By: Simon Brooke :: 23 September 2025
A person by the name of Charlie Kirk was shot dead on a university campus in Utah, USA, this month. This piece is not a defence of his assassin. No one should be killed for their political opinions. However, the claim has been made — not least by Kirk himself — that Kirk was a Christian. As an ex-Christian, and as someone concerned with both theology and ethics, I want to examine that claim.
What are my qualifications for deciding who is and is not Christian?
I have none, and do not decide. I am agnostic precisely because I believe that it is blasphemous to make any strong claim about the numinous. I shall set forth the evidence, and leave the decision for you.
What is a Christian?
A Christian is a monotheist who believes that a certain person, Iesu ben Iussuf, a Jew born in Bethlehem in Palestine1 around the year 30 BCE, known in English as 'Jesus', literally was God.
That's a very strong claim. It's also a claim that those things which ben Iussuf taught his followers to do are literally the word of God, which therefore his followers are bound to follow. Do we know exactly that ben Iussuf said? Well, actually, we don't, because all we have is records which were oral for at least a generation, so no one (I believe) who wrote them down had personal memory of hearing them spoken. But
- There is good concordance between several different accounts of what he said; and
- (Most) Christians believe that the compilation and selection of texts in The Bible was divinely inspired, and thus that everything in it is true. No, I am not making this up.
The tests
Here follows a set of tests through which you can decide whether someone is sincerely a Christian, based on what the person Christians believe was literally God instructed2 his followers to do.
| Does this person... | if yes | if no | authority | notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Discriminate against foreigners, or adherents to another religion | Not a Christian | Luke 10:30-37; Matthew 5:44 | The Samaritans were a particularly hated and reviled neighbouring religious state for biblical era Jews of Judea. See also Luke 17:12-19. | |
| Swear any oath | Not a Christian | Matthew 5:34 | ||
| Fancy any woman | Not a Christian | Matthew 5:28 | As far as I'm aware, ben Iussuf said nothing about not fancying men, so heterosexual women and gay men get a pass. | |
| Use or advocate violence against any person, even in retaliation | Not a Christian | Matthew 5:39 | ||
| Pray (or give charitably) in public | Not a Christian | Matthew 6:2 | Or speak about having done so; read Matthew 6:2-15 for context. | |
| Judge any person | Not a Christian | John 8:4-7; Matthew 7:31 | ||
| Live in poverty | Not a Christian | Matthew 19:21 |
So, does the person you are considering — Charlie Kirk or any other person — pass these tests? It's not sufficient to pass some of the tests but not others. Who says not? Not me: I'm merely reporting what ben Iussuf — whom Christians believe to be God — himself instructed.
But if a person claims to be a Christian but does not follow the teachings of Christ, what does that make them?
Bethlehem was then in the Roman province of Judea; 'Palestine' at the time probably referred only to what is now Gaza. The region was renamed Syria Palaestina in 138 CE.
↩My late father in law, a Presbyterian minister who had served as a Royal Marine Commando in the war, was keen to explain that Jesus may have said these things, but didn't really mean them. I don't believe this. Ben Iussuf's teachings are very clear, and expressed in simple language. I believe he meant exactly what he said.
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