OPINION:
A few weeks ago, we lost a great Christian gentleman in Charlie Kirk.
Charlie was a man who treated all with respect while never compromising his core beliefs. He did not see his views as a weapon to be used against others but instead sought to engage in dialogue to find out what others believed and refute many of the lies that have permeated our culture, always gently pointing the deceived back to the truth.
In a previous generation, another man with the last name Kirk, Russell Kirk, did the same thing. Rather than shake his fist at the darkness like so many other conservatives, he, like Charlie, sought to bring about cultural renewal, regeneration and restoration through thoughtful discourse.
Charlie and Russell shared the views of the great British parliamentarian Edmund Burke, who said the purpose of conservatism is to favor reform to preserve our freedom and heritage rather than to respond in anger and sorrow to what has been lost.
Burke believed the purpose of politics was not to satisfy the individual wants of the people currently alive but rather to maintain and continue a social order that addressed the past, present and future.
The two Kirks concurred that culture, not politics, was preeminent for lasting change and renewal. Politics is downstream from culture, and culture is downstream from the things of the spirit: peace, love and hope. Politics cannot change a heart or a culture, but the spirit can.
Unfortunately, for some conservatives, as with liberals, politics rather than Christ has become the source of salvation, with grave consequences. That was why Charlie Kirk always directed those at his talks to Jesus instead of political solutions. Worshipping politics instead of Jesus satisfies only individual wants, as Burke noted, while ignoring the need to maintain the social order that has sustained our nation.
As a result, America is experiencing both political and cultural chaos.
Another issue on which both Kirks aligned with Burke was the concept of the gentleman. As Burke stated in “Reflections on the French Revolution,” “All the good things which are connected with manners and civilization have … depended upon … the spirit of a gentleman, and the spirit of religion.”
In calling on men to become husbands, fathers and providers for their families, Charlie Kirk was echoing these words. When young men find purpose in life, they become disciplined and focused. They realize their lives are not their own. They come to model self-sacrifice and unconditional love for those around them. They become good citizens and gentlemen: men who respect women, love children and take their role as providers and nurturers of their families seriously.
Charlie understood that when boys grow up in a world that values accomplishments over personal character, career over family and autonomy over responsibility, they become the antithesis of gentlemen.
When boys see these qualities — respect for women, love for children and the role of provider and nurturer — either mocked or simply not modeled to them, they enter adulthood with little or no purpose. Instead of being strong, in control and under the authority of God, they are weak in spirit and prone to temptation, and they bow to no authority other than their own.
The results are tragic not just for men but also, as Charlie would point out, for women.
Russell Kirk also understood this concept. As Ben Reinhard wrote on The Imaginative Conservative website in 2020: “It is no exaggeration to suggest that the idea of the gentleman stands as the lynchpin of Russell Kirk’s entire social theory. Well-educated, well-read, and virtuous, the gentleman stands as the living link between the present and the past; in many ways, he is the moral imagination embodied.”
Arguing in “America’s British Culture,” Russell Kirk wrote that the gentleman is or ought to be “the guardian of culture.”
That pretty much sums it up. If America is to recover from its political and cultural abyss, we must restore the concept of gentlemen, as modeled by Russell Kirk and Charlie Kirk, as “guardians of culture.” Without such guardianship, we will continue down a dimly lit road to destruction.
It is not too late to turn back and embrace the light that both Kirks, with an assist from Edmund Burke, pointed out: the light of faith and its accompanying virtues of love, hope and personal responsibility. That is what will lead to a bright American future.
• Timothy S. Goeglein is vice president of external and government relations for Focus on the Family. He served as special assistant to President George W. Bush and as a deputy director of the White House Office of Public Liaison.
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