Erika Kirk and Bari Weiss’s Weird Pro-Israel Religious Revival

So, since you probably missed it, here’s what the town hall was: a religious revival disguised as a news event. It was also a holy mission statement by Weiss, the editor in chief of CBS News, and David Ellison, the owner of its parent company, Paramount Skydance.

All was revealed in a remarkable sermon by Kirk, a literal come-to-Jesus moment that wouldn’t even have tracked in the secular, Walter Cronkite days of CBS. Bob Milgrim, an audience member whose daughter Sarah was killed in an act of horrific antisemitic violence in May, asked Kirk to condemn antisemitism, Holocaust denial, and anti-Zionism. This was reasonable. Also odd. Why ask about an antisemitic hate crime when the topic is political violence, occasioned by the assassination of Kirk’s non-Jewish husband, Charlie, a Christian nationalist? Kirk took the question in stride.

“I will pray for you,” she said to Milgrim. “It sucks, doesn’t it? Hate is hate. It’s evil. Charlie and I have always been very clear on our stance—Israel, the Jewish people. It’s awful.… What healing factor comes out of hating Jewish people? What healing factor comes out of hating Christians? ... Charlie always would say very clearly: Jew-hate was brain rot.”