Common Sense Reborn

Sheep and Goats

³¹“When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, He will sit on His glorious throne. ³²All nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. ³³He will put the sheep on His right and the goats on His left.” (Matthew 25:31-33)

This week, the world was witness to the horrific assassination of Charlie Kirk. Thanks to a member of his own base, his senseless murder was posted for the world to see, which I will say was absolutely disgusting. This world has lost all sense of dignity. I, honestly, pray his family has not, and will never see their father, and husband, shot in the throat and bleeding out on his stage.

I saw it. But I have seen such evil in my life that I was not really affected by the video of his assassination. I will see much worse in my line of work. When one of my co-workers broke the news to me of the assassination, he came to me with the video and said “Holy Shit, Charlie Kirk was just sniped”. My honest, initial, response was, “Who is Charlie Kirk?”

This young man was not someone I followed, not someone I listened to, not someone I would have ever paid any attention to. Unfortunately, he stood on his platform and preached a divisive message that got him killed. He should have never been murdered for his views and his voice. He should have just been ignored.

I was challenged that I should listen to his podcasts, so I did. I tried to get through three, but they were full of false narratives (his latest podcast paints ICE as sweeping up the “worst of the worst”, which is not what they did when they swept into my county and arrested 475 South Korean Hyundai workers who had no criminal records). I listened to his racist tone when he spoke about the horrific subway attack in Charlotte, NC and the infliction in his voice when he stressed that the attack was by “black” criminal who killed a “white” woman. And while nothing in his podcasts suggested anything about Kirk being a Christian, many are lifting him up as a martyr for the faith.

Most of the true Christian influencers I follow have all started their condolences for Kirk the same way: “Though I disagreed on almost every issue Kirk stood for, he should have never been killed for his beliefs”. Which I agree with fully. No one should be killed for their opinion. But neither should the Palestinian children who are being murdered every day. Neither should the Democratic senators that were gunned down at their front door. Neither should the Catholic children who were shot during their schooling.

If Kirk’s assassination is the moment when you are saying enough is enough, you are too late. This has gone on for far too long. You are either a sheep or a goat. The sheep see EVERYONE as a Child of God and that EVERY life matters. The goats are the ones that think only their side matters and keep pushing us further and further into division.

This week I realized why Russia loves our current president so much. It is not so much that he is infatuated with putin, but more of how he continues to keep us divided, continues to keep us pointing the finger at the other side and does absolutely nothing to end this madness. Jimmy Kimmel did a fantastic job addressing this at the opening of his monologue the night of Kirk’s assassination.

This morning at church I taught the three-year-old class how they can “love like Jesus”. It is really simple. Jesus loves EVERYONE. Jesus loves Charlie Kirk. Jesus loves the young man that took his life. Jesus loves the transgender. Jesus loves the racist. Jesus loves those that continue to preach hate and discord. Jesus does not love when they live a life that is separate from His love for them. But for us here on earth, we are to love everyone like Jesus does and stop being filled with hate and division. Treat everyone with kindness and compassion. Help the least among us. Stand up for injustice, even when it is against your political party. Wake up Goats. The Shepherd is coming soon.