First, it was Dolly, then, it was Charlie

It was only a few weeks ago that Dolly Parton – the “Queen of Country Music” – passed away.

Apparently, cancer took her life, although it is being kept a secret just what kind of cancer she had.

Regardless, she was lauded to no end how wonderful, loving, and kind she was.

Both her nephew and sister eulogized her as a Christian, but when the question is raised whether that meant “born again,” as Jesus describes it in John’s Gospel, chapter 3, there is an evasion, if not total silence.

Instead, there is an appeal to her Pentecostal pedigree and how she claimed to be “very spiritual,” rather than “religious.”

What is even more troubling is how that spirituality led her to sanction the “queer” crowd as something normal.

In a TikTok interview she stated,

If you’re gay, you’re gay. If you’re straight, you’re straight. We are who we are. I do not believe that we should criticize and judge other people. I think we should be accepting and loving. We are all God’s children.

She then went on to contradict herself by passing judgment on Christians who would dare to judge homosexuality as wrong, even though the Bible makes it quite clear that homosexuality is an “abomination” worthy of a trip to hell (Lev. 18:22; 1 Cor. 6:9-10).

Such is a common mistake many make who claim they know the Bible, when, in fact, they do not.

Anyway, Dolly admitted that she no longer attended church, as an adult.

When she gave that up, she did not say; nor did she state why.

I guess when you get to be too famous and “spiritual,” hanging around God’s people becomes expendable, especially when you have the “queers” of the world walking on every side cheering you on (Ps. 12:8).

More recently, though, is the one year anniversary of the murder of Charlie Kirk.

Charlie Kirk was a political antagonist to those on the Left, as well as founder of Turning Point USA.

Turning Point USA, as I understand it, is a “conservative” movement with religious overtones that was directed at college-age students, mostly, whose main goal was to challenge the prevailing attitudes of the day, whereby the young person would change from his/her liberal leanings to a more “conservative” outlook on life.

Thousands of young people loved Charlie, but he did have his enemies.

One such enemy, Tyler Robinson, decided one day to shut Charlie up by taking a rifle and assassinating him on a college campus in Orem, Utah, on September 10, 2025.

Robinson is now facing capital murder charges, and very well could see his life end, should the State of Utah find him guilty.

Utah, like Texas, does not mess around with capital murderers, and the prosecution has already stated it will seek the death penalty, should Tyler be convicted.

That said, Charlie was equally lauded, much like Dolly, once he passed.

Even after a year, Charlie was deemed a wonderful father, passionate defender, and committed Christian.

While it is probably true that he was a wonderful father and passionate defender, I have asked what kind of Christian he was, just like I asked about Dolly.

Was Charlie a born-again Christian?

So far, no one has come up with a coherent answer, and some even tend to get nasty for even asking at all.

After digging around I managed to discover that Charlie’s theological system was a blend of several different, and conflicting, conceptions, including Roman Catholicism, Mormonism, and Pentecostalism.

When drawn out to its logical and historical conclusion, he also adhered to both Pelagianism and its later manifestation, Arminianism.

Also, I learned that half of his employees at Turning Point USA were “well dressed Gen-Z” Latter-day Saints, or Mormons.

Charlie claimed to have accepted Jesus when he was a young man, but there is no indication or testimony to the fact that he was “born again.”

Given the hodge-podge of conflicting, anti-Christian, systems of thought Charlie was influenced by, it is safe to say that even if he did claim to a born-again Christian, his definition would be at variance with what Jesus was talking about, again, in John 3.

The late Bruce R. McConkie, former apostle and author of the Mormon Church, wrote that,

The second birth [being born again] begins when men are baptized in water by a legal administrator; it is completed when they actually receive the companionship of the Holy Ghost, becoming new creatures by the cleansing power of that member of the Godhead.

What McConkie, and the Mormons, fail to tell everyone, though, is that the Mormon must first do all that he can do to make himself “worthy” of such an event by denying himself of “all ungodliness” (Moroni 10:32).

In essence, the Mormon must stop sinning, completely, before God’s grace can even be applied, leading to the remission of sins (10:33).

Moreover, McConkie, like other Mormon authorities, failed to connect the dots of his aberrant theology, when he wrote,

The Holy Ghost…can be in only one place at one time, and he does not and cannot transform himself into any other form or image than that of the Man whom he is, though his power and influence can be manifest at one and the same time through all immensity.

In other words, there is only one true Mormon (“Christian”) in existence at any given time, and the Holy Ghost-Man is more of an impersonal pantheistic conception than a personal biblical reality.

So, whatever companionship McConkie and the Mormons are referring to, it certainly is not the one found in the Bible.

Furthermore, that is hardly “good news” to anyone seeking God’s forgiveness.

Nevertheless, this is the kind of devilish “Christianity” that Charlie Kirk subscribed to, and actually employed by hiring Mormons to lead his TPUSA organization.

But, such is the conflicted and confused world we live in today, and that’s just among “Christians.”

So long as someone seems like a nice, lovable, smart, witty, person, then that person just MUST be a Christian.

Forget whatever it is that they really believe about Christianity or whether it even has a biblical foundation.

The Bible is just chopped liver and not even relevant, so long as whomever claims to be a Christian, then that is good enough.

He or she is one.

And yet, the Bible makes it clear that one day, many are going to stand before the Lord Jesus, expecting to enter heaven, who have failed to take Jesus’ words seriously.

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (Jn. 3:3).

Because, “On that day many will say to [Jesus], “Lord, Lord, did we not prophecy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?”

Jesus’ response will be, “I never knew you: depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.”

It grieves me to no end to think that Dolly and Charlie are finding that out right now.