“And I do a show that is, by its very nature, divisive, right?” he said, referencing Jesus’ statement that Christ did not come to bring peace, but a sword. “It’s a portrayal of the most divisive man in human history.”
“We are in a time where people demonize the opposition, the political or spiritual opposition, so much that their death is a logical conclusion,” said Jenkins.
“If you tell enough people that someone, or a group of people, are Nazis, are a threat to your literal freedom and democracy and in fact to your very life,” he said, “I mean, why wouldn’t you think that they should die or at least be stopped in some dramatic way?”
“That’s how some people literally think of Charlie Kirk or Donald Trump or conservative Christians, as existential and literal threats to their lives, and they use terms like ‘evil’ and ‘Nazi’ and whatnot,” he continued.
However, Jenkins has also seen the same behavior from Christians themselves. “I do want to caution all of us, both sides, against the kind of rhetoric that has caused things like this,” he said.
“I personally have seen Christians, Christian conservatives,” said Jenkins, “exaggerate and demonize and inflame to the extent that others have done about Charlie Kirk, about Donald Trump, about conservatives.”
“Again, I’m not making a political statement myself. I’m not defending Donald Trump. I’m not defending Charlie Kirk. I’m not defending anyone’s comments,” Jenkins said. “All I am saying, though, is that I have seen many times people on all sides on social media casually throw out terms like ‘evil’ and ‘destructive,’ ‘destroying the world,’ ‘a threat to your life,’ all that kind of thing.”
In the aftermath of Kirk’s death, Jenkins said that two ideas came to mind. One is that Jesus told his followers that the world was full of evil and that tragedies like assassinations would happen. Yet Jesus came to transform our hearts, not to defeat our political enemies as his disciples expected him to do.
Second, Jenkins returned to the idea that the logical conclusion of speaking words of death and hate is taking action to literally bring about someone’s death. “I always want to bring it back to: Where is Jesus in this?” Jenkins said. “Our call as Christians is not to be like the world is, to not engage in the same way that the world does.”
“I am upset, of course. I’m angry, of course…I do place some of the blame on some of the rhetoric from the opposition,” said Jenkins, “but I also look at some of the rhetoric I’ve seen from our side as well, and I’ve even seen some of it directed at me. And again, I want to be clear, I’m not putting myself in Charles Kirk’s category.”
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