Hey, John Stone Street here. This is your official invite to join us at the 2026 Colson Center National Conference. It'll be held in Knoxville, Tennessee, May 29th to the 31st. Again, Knoxville, Tennessee, May 29th to the 31st. The theme this year is you are here.
You might remember those large, now largely empty buildings. called shopping malls. You had all kinds of stores and you were trying to find the one you were looking for and you had to go to the map. And not only did you need to find the store, you needed to find that yellow arrow or the star that said you are here. Our culture today changes so fast and at such a profound civilizational level.
And that of course is because we've abandoned the truth and we're reaping the consequences.
So a conference like this is absolutely necessary to get the lay of the land, to kind of figure out what's happening in culture and at what moment we're really in. If you've ever wondered if your faithfulness and obedience can make a difference in this civilizational moment that we're in, this is the conference for you.
So join us at the Colson Center National Conference. You'll be hearing from fantastic speakers like the one and only Oz Guinness. Remarkable story of Chloe Cole, Abdu Murray, and many more that will be announced soon. If you register before November 29th, you can receive up to 50% off tickets. For more details and secure your spot, For the Colson Center National Conference, May 29th through the 31st, Go to colsonconference.org.
That's colsonconference.org. Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stomestreet. On Friday, Representative Alexandria Casia-Cortez was among a number of Democratic lawmakers to vote against a resolution to honor the late Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated September the 10th. After condemning his murder as a horrific and vile attack, the congresswoman then went on to associate his work with what she called America's legacy of bigotry.
Likewise, Representative Benny Thompson said that Kirk's rhetoric was divisive, disparaging, and rooted in grievance, end quote.
Now, these statements mirror a claim that continues to fill many news feeds and talk shows. While millions mourned and many others celebrated Kirk's assassination, there's a third approach to qualify his murder as detestable while accusing Charlie Kirk of hate, violence, white supremacy, and a number of other dangerous phobias. Many have believed the accusation. Many others have rejected it after spending hours looking through his videos.
Well last week, theologian and author Dr. Thaddeus Williams of Biola University ran an experiment to test the claim. I asked Dr. Williams to share what he found. Using multiple accounts, multiple IP addresses, and multiple devices to avoid politically charged algorithms.
I crowdsourced the worst quotes people could find of Charlie from my friends who staunchly disagreed with him. In the end, I analyzed 100 videos. In forty four of those hundred videos, there was no name calling from either side. That means in fifty-six videos insults were hurled. Here's where things get interesting.
In those 56 videos, Charlie is called names a total of 59 times by those who disagreed with him. He was called stupid, insane, honorless, classless, weird, freak, loser, pathetic, spineless, cowardly, sick, piece of trash, Nazi, Hitler, and dozens of other unsavory terms that I won't bother to repeat here. In no instance did Charlie Kirk respond by calling the person who insulted him a derogatory name. not once did he return evil for evil quite the contrary, in fact. Often he hushed the crowd so his opponent could continue to make their case.
and often he thanked his opponents for their courage in publicly engaging with him on hard topics. How many times did Charlie in the hundred videos resort to name-calling? The answer is 11. In one video, he calls someone, quote, low IQ individual. Who is he referring to?
a young man who praised Adolf Hitler. In another video, Charlie used the term idiots. Who did he use that term to describe? A now defunct group of neo Nazis known as Identity Europa. In a third case, Charlie used the term losers.
However, he was not addressing a particular individual rather he was telling young men not to live in their parents' basements on their parents' dimes playing video games all day, but to go make something of themselves. In a fourth instance he levelled the insult Stupid Muslims. In the very same breath, he made it obvious that he's not describing all Muslims, but speaking of that subgroup within Islam that kills Jews. In a fifth and sixth instance he used the terms tranny and freaks in the context of describing specific individuals who celebrate such terms themselves. In a seventh instance, he referred to four specific black public figures as lacking, quote, brain power.
This personal, albeit uncharitable, assessment was not of an entire race, but of specific individuals. He also made several similar claims about white people he did not think were qualified for powerful positions. In the eighth instance, he raised a question about quote black pilots. not making the racist claim that black people are inferior to white people at flying, but rather criticizing DEI hiring policies that prioritize melanin over merits. When asked directly about white supremacy, Charlie said this.
When I encounter anyone around the ideology of white supremacy, I repudiate it and I reject it. TPUSA rejects anyone that has hatred. Would a white supremacist organization host a black leadership summit, host the nation's largest Latino leadership summit in the country? This leaves three cases. in which Charlie called someone names.
And these are the videos that I think are most revealing about who Charlie was, what he believed, and what he stood for. I'm a sinner. I'm selfish. I'm broken. And only thanks to Jesus' perfect sacrifice, coming and living a perfect life, that I get something I do not earn, but has been given to me, this free gift of eternal life.
So, in the end, Charlie Kirk's most vivid case of name-calling was aimed at none other than Charlie Kirk. Was he perfect? No, and he knew it.
So we look to the only one who lived a perfect life. Jesus Christ the perfect sacrifice. may broken, selfish, sinners like us do the same. That was Dr. Thaddeus Williams.
For his full analysis, see his Shed and Beam podcast on YouTube. For the Colson Center. I'm John Stone Street with Breakpoint. If you're a fan of Breakpoint, leave us a review wherever you download your podcast. And for more resources to live like a Christian today, go to breakpoint.org.
