Truth Is Not Hate: The Pulpit and Charlie Kirk
When shepherds echo the slogans of the age, the Church must choose between cowardice and Christ.
“Here’s the bottom line: rebuke is not racism. Correction is not bigotry. Truth is not hate. The apostle Paul asked the Galatians, ‘Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth?’ (Gal. 4:16). That’s the same question these pastors need to wrestle with today.” — Virgil Walker, Cowards Over a Grave
Virgil Walker’s essay Cowards Over a Grave is more than a fiery response to the way some black pastors reacted to Charlie Kirk’s assassination. It is a window into something far deeper: pulpits colonized by Progressivism and co-opted into serving the regime of technocratic religion. Instead of confronting sin, so many pastors echo the slogans of the age - racism, equity, inclusion, while ignoring the devastating realities of fatherlessness, abortion, and crime in their own pews.
Not limited to black pastors or Progressive communities, Walker’s analysis stands as a faithful rebuke (and corrective) of a church-wide phenomenon—a “fear of man” ensnaring overseers and congregations everywhere. The cause of this Evanjellyfish drift is a sinful respect for persons—ethnicity, social status, grievances, and political alignments—and an urge to capitulate to ideological pressures. The effect is a caustic confusion of Christ’s exclusivity with the Social Gospel, particularly, and Liberation Theology, broadly. This isn’t shepherding. It’s compliance.
Walker exposes what he calls the gaslight playbook:
A man points out rising crime? Racist.
He critiques DEI credentialism? Sexist and racist.
He questions Martin Luther King Jr. or the Civil Rights bureaucracy? Blasphemy.
From 2019 at the Truth Matters conference, Voddie Baucham blew up the artificial distinctions that divide us by “race,” even the distinction between Jew and Gentile.
The Progressivist pulpit is not used to rebuke sin, producing a godly sorrow and repentance leading to salvation which is true liberation. Instead, the gospel of grace is subverted by the rhetoric of grievances to protect feelings producing a worldly sorrow that brings about death. Every correction, no matter how rooted in fact, is coded as “hate.” Meanwhile, the true rot—children without fathers, millions of black lives ended in the womb, neighborhoods wrecked by lawlessness—goes largely unaddressed.
“For godly sorrow produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world brings about death.” (2 Corinthians 7:10)
This is precisely how technocratic governance works. Truth is branded as dangerous. Rebuke becomes bigotry. Dissent is labeled extremism. And the state enlists religious voices to sanctify the lie. Sermons are performances.
Walker captures the cowardice of these performative pastors, exposing the motives of their compromise, saying, these men only “roar like lions” when it is safe to roar—over the grave of a man who cannot answer back. When Charlie Kirk was alive, they kept quiet. They knew he would dismantle their arguments with Scripture, data, and reason. But now that he’s dead, they puff up their chests with borrowed courage.
Walker draws a bold bottom line:
Rebuke is not racism.
Correction is not bigotry.
Truth is not hate.
“Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth?” (Galatians 4:16).
That is the question these pastors must wrestle with today.
Armor of Truth has long argued that Progressivism is not simply politics- it is a counterfeit religion. It has its creed (“equity”), its sacrament (abortion), and its prophets (race-baiters in robes). Its authority does not come from God’s Word but from state power and cultural pressure. And like all false religions, it despises genuine rebuke because rebuke unmasks the lie.
The technocratic state thrives on this arrangement. By baptizing rebellion with religious rhetoric, it keeps entire communities docile and distracted. Pastors perform lamentations about “racism” while ignoring the chains of sin that enslave their people. They heal the wound of the people lightly, saying “peace, peace” when there is no peace (Jer. 6:14).
But truth will not stay buried. Christ Himself said,
“If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31–32).
The Church must be sober minded. We speak truth in love against cowards who parrot the catechism of Progressivism. Christ calls His people to repentance, holiness, and truth that sets us free.
At the end of the day, truth will stand. Lies will burn. And no amount of “Yes, but” lament can silence the voice of God. Amen.
And, if Walker exposed cowardice in the pulpit, Dr. Owen Anderson exposes the same rebellion in the classroom—two fronts of the same counterfeit religion of Progressivism.
The Role of Hate in their Philosophy
In a related piece, Dr. Owen Anderson’s Refuting Radicalism at the University nails it: the radical philosophy sweeping campuses is not education but a catechism of hatred masquerading as justice.
What the universities are producing is not true learning but discipleship into rebellion: hatred of self through mutilation, hatred of neighbor through grievance, hatred of creation through child-destruction, hatred of God’s order through the redefinition of reality, and hatred of God’s people through persecution.
This is why we must continue exposing the lie. Their framework is not neutral or scientific, it is spiritual war, echoing Alinsky’s infamous praise of Lucifer. The antidote is the gospel of Christ, which alone destroys lies and replaces hate with love, life, and truth.
Engage false ideas one soul at a time. Scripture says they are blind, prisoners of their own ideology, but words are not violence. Lies must be met with truth and love.
Social justice distorts. Biblical justice applies God’s righteous standard equally to all people in all circumstances.
In the end, this moment is also a blessing in disguise. By watching who stands with Charlie and who slanders him, we are shown with striking clarity who stands with Christ and who stands with the fallen world. And for that, we can be grateful- not because division is pleasant, but because truth unmasks. Our response must not be bitterness but boldness: to pray for our enemies, to evangelize the lost, and to press forward in the Great Commission even in the age of technocracy.
Stand firm. Speak boldly. Love deeply in Christ.
Summer Black, Director, Armor of Truth
https://slowtowrite.com/the-world-wasnt-worthy-of-charlie-kirk/
Virgil Walker · Cowards Over a Grave · Owen Anderson · Refuting Radicalism · Samuel Sey · Progressivism · Technocratic Religion · Black Pastors · Christianity Today · Biblical Justice · Social Justice · Gospel Truth · Abortion · Fatherlessness · DEI · Equity Inclusion Diversity · Counterfeit Religion · Marxism · Western Marxism · Technocracy · Armor of Truth
