Charlie Kirk's Christianity Hustle

Let us now consider how closely Charlie Kirk's used of "Christianity" paralleled that of another famous racist con man.

The first step, always, it to take the measure of the suckers.  In Hitler's case, the mob he wanted to harness and deploy was wall-to-wall Christians who had already been steeping in centuries of antisemitism.  If he wanted to control then, he had to play them like a sax at the 10:30 jazz service.  So he tarted up Nazism in hymnals and scriptures, selling himself as the last line of defense for “traditional Christian culture.” 

The fact that he thought all of it was superstitious bullshit was irrelevant.  Speaking to the rubes in their own language -- mirroring them and their angry and resentments -- was a prop.  And it worked for Schicklgruber the same way it worked for Kirklgruber,  because MAGA's broken, ignorant, rage-drunk mutants are desperate to believe they're God's own Seal Team Six. 

Because, as every two-bit fascist in every age knows, you catch more suckers with a flag pin and a Bible than with facts and the constitution.  

Then, after you've sized up the rubes and figured out just how desperate and gullible they are, you need to aggressively rebrand Jesus.  The bigots and imbeciles don't wanna hear about some poor, illiterate, brown-skinned rabbi, who hung around with with hookers and beggars, preaching peace and compassion. The guy who said “love thy neighbor” and meant all of them. Not exactly adequate material for building a Master Race.  So Hitler did what every right-wing grifter still does: he rebranded. Out goes the sandal-wearing hippie, in comes Aryan Jesus -- blond, blue-eyed, aching for glorious conquest, and hating the Jews as much as they did. 

And slouching along right behind Aryan Jesus comes his grandchild -- the T-Rex riding, AR-15 brandishing, MAGA hat wearing Republican Jesus, who demands tax cuts for billionaires while sneering at immigrants and the poor.  This was Charlie Kirk's Jesus.

Then, after you've rebranded Jesus, you're gonna need to cast yourself as his earthly enforcer.  Crack open Mein Kampf and you'll find Hitler’s strutting around like he’s God’s own Luca Brasi, bragging about “doing the Lord’s work” by crushing Jews. He didn’t believe it, but the audience sure as hell did. 

Thanks to Alert Reader Anonymous for this addendum:

In a speech delivered in front of a Nazi audience in April 1922, Hitler made a more explicit reference to Christianity, referring to Jesus as "the true God." He made it plain that he regarded Christ's struggle as direct inspiration for his own. For Hitler, Jesus was not just one archetype among others, but "our greatest Aryan leader."

--The Holy Reich: Nazi Conceptions of Christianity, Richard Steigmann-Gall, Cambridge Press

And that’s the playbook: drape yourself in piety.  Pretend your bigotry is a sacrament.  Make hating the other a holy duty. It’s the same script the American Right has been running for decades.  For example, does anyone still remember that Dubya Bush said God told him to invade Iraq?   From there it's just a short hop to Trump's gaggle of batshit, Armageddon-peddling pastors raving about him being chosen by God.  Their own Cyrus the Great.  And the GOP base nodding right along with all of it, because nothing gets the rubes to empty their pockets and run to the polls faster than “Jesus told me so.”

Hitler didn’t use Christianity by accident -- he knew exactly what he was doing: weaponizing faith, laundering hate through holy language, and turning pews into political muscle. 

And if all of this feels familiar in 2025, that’s because it is. 

Different century, different demagogues, same scam.

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