Print 
PDF
Rolling Stone is trying to crush Charlie Kirk and his Turning Point USA ministry to college students.
They have published an article that attempts to paint Kirk as a hypocrite---which he is not.
Other leftist news operations are now carrying the "Stone" story.
Who is Charlie Kirk, and why is it important?
Be informed, not misled.
Rolling Stone begins with this:
Turning Point USA CEO Charlie Kirk is cheerleading the far-right boycott of Target over the retailer’s Pride collection — which included trans-friendly youth apparel and other LGBTQ-positive gear — for what Kirk calls “their support for grooming kids.”
Kirk’s condemnation of the retailer coincided with TPUSA’s second-annual Pastors Summit in Nashville, Tennessee, this past week. Kirk also denounced Target, telling a crowd of hundreds of religious leaders: “If you love God, you must hate evil.”
Who is Charlie Kirk, and why are Rolling Stone and other leftist news organizations trying to take him down?
Kirk's "Turning Point USA" organization is impacting one of the Left's favorite targets: college students.
His website says, "Thanks to the support of 235,000+ grassroots patriots, Turning Point USA reaches and impacts millions of students on campus and online."
And it does.
Because the ministry is having a positive effect, the leftist news organizations have aligned themselves to undermine---and even destroy Kirk and the TPUSA ministry.
Just last week "Stone" published a story titled "Charlie Kirk’s ‘Turning Point’ Pivots to Christian Nationalism."
They continued, "The organization founded to promote the free market sure is spending a lot of time promoting attacks on the separation of church and state."
I have seen the results of TPUSA's ministry. It is effective.
Rolling Stone saw an opportunity and is now trying to take advantage of it.
Here's what happened.
Kirk's latest problem, according to the press.
Yahoo is one of the many news organizations advancing Rolling Stone's story.
Yahoo said:
Yet in delivering these fevered messages about morality and child welfare, Kirk had an odd benefactor, a man whose criminal history opens up TPUSA to charges of hypocrisy.
Rolling Stone has learned that one of the TPUSA summit’s corporate sponsors is a Christian fashion company that is led by a registered sex offender, Shawn Bergstrand, who served time in federal prison for attempted “coercion and enticement” after trying to persuade “a minor female” to “engage in sexual activity.”
More on Bergstrand in a moment.
In a statement to Rolling Stone, TPUSA spokesman Andrew Kolvet said that TPUSA Faith “was not aware of this incident” but emphasized that, as an “exhibit sponsor,” Bergstrand was not a speaker, organizer, or “professing doctrine from the stage.”
“One of the core tenets of the Christian faith is forgiveness rooted in repentance. After discussing the issue with him, we believe [it] was critical to bringing him to faith,” Kolvet added. “He doesn’t hide from what happened, he instead posts his testimony online on his company website. TPUSA Faith will not toss away a repentant, decent person because of a mistake that happened over a decade before, or because a leftwing outlet wants to write a hit piece on the amazing work our team is doing.” Kolvet included a reference to Colossians 3:13, a Bible verse that reads, in part, “Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”
In today’s conservative movement, nothing animates activists like the supposed liberal indoctrination of children. The religious right, in particular, espouses unhinged rhetoric about how youth are being “groomed” into trans- and LGBTQ ideology by Luciferian leftists.
Riding this wave of populist anger, Kirk and TPUSA have made a hard pivot from the organization’s stated aim, of preaching free-market economics to students, to embracing the cause of Christian nationalism and marshaling church leaders to the frontlines of GOP politics.
At the Pastors Summit, Kirk responded to Rolling Stone’s coverage of his group’s new crusade. “First of all, it’s not my Turning Point,” Kirk insisted of his organization. “It’s the Lord’s Turning Point.” He added: “I am both a Christian and a nationalist, but most importantly, I’m a Christian.”
Rolling Stone saw this as another opportunity to take out Kirk, whose organization does advocate for a free market---something smothered in socialism and in almost all colleges and universities nowadays.
Berstrand was not a speaker or an influencer---he was a vendor promoting his clothing line with Scripture verses on it.
Rolling Stone and their allies have attempted to make this appear to the public as something it was not.
The Left has no concept of forgiveness or restoration. They whip Americans to death over the issue of slavery while promoting Kindi, the "1619 Project," and other lies, yet refuse to acknowledge that America is the only nation in history that fought a civil war over the morality of slavery.
In promotional videos for Rightside Up, Berstrand speaks of his life struggles. “At one time in my life, I lost absolutely completely everything,” he says. “God gives us second chances, third chances, fourth chances,” he says. “It’s up to us what we’re going to do with it.”
Matthew Boedy, a professor at the University of North Georgia, who has also written about TPUSA’s what he calls "odd leap from economic to religious dogma," is the one who brought the story to Rolling Stone.
Kirk's response.
On Saturday night, Kirk responded publicly. He wrote that he wanted to “set the record straight” in a post on Twitter and added that he had never met Bergstrand. “I’m told from the team that coordinates exhibitors that he’s a nice person who did something wrong over a decade ago, and unlike Target, he repented, and the experience led him to his faith. Good for him. That’s the Gospel.”
He was a "vendor," not a participant.
I fully understand the gravity of sexual abuse---anywhere, but particularly in the church.
This wasn't that. But the press would have you believe it was.
This was a man who had no voice in the convention of pastors, buying vending space for his company--- which makes and sells t-shirts with Scriptures on them.
It is a man who testifies that he has met Jesus Christ personally, and Christ has forgiven him of his sins, delivered, and restored him.
Like Kirk says: That's the Gospel.
What a joke.
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) May 28, 2023
Let’s set the record straight.
First, I’ve never met this person. He was one of many exhibitors at our event. He’s not a “corporate sponsor” but rather a small business trying to market his company.
I’m told from the team that coordinates exhibitors that he’s a… https://t.co/guLY0wO0WR
It appears the Left is now setting the stage for biblical Christians to be required to vet every person that walks into a Christian church or event and sits in a pew or folding chair with any notion of participating in a song or prayer to be sure they have never sinned.
Or be labeled as a "hypocrite."
“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (John 1:8).
Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Engaged. Be Bold. Be Prayerful.