Blog: TPUSA Has a Big Problem…

I feel like it’s an unfortunate reality that when the leader of a big organization or group dies, retires, or resigns and leaves it in the hands of a different person, that group begins going downhill very quickly. It may be subtle at first. You may not notice it as you hope that the person left leading it is competent enough to take over where the original left off. Then the more things slide downwards, the more you’re forced to notice it.

Now, this doesn’t always happen with every organization, of course, but many suffer this fate. And, as you probably guessed from the title, Turning Point USA may be heading down this road. How so? One word: ecumenicalism.

Originally founded in 2012, TPUSA has always been a fairly ecumenical movement. For those who don’t know what ecumenicalism is, ecumenicalism is the movement or tendency towards unity or cooperation amongst differing denominations of the Christian faith. In more secular terms, it can also be used to refer to interfaith unity or cooperation in general. We’ve seen that with TPUSA from its beginning, as it’s had Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, atheist, Mormon, and Hindu speakers all united by Charlie Kirk’s vision of continuing conservative values.

This, by itself, is not a bad thing. There are certainly issues that many people, despite having differing religious views, can agree with and should unite on. For example, abortion is one of the many hot-button issues that TPUSA has been active on and many people, despite being from different Christian denominations or faiths, can agree is a bad thing and can unite on.

However, ever since Charlie Kirk’s assassination at the hands of Tyler Robinson, it seems as though Turning Point has lost the vision that glued it all together. While on paper it claims to still hold to Charlie’s vision, in practice, it seems to be very quickly unraveling.

The reason for this is because TPUSA, to make up for Charlie’s absence, seems to be trying to fill his place with many different people. Some of these people, like Ben Shapiro and Michael Knowles, do hold the conservative values and principles that Charlie did. However, others, such as Tucker Carlson, don’t. This inevitably leads to disunity and when these guys start attacking each other and picking sides, it begins unraveling the entire movement.

To be clear, this isn’t to say that members of TPUSA shouldn’t call out people like Tucker Carlson. I absolutely think that if the conservative party wants to maintain any sort of credibility when we say that we’re the party of truth and morality, we should be calling out Tucker and others. What needs to happen, however, is TPUSA needs to start vetting their speakers and figuring out if their opinions and their values are truly reflective of Charlie’s in order to maintain unity. Otherwise, it’s just going to continue to slowly implode.

Another issue with TPUSA’s ecumenicalism is who they bring on to give talks about faith. TPUSA is a Christian movement, and while I certainly think there are things that Protestants and Catholics can agree on, there are other things that we need to be careful about, especially when it comes to who we’re bringing in to teach. For example, though TPUSA certainly has connections to many solid Christians such as Allie Beth Stuckey and Frank Turek, they’ve also partnered with some who are not so great, such as Bryce Crawford. For their upcoming faith event, TPUSA is also bringing on the ladies from the “Girls Gone Bible” podcast, who built much of their theology on that of Steven Furtick, twist scripture, are part of the NAR, act totally different behind the scenes, etc. This type of thing is spiritually dangerous, as these people, while they may be influential and share some of the same values, are false teachers. And as more of TPUSA’s fan base has begun going to church for the first time in years or for the first time in their lives because of Charlie Kirk’s death, it’s more important than ever that the people that TPUSA brings on to talk about faith are solid teachers of the Word. Until they can figure this out, they will be doing more harm than good.

Until next time,

M.J.