By Kerwin Holmes, Jr.

I imagine that this post will be brief. It goes without much saying that there has been a lot of exposure happening in our culture since the last three weeks of events. As you know, faithful readers, I do not write about every passing event which transpires.¹ I simply do not have the time, nor always the interest. But, in light of the sudden passing of Dr. Voddie Baucham, Jr., a man whose sermonic materials I did recommend (at least in part) in previous posts, and who profoundly shaped many of the people around me (even in leading a Jewish Israeli-American friend of mine deeper in his Christian faith, in leading another ex-Muslim friend of mine deeper into his, and being a stalwart example of a life well-lived for countless others), I felt it necessary to write about something that ties all of these events together.

We surely do live in a world that has no qualms for taking you out of context should it prop up their own bias or their own ego. Such is life. But it is astounding that for both Charlie Kirk and Voddie Baucham, though there are literally days worth of video evidence of their views, how cherry-picking and clever editing have tarred and feathered both of their names– I speak even more specifically of Charlie Kirk.

I have seen so many, even fellow family members, attack others for ideas and thoughts that Charlie Kirk never espoused. Many claim that he was racist. I do not see how that charge could ever stick. Of course, even in my own admitted limited capacity of viewing Charlie Kirk’s media output, as I had mentioned in my prior post, I knew that charge to be bogus. The man became internet famous and university-famous among today’s youth precisely for the hot takes of him being accused of that particular charge and then embarrassing his accuser…often with a charity that earned Charlie criticisms from his own team.

I’ll just leave two contextual videos for those who still want to float that idea around. It is just one of the many myths being used by those who celebrated his death (or those too cowardly to fully condemn it and those who cheer it on, I will come for those weaklings soon) to justify their evil personalities.

I don’t believe in “race” either, as you will know from reading this blog (see here and here for explicit, past examples). It makes it that much easier for me to make sense of my own ethnicity in terms of my most recent ancestors— complicated as that is by the legacy of anti-African bigotry in the United States and the erroneous assumptions of “racial categories” that many, for some ungodly reason, wish to perpetuate today in perpetual cycles of grievances.

I did remark in one of my footnotes in the previous post that I knew that even by writing a condemnation of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, that I would be inviting academics to tar and feather me as well. It is a shame to even have such an expectation in an institution that holds, of all people, Socrates to be a demonstrable exemplar. I only hold such an expectation because I have received that treatment before by many “well-meaning” persons too couped up in their echo chambers of selective behavioral sciences.

I have written before how racism’s true goal is to control behavior. It always has been. That is also the goal of terrorism.

And now you see how evil operates.

But, sadly, God has revealed a bit more to us (should our eyes be open) by way of the additional death of Dr. Voddie Baucham, Jr. This is a man who was tarred and feathered by many, even in the Church and even former friends, all for being free, consistent, charitable, and uncompromising in how he treated other brothers and sisters in the Body of Christ. When the “cool kids” wanted Baucham to not associate with certain ministers due to their not towing the cookie-cutter line of beige conviction, Baucham not only disregarded their fears, but he openly, and very charitably, challenged them to be courageous, as you can see from this sermon (one of his last before his death).

Interestingly enough, both Charlie Kirk and Voddie Baucham were once on the same stage addressing the exact issues and evils from the exact sorts of people whom we are seeing attempting to tarnish their legacy. For Voddie Baucham, it is much from the intolerants pretending that he never existed. I am accustomed to that treatment as well. Thankfully, however, they do not hold monopolies on public memory as they used to.

That said, I do expect some coordinated effort from Big Eva (perhaps from Christianity Today or TGC or some other affiliate of the “cool kids” club) to release a coordinated-article-assault upon the integrity and character of Voddie Baucham.²

I decided to add one more clip of Voddie Baucham, just to show how good of a time he had while being known as “that guy.”

And for the shared stage that Baucham and Kirk appeared upon:

But, of course, we have some things to bemoan within the Church herself.

Here we have a grown man with the audacity and self-confidence to lead the adults of his community who speaks of his high school daughter as if she is a third-grader and has the wherewithal of the same. This touches on something else that I have seen in Christian education in particular, but also just among Christian parents (and I can bet that she attends a Christian school or is educated in a Christian bubble):

Christian teachers and parents, and I say so having been the former and thereby having been impacted by the latter: please for the love of Christ above us stop raising up emotionally weak and intellectually dull children.³ If you see the Christian educational sphere as some sort of shelter for your child to be raised in, you are wrong. The Christian educational sphere does not shield your child from the world. Rather, its only purpose ought to be to prepare your child for the world, and even to prepare the world for your child. Let me explain: your child will be impacted by outside forces beyond of your controls no matter what. And, should you be blessed with good fortune and health and should your own desires be met, your child will eventually graduate and leave that Christian educational bubble and enter into the world beyond it. So stop kidding yourselves about life. Challenge your children! Raise up men and women in your children who see the dragons of life and laugh while putting on the armor of God, and who are effective in that armor!

Raise them up to be better than you! That ought to be the goal of every parent.

Also, if you attend McLean Baptist Church or any other congregation like it with a pastor who speaks about his near-adult⁴ daughter in this way without appropriate shame, you are being led by a man too weak to lead your congregation. If that draws out from you your insulted sympathies rather than your sad assent to my opinion, then you yourself are weak too. Get stronger. Because “[i]f you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small!”⁵

Μαλακοί (malakoi), morally-weak people, have no business leading God’s people.⁶ And atop that, we now have confirmation that the world will tar and feather you for 20 to 30 seconds of out of context citations even when you put out days worth of context revealing who you truly are.

Case in point, mi gente, no confían en los hombres ni en las mujeres. Don’t put your trust in people. Trust yourself to God.

They spoke, and speak, this way about the Master. Do not be ashamed when they speak thusly about you.

And those of you who know the truth: defend your brothers and sisters in public and in private. Do not assent to the false witness of others.

To God be the glory. He is shining great lights upon all of us. May we see with open eyes. For by His light we see light.⁷

I encourage you to read the rest of Proverbs in your Bible.

1. I have decidedly not written about the recent spat in crimes or the tragic murder of Iryna Zarutska and the very paradigmatic lack of response by those around her to save her life, or to even move to apprehend her murderer. It is paradigmatic in that it is a snapshot of what is happening in our culture today: the total disregard of life by selfish apathy which is then reasoned away by whatever immorality, be it prejudices or whatever, that ties fig leaves over our shame. But I will say this as an interested party: The criminality among inner-city black American communities is something that is not the historical norm for this nation and also, largely, a modern-day result of the catastrophic breakdown of Christianity and family in those many communities. You will very often find in the many “church” congregations in those area homosexual and effeminate men and domineering women leading the religious pomp and circumstances– if you even find steeples therein. Having long affected other black Americans the most, it has spilled over into other populaces in ways that are simply no longer feasibly ignored. This is a sign of the cultural rot that awaits the entire nation, sadly. And, as if God were writing a notecard straight to us, as detailed in the video I shared from Jason Whitlock’s channel, this was a subject that was near and dear to the hearts of both Voddie Baucham and Charlie Kirk, with Baucham having even done documentary interviews with Chad O. Jackson in the films Uncle Tom and Uncle Tom 2, which shed light on how this radical change occurred in black communities. I share the link to the free-to-watch Uncle Tom 2 documentary here, with your own curiosity and tenacity to urge you onto the previous installment. ↩︎
2. But, perchance, they may take cues from the morally-compromised folks Jason Whitlock and company lambast, and take the coward’s way out by pretending Rev. Dr. Voddie Baucham, Jr. never existed. By the way, I am aware of the posts that TGC and Christianity Today have written about both men. But that is usually how critique goes. A post to state what both men represented without the explicit endorsement of their ideas which the “cool kids” don’t like, followed later by specific posts of critique for “tone” and “division.” Now, will these groups actually refute the hard truths that either man said? Not likely. To do so would be to part from what has become their modus operandi. No, and merely saying a response and supporting it lackadaisically with Scripture is not a “refutation” when it carries no corrective merit. It is, rather, only an assertion. And assertions may even be tied to false charges against what someone actually said. Apparently the elders at McLean Baptist Church know a thing or two about the art of assertions (and they are not alone). ↩︎
3. By the way, I am not saying this to lambast anyone’s child (especially the children that I taught). I speak in generalities from what I have seen in higher education when these students enter into the world and are wholly underprepared for today’s challenges to their worldview. This also is not to say that we should not be sensitive to the plights of other believers, even when they break the law (as can be felt by all affected by the law enforcement of immigration policies). But this is to say that when a louder chorus of amens can be said against the absent and unsubstantiated words of Charlie Kirk than can be said for his murder, we have a discernment issue for righteousness and a triage issue for addressing wrongs. ↩︎
4. And what ought to be most jarring is that in most of human history, I say this guessing at her age, she likely would be considered to be an adult right now. What are we doing to our youth? Men and women both without their chests! ↩︎
5. Quotations are present because this is a Bible verse. Proverbs 24:10. You will find in that URL alternate translations that demonstrate how apt this verse is for the McLean pastor and every other pastor and Christian who has stepped on a rake during this time. The man couldn’t even function properly, maligning Charlie Kirk in the process, all because of emotional responses to misinformation and, sadly, the emotional responses from his ill-equipped daughter. God help them both and grant them better strength and prudence! God help that congregation. And, if you’re in that congregation or one like it, may God convict you to help yourself into better leadership and grant you some meat on your bones! ¡Cobra ánimo, mi gente! ↩︎
6. See this post for more details. ↩︎
7. Psalm 36:9. This verse happens to be the official mottos for Columbia University and Valparaiso University. Go figure. ↩︎
8. This last verse contains a divine warning. Heed it well. ↩︎