Charlie Kirk on the Christian founding
von Pavellim: Charlie Kirk
The one-year mark since Charlie Kirk was killed falls on September 10, 2026, and the response getting passed around is his answer to a claim that the USA was a common law project because the Declaration of Independence only name-checks God four times while the Constitution skips Him entirely and just lays out how government runs. His first move was to say you're reading the wrong documents. Start with what each state and colony wrote for itself before the federal stuff. Thirteen out of thirteen demanded a declaration of faith. Nine of those thirteen wanted a Protestant profession specifically. Maryland went Catholic instead, but a declaration was still on the table there. Pennsylvania was no exception either. The old state constitutions carried confessions along the lines of 'I confess Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.' Then the signers. Of the fifty-six who put their names on the Declaration, fifty-five were Christians who believed in the Bible and attended church. Common law, he said, traces back to William Blackstone, and Blackstone was a Christian. The system itself grew out of scripture. Three of its core principles: presumption of innocence, due process, and a jury of your peers. All three, in his telling, are biblical. Underneath them sits a bigger rule from Leviticus 19, the one about not tilting justice toward the rich or the poor, which sits right before the chapter's most quoted line, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' That's where the Western notion of blind justice comes from, he argued, and the New Testament picks it up: 'There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free… for you are all one in Christ Jesus.' Equality of people. Biblical ideas, he insisted, not Enlightenment ones. On the four God mentions in the Declaration, his reading is that the last paragraph is a prayer. It appeals to the supreme Judge of the universe. Who's that judge? Jesus Christ. Revelation says Jesus will judge the earth from his throne. So in that document, they were praying to Christ, specifically. Deuteronomy, he said, referring to what he'd said on stage the day before, was the most cited book of the founding era, religious or otherwise, ahead of John Locke, ahead of Montesquieu, ahead of Blackstone. Laws, customs, traditions. Moses on his way out, 'Good luck in Canaan. Here is how you should organize your government.' And the founders. John Adams said the Constitution was written exclusively for a moral and religious people and is completely unsuitable for people of any other type. American society was so Christian and so Protestant that the government's form and structure was built for people who believed in Christ. That's what leads to his diagnosis of now: the country isn't Christian anymore but still keeps a Christian shape of government, and the two don't fit. Hence the constitutional crisis. His conclusion is that freedom can't exist without a Christian population.
Transkript (en)
Our country was found on common law because the declaration only refers to God four times, and the Constitution doesn't refer to God at all, and it only articulates the structure of government. So first of all, remember that we were a collection of states and colonies, and you need to read the state constitutions before anything else. 13 out of 13 required a declaration of faith. 9 out of 13 required you to be a Protestant, except Maryland, which was Catholic, which still required a declaration of faith. Every single one of the original state constitutions, Pennsylvania included, they had, I profess Lord and Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior in the original state constitutions. Secondly, 55 out of 56 of the original signers of the Declaration were Bible-believing church attending Christians. You asked about common law. So common law is inherited from Blackstone, who was Christian. Common law is an outgrowth of the scriptures. So let's go to three principles of common law. Presumption of innocence, due process, and jury of your peers. All three are biblical principles. So, and all wrapped into the ultimate biblical principle that you shall not favor justice if you are rich or poor, which is in Leviticus 19, right before the most famous part of Leviticus 19, which is that you should love your neighbors yourself. But before that is that in the administration of justice, you shall not favor the rich or the poor, which is the idea of blind justice. We get that in the West, which is incorporated also in the New Testament ideal, neither slave nor Greek nor Jew You all one in Jesus Christ We got the idea of human equality These are all biblical ideas They not enlightenment ideas But more importantly than that they say that God was only mentioned four times in the Declaration of Independence Well that a big deal Okay. Laws of nature and nature's God. The last paragraph of the Declaration reads as a prayer. It says, we appeal to the supreme judge of the universe. Who's the judge of the universe? Jesus Christ. It says in Revelation that Jesus will judge the earth on his throne. So in the declaration, they were praying to Christ our Lord as a prayer very specifically. Thirdly, as I said on stage yesterday, Deuteronomy was by far the most quoted book, religious or non-religious, in the time of the founding when they were putting together the Constitution, more than John Locke, more than Montesquieu, more than Blackstone. So the book of Deuteronomy, which talked about laws, customs, traditions, it was Moses' farewell address as he's about to say goodbye, say, hey, good luck in Canaan, guys. Here's how you should set up your form of government. but finally and most importantly let's look at actually what the founders said john adams famously said the constitution was only written for a moral religious people it was wholly inadequate for the people of any other the body politic of america was so christian and was so protestant that our form and structure of government was built for the people that believed in christ our lord one of the reasons we're living through a constitutional crisis is that we no longer have a christian nation but we have a christian form of government and and they're incompatible. So you cannot have liberty if you do not have a Christian population.
