The Greatest Commandment as a Moral Imperative for Pluralistic Democracies

The Greatest Commandment as a Moral Imperative for Pluralistic Democracies

By Rudy Barnes, Jr., September 27, 2025

Charlie Kirk claimed to be a Christian conservative who supported Donald Trump.  But no one who claims to follow the universal and altruistic teachings of Jesus as the Word of God can support Donald Trump. The greatest commandment is a summary of the teachings of Jesus that calls believers to love God and our neighbors, including those of other races and religions, as we love ourselves.

At the memorial service for Charlie Kirk, his widow tearfully said she forgave the man who killed her husband.  At the same service, Trump stated “I hate my opponent.”  It was a nasty sentiment that Trump has publicly proclaimed throughout his Presidency, but it was clearly out of order at the memorial service for Charlie Kirk.

Repercussions from the Kirk assassination have impacted Christianity from colleges to neighborhood churches.  Kirk’s Turning Point is a mixture of religion and politics that has transformed evangelicalism, especially among the young, while traditional congregations are aging and becoming smaller.  The American church is destined to have its own Turning Point.

On Christianity after Charlie Kirk Ross Duthat has observed that “eight years ago, religious conservatives accepted the leadership of a flagrant immoralist as the price of protection against a then-ascendant-seeming secular progressivism.  This political compromise fractured churches, divided pundits and introduced a further crisis into an American Christianity already dealing with scandal, disaffection and decline.”

“But today conservative Christians are eager to tell a different story, and Charlie Kirk’s memorial service was subordinated to preaching, with Erika Kirk’s  extraordinarily moving message of forgiveness for her husband’s killer.  It was a stage for a narrative of revival, recovery, conversion, Christian strength.”

David Brooks has noted,”There’s been a lot of mingling of Christianity and politics since Charlie Kirk was murdered. Tucker Carlson opened one of his shows with a straight-up sermon: “This is a religion committed to love above all and to living in peace and harmony, truly. It’s a universalist religion that believes that every person has a shot at heaven. It’s not exclusionary at all.”

Given the rise of popular new variations of Christianity in politics and the decline of the church, it’s questionable whether the church will survive as the major social institution that it has been in the past.  Familiar but smaller versions of the church will no doubt continue to survive to satisfy traditional desires, but American churches are likely to continue to decline.

With the contentious relationships between competing Christian organizations like Turning Point, change is certain, but what kind of change it will produce--other than declining churches that is already evident--is yet to be seen.  David Brooks has indicated that one thing is certain:  There is no confusion between the teachings of Jesus as a moral imperative in pluralistic democracies and the evil narcissism of Trump.

Notes:

On Ross Douthat’s Christianity After Charlie Kirk, see   https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/22/opinion/charlie-kirk-memorial-christianity.html

On David Brooks, Why we Need to Think Straight About God and Politics, see 

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/25/opinion/kirk-trump-christianity.html

Behind Charlie Kirk’s Spiritual Journey that Fused Chrstianity and Politics, see  https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/22/us/charlie-kirk-christian-faith-politics.html.

Musings of a Maverick Methodist on Conflicting Concepts of Jesus, see 

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2023/09/musings-of-maverick-methodist-on.html.

Musings on the the Dismal Failure of the Church and Democracy in America, see

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xWM4o586mCu6QoL69XAhkxfjjh6daTnNdnGnkJ05cZ8/edit.

On Jefferson's Jesus and Moral Standards of Legitimacy in Religion and Politics.docx