Exaggerate much?
Too much overheated rhetoric surrounding Trump, 'revival'
Turning Point USA Executive Director Charlie Kirk talked to a crowd at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. within two hours after Donald Trump’s Inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025. Charlie Kirk/YouTube
Bold hot takes.
Provocative clickbait headlines.
It leads to a culture that feeds off viral videos giving us a steady diet of social media influencers.
This is a fixture of our politics. Sadly, it has infected right-of-center personalities, even those communicating about faith and culture. Two examples involve the early stages of President Donald Trump’s second term, and the third involves the hyperfocus on calling events in our culture “a spiritual revival.”
The first one involves Turning Point USA Executive Director Charlie Kirk. TPUSA played a role in the get-out-the-vote effort for Trump in election 2024. Kirk gets much attention for his college campus visits and all things Trump.
Kirk, age 31, spoke to a large crowd of Millennials and Gen Z Trump supporters at Capital One Arena, shortly after the Inauguration. As Kirk encouraged the crowd with what Trump’s election means, he also said:
What you saw from President Trump today, which by the way, I believe was the best Inaugural Address in American history. And the reason why it was the best is not platitudes, or abstractions, or empty promises. It wasn’t about what the DC Regime wants to hear. While they were sitting behind him, he basically said these people have been robbing you, the American people. …
Kirk would boast about being informed about American history and issues impacting Americans. He would also boast about owning liberals with his convincing oratory.
Yet, he stated his opinion about Trump’s Inaugural Address being the best one in American history–not one of the best Inaugural Addresses–which would have been far more measured and balanced.
He can get a pass for being enthusiastic about the moment. However, Kirk fails the tempered rhetoric test as numerous presidents have delivered excellent Inaugural Addresses. His subjective opinion is biased because he got paid by Trump last fall.
One America News Tipping Point show host Kara McKinney made comments about President Donald Trump the day of the National Prayer Breakfast. TippingPointOAN/X
Another example involves One America News Network Tipping Point show host Kara McKinney. The self-proclaimed Catholic and conservative has a show at 11 p.m. Monday to Friday. On the evening of February 6, McKinney played a clip of President Trump at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C. She queued the clip with Trump calling on Americans to get back to God.
Following the 90-second clip, McKinney said:
Have you ever heard any president, or any political leader, for that matter, talk so openly about God? And in a real way, not in hidden terms kind of way meant to placate everyone, Christian, non-Christian, and secular atheist alike. So it’s refreshing to hear …
Like Kirk, she’s enthusiastic about Trump being president, and OANN is an alternative pro-Trump network. She’s pleased to show Trump talking about God at a time when it’s getting more attention in our culture. OANN settled a lawsuit in April 2024 with Smartmatic from reporting of election 2020.
Believers would agree this is refreshing to hear from the president. Being well-meaning is one thing, but making a dogmatic statement without awareness of the history of presidents is another.
Former presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush talked freely about faith and spiritual issues. And how is she unfamiliar with former President Ronald Reagan biographer Paul Kengor, the Grove City College professor who has chronicled Reagan’s communication about God, faith, and its importance for the nation and Americans?
Perhaps the issue is not McKinney, but the education system that failed her because she didn’t have textbooks or teachers that believed presidents talking about faith was important. McKinney could have used far more tepid rhetoric to communicate this issue. She chose dogmatism over balanced historical examples of presidents talking about faith.
Additionally, there are many people of faith talking about “spiritual revival” in America. The signs are everywhere, including:
A spike in Bible sales for first-time buyers.
A conspicuous presence of faith in the sports world, both professional and college.
Reports of mass baptisms on college campuses and churches nationwide.
People like Richard Dawkins and Elon Musk calling themselves cultural Christians.
The conversion of Ayaan Hirsi Ali and her husband Niall Ferguson and others.
Breakpoint.org chronicled more of the spiritual activity unfolding in the culture. Any Christ follower should desire this for the nation that has been post-Christian for most of the past 40 to 50 years, perhaps longer. The need for spiritual revival has been readily apparent as America navigated political correctness and wokeness.
All of these signs are encouraging, but the reality is we cannot dogmatically declare a “spiritual revival” in America without far more evidence. When the American church changes, that’s when spiritual revival will be known by everyone.
As 2 Chronicles 7:14 states: “And My people who are called by My name humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
The American church is riddled with easy-believism, having a form of godliness, but denying its power, displaying signs of spiritual health but relying on something other than just the gospel.
If you’re looking for revival, watch for renewed mission, purpose, and boldness from America’s pulpits that will generate holiness and righteousness in the pews because the Holy Spirit is doing something that can’t be explained on earth.
