come from and
is particularly with a lot of young conservatives who very
well didn't grow up in the church and and are
(29:24):
growing up with a lot of bitterness and a lot
of resentment, and and and trying to speak in a
way where he's pushing them back towards Christ and saying,
don't think of yourself as a victim don't don't think
that just being mad about things is somehow going to
lead to a fulfilling life, but while also reflecting a
(29:45):
clearer understanding of the political reality, which which is that
it's getting much harder to say that you can be
sort of a card carrying Democrat and agreeing with the
party platform while still being a Christian. And that's a
reality that I think the previous generation has a hard
time recognizing because the the party platform was different back then,
(30:08):
right right, you know, so, and so I think that
so that's something that in I wish I kind of
would have recognized with Charlie a bit earlier on that
that's what he was doing. And I wish I would
have seen the value of that a little more quickly
and interested kind of in my own life.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
Right right, Yeah. And I think there's a lot of
advantages for you know, the gen Z cohort that came
up listening grew up listening to Charlie Kirk and adopting
his ideas. Just they did get a front row seat
to the blatant hostility you know, in their public schools
or whatever to Christianity, and so I think they'll be
ready to to carry to carry on where he left off. Well,
(30:49):
I have you here for just one more minute. I
just want to ask you, you know, if people are
you know, Christians or not, are being newly challenged in
their faith, and just if this is lighting their fire
to get back in the Word and pursue Christ, where
should they start reading, their cracking their bible. Where should
they start?
Speaker 4 (31:07):
Yeah, that's a it's a marvelous question. I think probably
just with the Gospel of Matthew. Perhaps the Gospel of
John is a good place to start under if you
understand the ministry of Jesus, if you understand the a
lot of times with Matthew too, the prophecies that he's fulfilling.
But John has a lot of that as well. It
gives you a framework for better understanding the rest of
(31:28):
the scriptures and the Old Testament itself. So yeah, so
certainly the Gospel of Matthew, the Gospel of John, I
mean anywhere. I always feel weird sort of trying to
pick something like this because it's all the Word of God,
and it's all beneficial and the Holy Spirit speaks to
us through all of it. But I also say the
Book of Romans as well would be a good one,
as Romans has it can be. I'm sure certainly be
(31:49):
a challenge for new believers or people who don't know
a lot about.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
The Christian faith.
Speaker 4 (31:54):
But it gives a great sort of summary of what
it means to be an, what it means to be
redeemed by Christ, how salvation works, and how that orders
and inspires the Christian life.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
Really glorious truths there. Yeah, Hans, thank you so much
for joining me. I appreciate your time, and I hope
to have you back again soon, hopefully under better circumstances.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
Yeah, thank you so much. Good to see you.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
Yep, good to see you as well. Something is definitely
stirring spiritually. From the knifing of Areno Zurutzka, to the
recent shooting at a Minneapolis Catholic school, and now to
the public execution of Charlie Kirk, it feels like sin
and mortality are staring us straight in the face. The
past few weeks feel like a flashing Neon sign reminding
us that as long as the Lord Terry's, nobody's getting
(32:42):
out of here alive, suffering guaranteed death imminent. May we
see God's mercy in these agonizing moments that remind us
life is fleeting because they're an invitation to the giver
of eternal life. I don't know if you know this,
but Charlie Kirk isn't actually dead. He's very very much alive,
(33:03):
singing and worshiping in the presence of his Savior and King.
So today I am pleading with you, don't miss the
gravity of this moment. Don't miss the invitation. Yesterday was
Charlie Kirk's last day on earth, but today or tomorrow
could be yours, so don't wait. That's all for today's
episode of the Kylie Cast. Thank you so much for
(33:24):
tuning in. Everybody, go home and hug your loved ones,
hold him close, and we'll be back here next week
with more
Hi, everybody, and welcome to the Kylie Cast. Today is
a horrible day. The world today is truly a different
place than it was yesterday, and that's because yesterday, Charlie
Kirk was taken from this world violently, sadly, and suddenly
at the hands of an assassin who fired a single
(00:23):
fatal shot during a turning point event on the campus
of Utah Valley University. Charlie Kirk was a thirty one
year old, devoted and faithful husband, a loving father to
two beautiful children, an outspoken Christian, a stalwart Conservative, and
a true patriot in every sense of the word. I
(00:45):
didn't know Charlie Kirk personally, we weren't friends, but my
life and my beliefs have no doubt been shaped by
Charlie's just massive influence on the conservative movement. Many of
my friends were brought into the movement by Charlie Kirk
and his organization. And it's just remarkable to watch the
maturity of Charlie Kirk as a leader, as a Christian,
(01:05):
and as a father. Since his firebrand days of being
a teenager in the public eye, Charlie Kirk turned into
such an important figure for the make America Great Again
movement such an important figure for conservatism broadly. He had
a way of guiding people back to reality on a
whole range of topics. He talked frequently about things like
(01:26):
abortion in euthanasia. He basically educated gen Z on the
founding of our great country when public schools failed them.
He reiterated often that boys are boys, girls are girls.
Boys cannot become girls and girls cannot become boys. He
opposed the institutional racism of the diversity, equity and Inclusion complex,
(01:46):
and also oppose the violence and the racism of the
Black Lives Matter movement. He condemned law fair and champion
law and order. He helped move our foreign policy away
from the old way of shutting down debate and into
a far more productive way of thinking. He fought warmongers
and censors and propagandists and the swamp, and he did
it all with a smile. He advocated for secure elections,
(02:08):
and he helped define what America First really means. He
really helped reshape the Republican Party as a whole, and
Democrats hated him for all of this because he was
a force to be reckoned with. And while some people
are now using this horrific assassination as evidence that the
Charlie Kirk approached to civic debate didn't work. I would
argue that his death proves the exact opposite. People don't
(02:31):
get assassinated like this unless they're effective. At the same time,
there's still this somber sense that if there was an
off ramp for political violence, Charlie Kirk was it. He
courageously and calmly engaged his opponents in dialogue, and yet
he was still murdered for it. So we're left with
this feeling that something has changed. Nobody knows what's coming,
(02:52):
but we're all unsettled, like we've crossed a cultural rubicon,
like we've crossed a point of no return, like we
need to do something. And I think the fact that
today is the twenty fourth anniversary of nine to eleven
just adds to this feeling, because in many ways, this
seems like a similar Lynchpin moment that's going to change everything,
which is kind of waiting for the next shoe to drop.
And I think one of the reasons it's so hard
(03:14):
and unsettling is that Charlie Kirk wasn't a fringe figure
in any sense. Of the word. He wasn't an extremist,
he wasn't a radical. He was a normy. He was
a civilian Christian dad. He held no actual political power,
and he shared the same ideas as half the country,
the same ideas as you and I and many of
our friends and loved ones. And so it all just
(03:34):
feels so very close to home. I really resonated with
these words from Mark Hemingway today in The Federalist. He said, quote,
I do not want to live in a society where
half the country simply uses whatever power is available to
them to go after the other half. I do not
believe the average Democrat voter believes that successfully engaging in
good faith debates on college campuses Warren's death. But and
(03:58):
I am hardly alone here. I am increasingly concerned that
there are forces on the left that cannot be debated.
They must be made to feel pain until they stop.
I pray that this can be done within the bounds
of the law and the constitution, not that the left
has much cared about those restraints.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
End quote.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
He makes a really good point. But I think in
moments like this we need to take a lesson from
Charlie himself. Back in June, Charlie Kirk tweeted, quote, when
things are moving very fast and people are losing their minds,
it's important to stay grounded, turn off your phone, read scripture,
spend time with friends, and remember Internet fury is not
(04:36):
real life. It's going to be okay. End quote. So
even though we are sick of negotiating with left wing terrorists,
and it truly feels many days like we're at war,
we really really need to be thoughtful and prudent and
prayerful about how we respond in this very frought moment.
First off, we need to resist any temptation to violence ourselves,
(04:57):
and we need our anger, although it's wholly justified and
even righteous, to be productive, not just cathartic. So how
do we do that? Well, there's political power conservatives absolutely
need to wield. Trump was right to call this attack
not only an assassination but terrorism, and we need to
treat it like that. Violent left wing organizations such as
Antifa and George Soros and Goo's should be investigated and
(05:20):
brought to heal. Follow the money, hit them with RICO charges,
throw them in prison, use whatever tools we have at
our disposal. This is a nothing short of organized crime.
The media also need to face a serious reckoning, and
the federal government should be combing through their lives and
finances with a fine tooth comb. People need to be
not only fired, but also never taken seriously ever again.
(05:43):
Matthew Dowd's firing was a start, but only the bare minimum.
Just in the past day, Jensaki blamed Trump for escalating
the situation. ABC's Kyra Phillips tried to justify the attack,
and Katie Tourists coverage was despicable and there is plenty
more where that came from. After law enforcement found the murder,
weis including rounds of ammunition that had been reportedly engraved
(06:03):
with Antifa and transgender ideology, CNN obscured those facts with
a headline that read quote federal officials probe rifle and
AMMO scrolled with cultural phrases after Charlie Kirk killing end quote.
And this is while Democrats, including even former President Barack
Obama himself, continue to scratch their heads and pretend that
(06:24):
we can't possibly discern a motive for this literal assassination.
Speaking of the AMMO engravings, Republican lawmakers also seriously need
to do something about transgender ideology. We've all seen where
affirming people in their mentally ill delusions and then pumping
them full of hormones leads, and it is nowhere good.
The doctors and teachers and administrators and parents who indulge
(06:45):
these fantasies should be held criminally liable. No more. American
schools and cities and families cannot be playgrounds for mentally
ill activists to carry out their fantasies and experiments were done.
There are also productive responses we should have on a
cultural and individual level. We need to hold people to account.
Make it hard for them to celebrate his death. When
(07:08):
you see people you know grave dancing online or laughing
about how Charlie Kirk deserved what happened to him, don't
be silent. Speak up. This is honestly why the Yankees'
response to the assassination was so important and so powerful.
It shouldn't be normal and easy for people and organizations
to hang transgender and BLM flags, but unheard of to
expect them to mourn death. Okay, this is a cultural
(07:29):
tide that needs turning. But more than any of these
other responses, we must pray for Charlie's wife, and his
dear children, for this country and our social bonds, for
Christians to be courageous, and for non Christians to repent
and believe the gospel. We need to pray for wisdom
for Donald Trump and members of Congress and law enforcement.
We must pray for justice and prudence and for self control.
(07:52):
Pray for more Charlie Kirks to rise up and take
the torch. And most importantly, I cannot stress this enough.
If you don't know Jesus personally, then you should pray
in repentance and faith for salvation. The apostle Paul wrote, quote,
if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is the Lord,
and believe in your heart that God raised him from
the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart
(08:15):
one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one
confesses and is saved. End quote. So please do not
just admire Charlie Kirk's faith from afar. Christianity is not
a spectator sport. Call out to God and receive his
salvation as your own. Repent and believe the gospel today.
It's simply the good news that there is a God
and you are not him. You have sin that separated
(08:38):
you from God, but in his love he offers you
salvation through Jesus's perfect life, death, and resurrection. Give your
life to him, believe it, receive it. I am confident
that this is how Charlie Kirk would want us to respond.
Because he was assassinated, yes, but not just that. He
was also martyred. Charlie Kirk successfully fought policy battles in
(08:59):
the pub square, yes, but those were all second tier issues,
and he knew that he worked really hard for political victory.
But the fruit of Charlie Kirk's life showed that he
was under no delusion that Donald Trump or the Republican
Party were his saviors. The core of his identity, of
his very life, was an unwavering and public faith in
(09:20):
Jesus Christ for the salvation of his soul from sin
and death. Charlie Kirk wasn't ultimately killed for his second
order political beliefs, but for his first order belief in Jesus,
out of which all his other beliefs flowed.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
How is September the worst month of the year for
the taxpayer? The watched Autro on Wall Street podcast with
Chris Markowski. Every day Chris helps unpack the connection between
politics and the economy and how it affects your wallet.
Government agencies have to spend every single dime by the
end of September, plus take out more debt for another
cr In the last forty eight days, the federal debt
is up by a trillion. We have a severe that problem.
(10:00):
Whether it's happening in DC or down on Wall Street,
it's affecting you financially.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Be informed.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
Check out the Watchdot on Wall Street podcast with Chris
Markowski on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Joining me now is Reverend Hans Feene. Thanks so much,
Hans for being here today.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Yeah, happy to be here.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Thanks Hans. You know a lot of people right now
are seeking answers. I'm seeing it all of our social media.
I'm seeing it in my personal life. I've heard people
say things like I feel like I should pray but
I don't know how, or I'm feeling the poll to
go to church, and I saw one person even say
give my life to Jesus. Or I've never been religious,
but I feel like I've stared evil in the face
(10:44):
and I know that I don't want to be on
evil's side. You and I know there's a solution to that.
It's called the Gospel, because, whether we like it or not,
we all start on evil's side. We're all born in sin.
We deserve death and hell for that. So basic question,
how does a person switch sides? How can they begin
a relationship with God and be brought from death and
(11:05):
despair to life? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (11:07):
You know, so, I think oftentimes God will use the
suffering and the sorrow of this world to stoke within
us what I oftentimes call the hunger for Eden.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
So this is an argument I've often.
Speaker 4 (11:20):
Used with atheists when I've talked with them, where they'll
try to make the case for the non existence of God.
They'll bring up the problem of evil, right, the idea
of how could there be a loving God? If there's
so much suffering in the world? How could there so,
you know, in an instance like the assassination at Charlie Kirk,
how could there be a loving God? When you know
a man in his young thirties has got two young children,
(11:41):
is just senselessly murdered. And I think the proper response
to that from a Christian standpoint is, well, if there's
no God and there's no order to anything, why would
that bother you?
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Right?
Speaker 4 (11:56):
Why would why would one person destroying one.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Whom he opposes bother you does?
Speaker 4 (12:05):
Why does the destruction of the innocent bother you the
or the destruction of the weak at the hands of
the strong, whatever forms of evil people are looking at
in the world, right and I And ultimately the answer
to that is because there's something within you that perceives
that the world is out of joint and it's disordered.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Right, So you would if you went to a movie
and a.
Speaker 4 (12:28):
Fight broke out, that would upset you, that would garner
your attention, you'd wonder what's going on. But if you
went to a boxing match and people are punching each other,
that wouldn't upset you, because that's the whole purpose of
this thing. So why are you expecting the world to
be orderly? And why are you expecting there to be
justice in the world. Why isn't it just organisms devouring organisms?
(12:49):
And the answer ultimately is because there is a god
who created this world. He created this world to be perfect,
and in our very bones we sense that that has
and lost when we perceive the wickedness and the evil
of this world. And so the solution to that pain
is not to say that there is no God and
(13:11):
to sort of surrender ourselves to kind of the hopelessness
of saying the universes just came about by chance and
there's no real purpose to any suffering. But ultimately it's
to say, well, if there is a God who created
us to live with him forever, surely that wasn't the
end of our union with him or the end of
our connection to him when this world fell apart. And so,
(13:35):
whoever that God is, he, if he loves us, he
must have spoken to us.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
Right.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
That's what you do when you love someone is you
communicate with them. And ultimately God's communication has found. God's
speaking to us is found in the words of the
scriptures and in the ministry of Jesus Christ. So a
man is born into this world. He claims that he
is the son of God, claims that he will prove
that he's the son of God by dying and rising again.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
On the third day.
Speaker 4 (14:02):
And then he does, and this is witnessed by multiple people,
and the words of this are written down for us.
And in his life he shows that he is the
fulfillment of all of these promises that have been given
over the course of many centuries of prophets writing down
the promise of the one who is to come, and
so so ultimately that we're when we perceive evil and sorrow,
(14:26):
that we don't need to just sort of sit in
the hopelessness of it, but we can recognize that there
is actually an answer to this, that there is a
promise of the one who is going to give us
victory over this, victory over our tears. And we find
that promise in Jesus Christ, who died upon the cross
forgiving the sins of this world, taking away everything that
(14:46):
made us unworthy to live with God forever, taking away
the flaming sword that kept us out of the garden
of Paradise where everything was perfect, and that he is,
in his resurrection and his victory the grave, He's given
us the right to live in an even better Eden,
and Eden that can never be lost in the life
to come. And so as Christians, we have the confidence
(15:11):
that even amidst the sorrows of this world, that we
have the promise that Christ has already overcome this world,
as the scriptures tell us, as Saint John tells us,
that Christ has already won the victory over death and
the grave, so that even in the case of something
like what happened with Charlie Kirk, that despite all of
the violence and horror, that we can still have a
(15:33):
measure of comfort and peace because we can recognize that
through faith. Jesus claimed Charlie is his own and has
delivered him into the presence of God, and that all
who believe in Christ will be with him, and would
be with all the saints of the Kingdom, and ultimately
be with our Lord on the last day.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (15:52):
Amen.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
Amen. In the New Testament, the disciples ask Jesus during
his earthly ministry to teach them to pray. He does,
and I think, you know, for people who haven't haven't
begun a relationship with Christ, or even for people who
are new Christians, you get to this moment that just
feels heavy and somber and difficult, and you know, it's
(16:15):
hard to know sometimes even how to pray. So the
disciples asked Jesus, I'll ask you, for new Christians, how
do they pray?
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (16:22):
Well, I mean the easiest answer is just open up
the Bible, look at the Psalms, and look to the
Gospel of Matthew, for example, and the Sermon on the
Mount where Jesus gives us the Lord's prayer, and there
are a few other obviously a few other.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Examples in the scriptures of prayers that we're given.
Speaker 4 (16:39):
So in a lot of ways, praying is like any
other discipline, you learn by doing what people before you
have done. Right, So you know, when you're in kindergarten
or first grade and you're learning to write and you're
tracing the.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Letters on the sort of stenciled out.
Speaker 4 (16:52):
Letters that in all of that you're learning based on
the template that someone has set before you.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
How the structure of this works.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
So on the one hand, it's a really really great
way to start is just by simply speaking the words
that others have spoken before you and trusting that God
will give you the understanding of those words as you
speak them. And then on the other hand, there's also
a sense in which you say, well, prayer is ultimately
a conversation with your Father in heaven. So we don't
(17:22):
need to be any more confused about how to speak
to God than we would be to our earthly fathers,
at least certainly if we have loving earthly fathers. And
that's not a a terrifying proposition for people just open
your mouth and start speaking. And in particular, prayer is
asking of God. So ask God what it is that
you need from him. Ask him for comfort, ask him
(17:43):
for understanding, ask him for strength, ask him for guidance
in all of these things. It's important to remember that
prayer is not like a you know, in the movie.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
I've never actually seen the Harry Potter movies.
Speaker 4 (17:58):
I was too old to read the book as a kid,
and too young to read them ironically when they came out,
I guess, so.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
I never read them.
Speaker 4 (18:06):
But I think this is, you know, kind of the
shtick of sorcery type movies is that if you mess
up the words of the spell, it doesn't work right
and something something terrible might happen if you get the
utterance wrong. Well, that's not what prayer is, right, So
in the same way that if you know, I have
a six year old son.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
He's pretty good with speaking at this point.
Speaker 4 (18:27):
But if he were to ask me for something and
mispronounce the name of it, you know, if he asked
me for spaghetti he wanted spaghetti, and he asked me
for pasquetti, I wouldn't make him go hungry. I know
what he means, and I'm able to give him what
it is that he needs. And in the same way,
you don't have to find the perfect words for God
to give you what it is that he needs, what
it is that you need. He's your father in heaven.
(18:47):
He knows what you need, right, and He's promised to
give you all of that according to his will.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Right right. Yeah, And he's good, He's so good, and
he delights in hearing the prayers of his children. So
all right, that's very helpful. Yeah. I think one thing
I'm really struggling with, and I imagine others are too,
is just the darkness of this moment. You know, this
followed so closely after the train stabbing, which followed so
(19:13):
closely after multiple you know, transgender related school shootings, and
it just feels like you can't even keep up with
the news without seeing just endless and senseless acts of
violence and political attacks. I mean, it's just NonStop. How
do you think Christians can best stay engaged politically without
just being consumed by darkness and despair? And you know,
(19:35):
I know the Sunday School answer. We know that the
darkness has not overcome the light, and that the gates
of hell will not prevail against the church. But it's
all just still practically, it's all so heavy. So what
are some real, tangible, practical steps we can take not
to get sucked into to the darkness.
Speaker 4 (19:49):
Yeah, well, I think one of the ways to not
probably the best way to not surrender to despair when
looking at the world from a political angle or figuring
out how to be politically engaged, is to recognize the
limits of political action. And there are problems that can
be solved through politics. It's so politics is not an
inherently dirty or corrupt thing. It can become that way,
(20:10):
but it's not in and of itself. And so there's
a there's a sense in which if you rely on
it to do what it is that it does, then
that's great, and you won't get burned out by trying
to make it accomplish what it can accomplish. But if
you look for it to fix what it can't fix,
(20:32):
then you're going to end up in a world of hurt.
You know, there's probably a sense in which it's a
bit like you know, I don't know how people feel
about chiropractic like chiropractic care. I'm I'm willing to try it.
I've gone to chiropractors, but I always get really nervous
when they start telling you it can fix things, where
you're like, there's no way it can fix that.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
You know.
Speaker 4 (20:52):
So they tell you, like, and you're talking about how
you have an ear infection, and they go, oh, come
in for that and will adjust your ears and.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
You won't get ear infections anymore, and you're like that.
Speaker 4 (21:01):
I think I'm going to do medicine because if I start,
if I start trusting, I'm gonna trust antibiotics, because if
I trust chiropractic to fix a you know, a sinus
infection or an ear infection, I'm just going to end
up in a worse place. And I think that's kind
of the same thing with politics. So politics can't in
and of itself cure the human heart, which is, you know,
we don't so obviously don't know who the person was
(21:22):
that that committed this murder, don't know specifically why beyond
the demonic, demonic desire to take life. So but so
the heart is something that can only ultimately be healed
by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Obviously, it doesn't mean
that everyone who's not a Christian is going to do
things of this nature, but those who under the power
(21:43):
of the devil. The solution to that is for the
strong man to be cast out, as the scriptures described,
and the stronger man to take residence in the heart
of someone. And so if we look to if we
recognize that the way to bring the old time way
to find peace is to recognize that our righteousness comes
(22:04):
from Jesus alone. This is I think a big problem
in politics today, where so much of it is is
theater where people are simply trying to say the words
that will get them affirmation from their own group, and
regardless of whether or not they actually think those words
are even true or whether they do anything, it's a
matter of they want to know that they're good people.
(22:26):
And like, I think you can see this, for example,
in the unwillingness on the left to even sort of
acknowledge that, you know that this church school shooting up
in Minnesota was done by someone who was under the
spell of the transgender ideology, and so the same thing
with this school shooting in Nashville, And it seems like
sort of the mindset is well, I become from for
people on the left, the mindset is I'm a righteous
(22:48):
person by supporting the marginalized, which is the trans community.
And so if I were to acknowledge maybe some of
them need to be marginalized, right, maybe there are aspects
of this that need to be marginalize. I'm going to
lose my righteousness and I'm not the good person that
I thought I was, and I need to find some
other way to sort of accomplish that. The great thing
(23:09):
about the Christian faith is that it says to you,
your righteousness is not found in you.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
It's not found in your own actions.
Speaker 4 (23:15):
It's found in the perfect life of Jesus Christ, which
he gave up for you upon the cross. And so
that while that calls you to a life of faithfulness,
it doesn't enslave you to a life of constantly trying
to figure out how like being a man lost in
the darkness, trying to find his way out in a
room that's just sort of like endless walls, you know,
(23:37):
trying to find the one door in a room where
there's no light. So so what politics can't give you
peace with God, It can't give you peace with your neighbor.
It can order society, and it can hinder evil people
from doing evil things. But ultimately, what truly gives us
peace is knowing that God loves us and knowing that
(23:58):
the one who's going to judge us finds us to
be not just acceptable, but that he cherishes us and
wants to be in our presence forever and wants us
to be in His presence forever. And you can't accomplish
that through politics. That's only received through the Gospel of
Jesus Christ. It's only received through the blood that won
the salvation of the world.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
And so.
Speaker 4 (24:22):
The way to not become embittered with politics is to
recognize all of the peace that you're looking for, all
of the restlessness of your soul that you're trying to calm.
The solution to that is found at the foot of
the cross. Yes, not found at the ballot box. It's
not found in any specific political action. And then if
you want to treat politics as politics, then you'll be
(24:45):
in a much better place where you're not trying to
withdraw from it or mind from it something that it
can't possibly give you, which only sends you into a
kind of spiritual freefall.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
Right right, and Scripture agrees with this. I mean, we
know that we are not wrestling against flesh and blood.
It's a spiritual war, and that there's only a spiritual
solution that can solve our spiritual ills. So that's a
great reminder. I think there can be a temptation as
Christians all the time, but probably especially when tragedy like
this happens, or attacks like this happen, to shy away
(25:19):
from the public square or to focus on you know,
so called winsomeness, as Russell Moore and many other many
other Christian leaders like him have often done at the
expense of the truth, and also I think at the
expense of being effective, often for the cause of Christ.
And I think Charlie Kirk in many ways showed the
fallacy of that approach. And I'm curious what you think
(25:40):
the lesson is to other young Christians who are now
left to take up the torch courageously that he left behind.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (25:49):
So, I think every generation kind of has its particular
worldview that may have been fairly accurate in its own day,
and then there are sort ofultural changes that make it
not so accurate anymore. So I think, for example, if
you're if you were a pastor fifty years ago and
and someone said to you, pastor, I think you know
(26:12):
your sermons need to be a bit more political, and
you'd say, no, what are you talking about. You know,
the the difference between Republicans and Democrats is the difference
between you know, management versus labor, and you know, small
government versus bigger government. There's no reason for the church
to weigh in on that at all. Christians of goodwill
can disagree on all of that stuff.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
Well, the problem that's.
Speaker 4 (26:31):
Happened more recently is that the political left is in
many ways just sort of animated on an almost kind
of sub atomic level, animated with animus towards the Christian faith,
and they very much see the Christian Faith as the
number one political power that they need to disarm. So
(26:53):
so the realcity. So when you look at just the
why it took three seconds for the political left to
embrace the transgender asm issue, Why why does it take
like you look at an issue like surrogacy, right, that's
an Historically, that's a that's a layup for opposition from
the left because you go, oh, here you have a
(27:15):
bunch of rich people, oftentimes rich white people, renting the
wombs of poor women who don't have any other options
for making money, like that's a that's a classic, kind
of typical left wing issue of the exploitation of the poor,
and yet they can't do it because there just seems
to be this recognition of no, no, that Christians would agree
(27:37):
with us on that. So whatever is, whatever the Christian
position is, we stand in opposition towards that. And I
think there's oftentimes a I'm a Lutheran, so I don't
I'm not in sort of the evangelical world as much,
so I don't always kind of know, you know, who
the big movers and shakespas are. But I think that
this is this is something you can kind of see
in any denomination, is that the people who grew up
(27:59):
where the world kind of worked one way don't always
transition well to when things just kind of change. And
and on account of that, there is a they oftentimes
feel like that that the truth is being hijacked. So
if you look at someone like Charlie Kirk, Now I'm
a bit older than Charlie Kirk, and so I'm not
(28:20):
I'm not a boomer by any stretch of the imagination.
But his style was something that was just not the
way that anything was done when I was coming up,
and so you know, there was a long while where
it kind of struck me as more combative than it
really needed to be, and and a bit too, you know,
a bit to mixing of politics and religion. And yet
(28:41):
at the same time, what I didn't quite sort of
realize with him at first was and with kind of
speakers and you know, thinkers of his generation, is they
fully came up and I came up in a world
that was kind of a hybrid of the old divide
between conservatives and Republicans and then the current divide, and
he grew up in a world where it was just
(29:02):
entirely uh the uh, this kind of this hostility of
the left being animated by hatred of the church. So
for him, those worlds are far more intertwined. And he's
speaking to an audience that has that's come from and
is particularly with a lot of young conservatives who very
well didn't grow up in the church and and are
(29:24):
growing up with a lot of bitterness and a lot
of resentment, and and and trying to speak in a
way where he's pushing them back towards Christ and saying,
don't think of yourself as a victim don't don't think
that just being mad about things is somehow going to
lead to a fulfilling life, but while also reflecting a
(29:45):
clearer understanding of the political reality, which which is that
it's getting much harder to say that you can be
sort of a card carrying Democrat and agreeing with the
party platform while still being a Christian. And that's a
reality that I think the previous generation has a hard
time recognizing because the the party platform was different back then,
(30:08):
right right, you know, so, and so I think that
so that's something that in I wish I kind of
would have recognized with Charlie a bit earlier on that
that's what he was doing. And I wish I would
have seen the value of that a little more quickly
and interested kind of in my own life.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
Right right, Yeah. And I think there's a lot of
advantages for you know, the gen Z cohort that came
up listening grew up listening to Charlie Kirk and adopting
his ideas. Just they did get a front row seat
to the blatant hostility you know, in their public schools
or whatever to Christianity, and so I think they'll be
ready to to carry to carry on where he left off. Well,
(30:49):
I have you here for just one more minute. I
just want to ask you, you know, if people are
you know, Christians or not, are being newly challenged in
their faith, and just if this is lighting their fire
to get back in the Word and pursue Christ, where
should they start reading, their cracking their bible. Where should
they start?
Speaker 4 (31:07):
Yeah, that's a it's a marvelous question. I think probably
just with the Gospel of Matthew. Perhaps the Gospel of
John is a good place to start under if you
understand the ministry of Jesus, if you understand the a
lot of times with Matthew too, the prophecies that he's fulfilling.
But John has a lot of that as well. It
gives you a framework for better understanding the rest of
(31:28):
the scriptures and the Old Testament itself. So yeah, so
certainly the Gospel of Matthew, the Gospel of John, I
mean anywhere. I always feel weird sort of trying to
pick something like this because it's all the Word of God,
and it's all beneficial and the Holy Spirit speaks to
us through all of it. But I also say the
Book of Romans as well would be a good one,
as Romans has it can be. I'm sure certainly be
(31:49):
a challenge for new believers or people who don't know
a lot about.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
The Christian faith.
Speaker 4 (31:54):
But it gives a great sort of summary of what
it means to be an, what it means to be
redeemed by Christ, how salvation works, and how that orders
and inspires the Christian life.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
Really glorious truths there. Yeah, Hans, thank you so much
for joining me. I appreciate your time, and I hope
to have you back again soon, hopefully under better circumstances.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
Yeah, thank you so much. Good to see you.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
Yep, good to see you as well. Something is definitely
stirring spiritually. From the knifing of Areno Zurutzka, to the
recent shooting at a Minneapolis Catholic school, and now to
the public execution of Charlie Kirk, it feels like sin
and mortality are staring us straight in the face. The
past few weeks feel like a flashing Neon sign reminding
us that as long as the Lord Terry's, nobody's getting
(32:42):
out of here alive, suffering guaranteed death imminent. May we
see God's mercy in these agonizing moments that remind us
life is fleeting because they're an invitation to the giver
of eternal life. I don't know if you know this,
but Charlie Kirk isn't actually dead. He's very very much alive,
(33:03):
singing and worshiping in the presence of his Savior and King.
So today I am pleading with you, don't miss the
gravity of this moment. Don't miss the invitation. Yesterday was
Charlie Kirk's last day on earth, but today or tomorrow
could be yours, so don't wait. That's all for today's
episode of the Kylie Cast. Thank you so much for
(33:24):
tuning in. Everybody, go home and hug your loved ones,
hold him close, and we'll be back here next week
with more
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