Jerry Falwell Jr.'s false gospel of memes

The Falkirk Center for Faith and Liberty promises to be a perversion of the gospel it claims to serve

Jerry Falwell Jr.
(Image credit: Illustrated | John Moore/Getty Images, artishokcs/iStock, Aerial3/iStock)

If what you seek is a pseudo-Christian syncretism, a false gospel that supplements the work of Christ with pop nationalism, a catechism of tweets and iconography of memes — well, I've got just the thing for you.

Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. and Turning Point USA (TPUSA) leader Charlie Kirk have a new project: The Falkirk Center for Faith and Liberty, which takes as its aim "equip[ping] courageous champions to proclaim the Truth of Jesus Christ, to advance His Kingdom, and renew American ideals." Whatever it may achieve for American ideals, this endeavor won't proclaim a truth or advance a kingdom its founders demonstrably do not understand.

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.