The death of Charlie Kirk has encouraged some bad actors to weaponise Christian belief at both ends of the political spectrum, argues Kevin McKenna

Of the many falsehoods that have poured forth following Charlie Kirk’s murder one has settled virtually unchallenged in the consciousness of the salon left for a few years. It’s the assumption that if you profess a Christian faith then you must be dismissed as an implacable conservative. It’s rooted in lazy thinking and a refusal to make even the merest intellectual enquiry of authentic Christianity.

Of course, the most flagrant illusion that binds the rest of them is that those falsely accusing Mr Kirk of racism, homophobia and sexism are by any reasonable measure left-wing or liberal at all.

In recent years, the words and deeds of some who fraudulently identify as left-wing in Scotland and the UK have come to define what are routinely described as the culture wars. Rather than debate some of the issues at the centre of this struggle many of them choose instead to vilify and condemn. Violent threat and intimidation are routinely deployed not merely to silence women (and it is overwhelmingly women), but to destroy their lives and careers.

If we were to judge these people on such conduct then their claims to be anywhere on the left/liberal spectrum would be considered absurd. I was once inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt and to be empathetic about it: their rage may be rooted in historical trauma and they could be struggling with hidden challenges. But having witnessed this fury close up I now believe some of it is........

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