Left-wing ideology has infiltrated many Christian churches in the United States because they bow down to the “false god of being nice” and the “false god of tolerance” to win approval from the world, Turning Point USA (TPUSA) founder Charlie Kirk told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview.
Breitbart News asked Kirk, who travels to Christian churches all over the country for TPUSA Faith, to comment on the battle being waged for the soul of America’s churches, and pointed to the rising support for abortion and the LGBTQ+ agenda in some denominations, as well as a general decline in fervor.
In this April 19, 2019, file photo, a gay pride rainbow flag flies along with the U.S. flag in front of the Asbury United Methodist Church in Prairie Village, Kan. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)
“We as Christians are not called to be tolerant — and people don’t like it when I say that,” Kirk said at the 2023 Turning Point Action Conference in West Palm Beach, Florida, last week. “But we shouldn’t be tolerant of sin. We shouldn’t be tolerant of rebellion from God. We should have compassion. We have kindness, sympathy, and love. But love without truth is not love.”
“And so the Christian church has bad theology. They don’t want to offend people,” he said. “The Gospel is offensive, and because of that, we see a lot of churches that are then taken over by these parasitic left-wing idea pathogens.”
Part of the reason solid biblical teaching has become more rare in America’s churches is because many pastors are “afraid to speak the truth” or they “don’t even know what the truth is” because they are not comprehending what the Bible says, Kirk said.
“And it’s really too bad because the American church is the great bulwark against tyranny. Liberty is not man’s idea. It is God’s idea,” he said. “And so I’m going around to churches — I speak at a lot of churches trying to encourage them to speak out on these issues. I think without a strong church, the country completely and totally falls apart.”
While traveling to churches around the country, Kirk often encounters church leaders who say they avoid talking about politics because politics are “divisive.” But, Kirk asserted, quoting Luke 12:51, the “Gospel is divisive,” and “Jesus did not come to unite the world but to divide the world.”
“So if they don’t want to talk about politics, do they want to get rid of Jeremiah 29:7, where [the Bible] says to demand the welfare of the nation that you are in because your welfare is tied to your nation’s welfare? Or get rid of Daniel? Joseph was a political figure. Joseph was a counselor to the Pharaoh in Egypt to end the famine. Esther was a political figure. Mordecai was a political figure. Nehemiah was a political figure,” he continued.
“The Book of Deuteronomy is an unbelievably political book, where the Founding Fathers quoted Deuteronomy more than any other author, secular or religious, more than John Locke, more than Montesquieu, more than Rousseau, more than Machiavelli, more than Aristotle,” he added. “They quoted Deuteronomy because out of Deuteronomy comes the civil law, this idea of separation of powers, an independent judiciary. So if a pastor says that, they’re not very smart, or they are deciding to be a coward, and I hope they change their ways.”
When asked if he thinks churches across the United States are growing wary of potential oncoming persecution from the government and/or a left-wing political movement hostile toward Christianity, Kirk said he believes many churches “don’t care.”
“Which is really too bad,” he said. “We’re seeing a mass erosion of freedom and liberty. You show me what you’re not allowed to make fun of — that is your true god. You’re allowed to make fun of Christianity. You’re not allowed to make fun of trans stuff.”
Department of Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary for Health transgender Admiral Rachel Levine speaks after having attended a roundtable on gender-affirming care and transgender health on Wednesday, June 29, 2022, in Miami (Wilfredo Lee/AP).
“They’re coming after the churches hard,” he continued. “They locked down the churches during the virus. They called them nonessential. They took Easter away. They took Pentecost Sunday away. We have the most suicidal, alcohol-addicted, drug-addicted generation in history. And where is the church? The church is kind of doing the bidding of the world, and it’s too bad.”
Bishop Michael Boulette prays as he leads a televised service to an empty church in San Antonio, Texas, Sunday, March 29, 2020. Due to the coronavirus outbreak, churches in the area are closed and many are televising services or holding services online (AP Photo/Eric Gay).
Kirk concluded that while “there are some great churches out there,” they are “small and far and few in between.”
“The vast majority of churches are cowardly. They’re not biblically based. They’re just kind of a shell of what they could be,” he said.
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Twitter @thekat_hamilton.