The Northern California summers are hot, to the tune of 100+ most days. When I was a kid playing out in the sweltering heat, the quickest place to get hydrated was the hose that had been laying out in the sun for hours. (Just so you young folks know, nobody had water bottles in those days.) You can imagine that what came out tasted as much like hose as it did like water. No matter how long you let it run before drinking, the half-melted plastic of the hose dominated the H2O taste. It quenched the thirst, but left an unpleasant aftertaste on the palate.

My take on Charlie Kirk’s public presentation reminds me of just such an experience. In some ways it could be thirst quenching and in others it was a lot of hose. Like me, Kirk was a Christian. He was bold in his testimony, and at times, especially one-on-one, he could be compassionate and measured (sort of) in his interactions. Water! At other times, more often than not while addressing a crowd or in the media, he was downright condescendingly abusive and cruel. Hose!

What concerns me are those who either loved the cruelty or hated the testimony. The ones who loved the contemptuous things he said are, in my opinion, in denial of the bad taste. They’re like the person of modest means who goes to an uber-posh restaurant with wealthy friends, and in order to impress them with how familiar he is with the cuisine (which he’s not), he orders the most expensive thing on the menu, something in French no doubt, and pretends to love it. He may go home and throw up, but his friends will never know. He needed to fit in.

I guess you could call Charlie Kirk an acquired taste. Problem is, some people began consuming his rhetoric and often dehumanizing opinions by trying to fit in with their party and then got so used to the taste that they actually liked it and emulate it in their own interactions.

Then there are others who hate the taste of the hose so much they refuse to drink the water that comes through it. Because of some of the debasing things he said and the spirit in which he said them, they reject the essence of the message itself. I’m not talking about the political messaging, because that’s up for grabs in terms of one’s personal point of reference. You can be a Republican, Democrat, or Independent and be a good person and even a good Christian person––I’m told. I’m talking about his Jesus message, which as far as I have seen is pretty much the way I tell it and try to live it. That’s the thirst-quenching water. And if you’re one that’s terribly offended with the bad taste of Kirk’s ministry, I hope that you’ll find another outlet with less hose taste and more pure water. I say “less hose taste,” because there’s no such person whose life is hoseless.

“Whoever drinks the water I (Jesus) give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:14)