Peace May Begin with Silence

Dear Blessed Peacemakers: 

With the assassination this past week of conservative pundit and Turning Point founder Charlie Kirk, our national anxiety is now on full display. I’ve been most impressed at the race between commentators to sound both compassionate and critical, with some losing their jobs within hours of trying to unpack blame and/or culpability on live TV for a heinous murder. It appears, as of writing today’s musing (a disclaimer necessitated by the firehose of information both vetted and made up, which may or may not render me dated, misinformed or perhaps unemployed by the time you read this), that Mr. Kirk was shot by an individual acting alone. What baffles me is how on these occasions it seems necessary for “experts” to discern a motive, often using terms like misguided, erroneously, egregiously, groomed, programmed or radicalized, feeling the need to explain an obviously senseless act. I choose not to categorize the tragically absurd as anything other than that—tragically absurd.

Charlie Kirk was obviously killed by someone who didn’t like him. It happens on the streets of cities and the porches of rural towns all the time. Someone says something or does something that frosts another yahoo with a gun, and that pointlessly armed hothead decides to take a kill shot. Blame the guns, the rhetoric, poor mental health services, socioeconomic disparities, poor discipline in the schools, the loss of God in our hearts, whatever. Multiply that by various gang affiliations or kinfolk with their ginned-up hatred and bam! Another life is taken. Attempts to explain are usually lame attempts to blame, so we can wash our collective hands and wipe them clean on the towels of our pre-programmed prejudice and look forward to hunkering down with our kind. It solves nothing, and while there may be many prayers… I witness precious few thoughts.

Scan the political horizon for anyone who truly believes Kirk’s murder was a good thing or believes that it could have been prevented by better behavior on the part of the opposition, and I’ll show you someone who is lying to score points with their affinity group. There’s a widow, there are kids, there are friends and colleagues and loved ones who will need to move forward without him. It’s the poignant tragedy found at the graveside of every victim of violence. I pray for their comfort in suffering, but I also pray we can stop multiplying pontificating rhetoric as our impulsive reaction to pointless violence.

I write this as a gut check for myself. I’m a pastor after all, with a weekly blog. I want so much to say something profound, something insightful, something to call forth meaning at this obvious pivot point of societal evolution, but in reality, I got nothing. I’m not numb; I’m just sad. Sometimes when the noise is deafening, stillness may be our best contribution. As the Psalmist wrote when confronted with violence and felt a deep burning desire for peace, “Be still and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46.10a)

Writing too many words that only commend silence, I remain,

With Love,
Jonathan Krogh
Your Pastor