I’m 51 years old, a Gen Xer who grew up believing in liberal ideals. For most of my life, I thought I understood what it meant to be a Democrat: fighting for fairness, standing up for the underdog, and pushing for progress.

But over time, I began to see a shift. For me, the change started during Obama’s presidency. The energy that once felt hopeful, “Yes We Can,” hardened into something else: identity politics. Suddenly, politics wasn’t about ideas we could debate but about identities we could never question.

When Politics Replaced Religion

Identity politics acts like a secular religion. It has its rituals, its saints and sinners, even its excommunications. Step out of line and you’re labeled, silenced, or cast out. It divides rather than unites, creating a world where disagreement feels impossible.

I watched as families splintered, friendships broke, and fear replaced honest conversation. That’s when I realized: this isn’t the liberalism I grew up with.

The Antithesis of Identity Politics

And then came the shocking assassination of Charlie Kirk.

Whatever you thought of him politically, Charlie represented something profoundly countercultural in an age obsessed with labels. He didn’t build his life around identity politics. His identity came from being a husband, father, and son of God. He didn’t need hashtags to tell him who he was.

And in his death, something remarkable has happened: people have started asking deeper questions. For some, it shook the illusion that politics alone can save us. For others, it reopened wounds they’d carried silently for years. Many, for the first time in decades, are walking back through church doors. Some are returning after wrestling with God for years.

A Revival in the Shadow of Tragedy

What identity politics has fractured, faith is beginning to restore. Churches are filling — not with perfect people, but with searching people. People are hungry for meaning bigger than party lines, bigger than labels. People are realizing that at the end of the day, our worth isn’t defined by politics, but by God’s love and the relationships closest to us.

Where identity politics divides, the church unites. Where cancel culture shames, the church forgives. Where politics exhausts, faith revives.

Tuesday Tip

If the endless demands of identity politics have worn you down, let me encourage you: step back and consider where your true identity rests.

Not in a party. Not in a label. Not in how well you fit the narrative of the moment.

Your identity can be rooted in something far deeper and more lasting — as a child of God, a member of a family, a part of a community that builds rather than tears down.

Politics will always disappoint you. But the revival sparked in the shadow of Charlie Kirk’s death is a reminder that there’s a better way forward — one that begins not with outrage, but with grace.