How Pastors Should Respond In This Cultural Moment

Charlie Kirk, Pastors, and the Local Church

“If your church didn’t address the demonic murder of Charlie Kirk this weekend, the pastor is a coward and needs to repent and resign"

Really?

I spent the past week fielding calls from pastor friends. The common thread for each call: a desire to be faithful to the Gospel and steward and disciple the church that the Lord entrusted them with. The challenge: a horrific assassination of a man who proudly professed his love for Jesus, unapologetic about the hope of salvation through Christ. The complexity: a platform that was primarily political. A goal to help college students think critically about their values, the nation they lived in, and the future.

The means: public debate.

(Source:¹)

The Nature of Debate and Rhetorical Strategy

Now, let me talk a bit about the nature of debate. There are debate strategies employed by the best debaters, strategies that include philosophical reasoning and a specific kind of rhetorical style that has a purpose. The nature of certain rhetorical styles, whethe…