By Blox Content Management

Copyright thenassauguardian

Recently, a horrific event captured the attention of the masses, worldwide. A young man by the name of Charlie Kirk was assassinated while interacting with students on a college campus in Utah. Kirk had become a very popular figure in American culture, and I am understanding now that his popularity extended well beyond America. He was a polarizing figure in that some hated him and some loved him. Some were encouraged by his opinions and others were offended. When he passed from the bullet of an assassin, there were divided responses. Some celebrated his death, while others mourned deeply.

The question that is reverberating is whether it is appropriate to kill someone who has decided to express their opinion publicly by those who are offended by that opinion?

I am not at the moment speaking to whether his opinion was right or wrong. Instead, my question is whatever the opinion, is it justifiable to murder someone because of their opinion in a free and democratic society?

If we look at it from a kingdom perspective, the Bible tells us not to rejoice over evil. If we begin killing people over their opinion, where does it end?

If people are offended by opinions about race, religion, belief system, then killing each other will become a norm because one person may be offended and another in full agreement with the opinion.

Who determines who is right or wrong?

When individuals from one side or the other make that determination, it is only a matter of time for people on the other side to do the same, and we descend into a killing competition.

The Bible tells us that God is not willing that any should perish, which means that people who disagree with us should pray for, and pray that God would help them see the light. It does not mean we should not express our opinion about their opinion.

The world is a better place when we can each speak our mind and at the end of the day respect each other regardless.

If you do not like someone’s views, the medium to fight is through activism, the court system, the ballot box and even the media — but not by the gun.

My position is that I live my life from a kingdom perspective, as Jesus expounded. I am not attached to any personality, party, individual, race or creed. All of those are secondary issues.

I consider my primary citizenship to be the kingdom of God, so even my status as a Bahamian is a secondary status. I have learned not to put my trust or confidence in man. I view everyone through the lens of the kingdom.

When they line up with what I believe to be kingdom principles, I can support them in those instances. When they don’t, I do not. I will call out the bad and acknowledge the good, no matter who the person is.

I have seen many of the clips from Charlie Kirk, and there are some that I believe were wrong and some that were right. I will not support or agree with the ones that I consider wrong, and I will not ignore the ones that I consider right. The same goes for any person, leader, politician, pundit or activist. Everyone is viewed through the same lens.

Another thing that I have learned to do is to not look to man for righteousness. If they align with righteousness, it’s good, but I prefer to focus on the policies that they believe in or espouse as opposed to their personal righteousness because when I look at the political landscape in particular, it is not a pretty picture on either side. I will always be independent when it comes to social and political issues. I will not be a donkey for any group or agenda. I come to the table with my own agenda, and when people line up with my agenda, we are good. If they do not, it does not matter who they are, I come with a kingdom agenda as my permanent unalterable agenda.

To his credit, Charlie Kirk gave invitations to those who disagreed with him to make their case, and he debated them peacefully. That is something that I consider noble and a good trait that we should all adopt, to ensure that we remain civil and open to communicate with each other even when we may disagree. My hope, and my prayer, is that we would all learn from this tragedy and get to a point where we can share opinions but not kill one another when we disagree.

Pastor Dave Burrows is senior pastor at Bahamas Faith Ministries International. Feel free to email comments, whether you agree or disagree, to pastordaveburrows@ hotmail.com. I appreciate your input and dialogue. We become better when we discuss, examine and exchange.