In the cacophony of today’s political discourse, I found myself frozen by words that cut against the grain of my soul. Charlie Kirk’s rhetoric echoes through social media channels and conference halls like a discordant hymn, each note striking painfully against the harmonious message of Christ’s love. His statements—degrading Black women, scorning compassion, diminishing civil rights achievements, and sowing seeds of fear about LGBTQ+ individuals—ring hollow in the cathedral of Christian teaching.

My faith compels me to lift my voice above the din. Like a lighthouse keeper watching storm-tossed waters, I cannot dim my light when I witness leaders wielding their influence like a sword, cutting down those created in God’s perfect image. Scripture whispers ancient wisdom: “By their fruits you will know them.” And these fruits, bitter and poisonous, bear no resemblance to the sweet grace of genuine Christian leadership.

I follow Jesus who walked dusty roads to reach the overlooked, who broke bread with society’s castoffs, who stood unwavering before the powerful when they crushed the powerless. This Jesus didn’t carry a clipboard to check credentials based on skin color or celebrate when rights were stripped from the vulnerable. Instead, He painted a portrait of God’s Kingdom with broad, inclusive strokes, especially highlighting those pushed into life’s shadows.

What pierces my heart most deeply, like thorns through tender flesh, is witnessing the spiritual frostbite spreading through our communities—exactly as Scripture forewarned. We’ve grown numb to the practice of othering, finding comfort in drawing lines between “us” and “them” based on appearance, accent, or origin. Yet before God’s throne, these human-made boundaries dissolve like morning mist.

As followers of Christ, we stand at a crossroads where faith intersects with conscience. We must ask ourselves: When we amplify voices that divide, are we truly walking in Jesus’s footsteps? When policies wound the vulnerable and we respond with applause, does the echo sound like love?

Time flows like a river toward eternity, carrying away our temporal achievements—political victories, social status, worldly influence. What remains, crystallized in heaven’s ledger, is how we embraced “the least of these.” Let us choose a path illuminated by truth and justice, expressing Christ’s love not through hollow words, but through actions that weave humanity together in God’s tapestry of grace.