by Kathy Gyngell, TCW
WHAT touched me most about the memorial to Charlie Kirk held in Arizona on Sunday –understood to be largest in known history – was the way speakers spoke so openly, eloquently and unaffectedly about their deep Christian faith.
This is something British people of faith find difficult, preferring to keep their faith, and maybe their doubt, private. Or perhaps they are simply not sufficiently versed in it.
Listening to the speakers, their confidence about and knowledge of their faith was palpable. Speaker after speaker showed how well they knew the Bible, Old Testament and New (story by story, passage by passage and by heart), in a way that few Brits are ever taught it – that is to say, meaningfully.
I became convinced that it gave the speakers real and unaffected confidence. It’s also what made the eulogy of JD Vance, the Vice President of the USA, particularly poignant. From his own admission he has come to this on his own, not though children’s bible classes or parental guidance.