America: From Civility to Savagery?

The slaying of Charlie Kirk on September 10, 2025 has shocked this generation, just as another tragedy shocked people in 1956. In early January that year, Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, Ed McCully, Peter Fleming, and Roger Youderian were speared to death by Auca (Huaroni) warriors in Ecuador. Those five missionaries were trying to reach the Auca tribe with the good news of Jesus Christ. For months, they had been dropping gifts and supplies to show kindness to the tribe. But shortly after they set up camp on a sandbar on the Curary River, Auca warriors killed them.

The way that Bible-believing Christians responded to that incident was a testimony to the entire world. In September, 2025, believers once again have an opportunity to actively show the grace of Jesus Christ to the world. We should do so while confronting our culture with an important question: Have we moved from civility to savagery?

Are We Surrounded by Savages?

Watching the news since the slaying of Charlie Kirk causes us to wonder if we are surrounded by savages. Like Auca warriors rejoicing around their campfires, so-called “civilized” people have used videos, memes and social media to rejoice in Charlie’s brutal assassination. Terrifying as it may seem, these people are exchanging places with the pagans.

Consider the Parallels

There are some thought-provoking parallels between these two murderous events.

Charlie Kirk was an unabashed disciple of Jesus Christ, just as those five missionaries had been. Charlie was known for showing kindness to those who opposed him, actively engaging in discussions, respectfully guided by the grace of God. Jim Elliot, Nate Saint and the others were determined to proclaim the gospel message, motivated by that same compassion.

All of these men, in their late twenties or early thirties, gave their lives as they sought to awaken others to the truth. The missionaries wanted to preach Christ in an area where He was unknown. Charlie wanted to confront a culture where Christ had once been known and Biblical principles had informed the nation’s founding. Yet all of them were cut down in their prime.

Lead by Example

The way that Christians responded to the Aucas in 1956 can guide believers as they respond to Americans in 2025. Rather than rise up to take their revenge against that Ecuadorian tribe, Christians chose to seek reconciliation. Today is no time to meet political violence with more violence by mimicking the perpetrators. Now is the time for believers to be what they want others to become, leading by example (1 Corinthians 11:1). To do otherwise is to disregard the warning that the Lord gave to the prophet in Ezekiel 2:8. If we focus on man’s rebellion, rather than God’s message of reconciliation, we will become like the rebels. But on the battlefield of ideas, we must speak boldly (2 Corinthians 10:3-5). To refuse to do so is to allow our culture to continue its slide into savagery, when we have a solution.

Today is no time to meet political violence with more violence by mimicking the perpetrators.

In 1956, Bible-believing Christians understood this and reached out to the Aucas with the message that Christ died for the sins of men, conquered death and rose again. Two years after their husbands were slain, Jim Elliot’s widow (Elisabeth) and Nate Saint’s widow (Rachel) made contact with the Auca tribe. They were aided by a woman from the tribe named Dayuma who taught them the native language. Ultimately, Elisabeth Elliot and Rachel Saint went to live among the Aucas to proclaim the message of Christ and show them God’s amazing grace and forgiveness. The world marveled that these women chose to be victorious over a vindictive spirit, following the example of Jesus Christ.

Have many Americans changed places with the Aucas? Those primitive tribespeople have shown us the way to turn back from this slide into savagery.

The Power of the Gospel

A professor led a group of American university students to the Amazon basin to study the remarkable change in the Auca tribe. During that arduous journey, they were befriended by Auca guides and welcomed among the people. Sitting around the campfire that evening, they began to wonder, “Where are the savage Auca we have read about?”

Stephen, one of the leaders, explained that “the very people they had been traveling, eating, sleeping and hunting with were, in fact, these ‘savages’.”¹

Seeing their disbelief, he suggested that the students ask those who were middle-aged or older where their fathers were. They asked and the tribespeople answered, pointing to the places where their fathers had been speared to death by other tribe members.

One woman pointed to an older man sitting around the circle and said, “He killed my father and almost all the rest of my family, too. Living angry, he speared them all.”²

Another woman, Dawa, who usually kept silent, pointed to her aging husband, Kimo, and said, “Hating us, he speared my father, my brothers and baby sister whom my mother was nursing in a hammock. He took me and made me his wife.”³

The students were deeply troubled by what they were learning. In that dark jungle, they realized that they were depending on people who had frequently murdered others. But the biggest shock was yet to come.

After Dawa finished speaking, Stephen Saint put his arm around old Kimo and said, “He killed my father too.”

After a prolonged silence around the crackling campfire, one of the students asked the question that was on all their minds, “What changed these people?”

Stephen Saint translated that question and the women of the tribe began to tell them how they had killed their babies when caring for them was inconvenient. One woman told how she had killed most of her children because her dying husband demanded it. The one son she had preserved had been the students’ guide during the long trek.

But what had changed them? The tribespeople explained “the Man Maker sent His Son to die for people full of hate, fear and desire for revenge.”⁴ With that single answer, those former savages showed us all how to overcome oppression.

Boldly, Dawa began to speak: “Badly, badly we lived back then. Now walking God’s trail which He has marked for us on paper (the Bible) we live well. All people still die, but if living you follow God’s trail, then dying will lead you to heaven. But only one trail leads there. All other trails lead to where God will never be after death.”⁵

The students recognized the message of Jesus Christ as they observed the profound change among the tribespeople.

Dawa inquired, “Have you heard me well? Which one of you wants to follow God’s trail, living well?”⁶

Around that quiet campfire, one lone hand was raised as the seed of gospel grace found fertile soil in a tender heart.

Dawa clapped her hands and said, “Now I see you well. Leaving, we will still see each other in God’s place someday.”

But looking to the others, she said sadly, “Dying, I will never see you again if you don’t follow God’s trail. Think well on what I have spoken, so that dying, we will live happily together in heaven.”⁷

We Have The Answer

That powerful testimony shows believers how to confront our present problem. Many Americans have changed places with the Auca, and we have the answer for them.

Those Auca tribespeople, formerly killers of men, women and infants, had been gloriously changed by Jesus Christ and His gospel of saving grace. From the recent news, we can see that we are surrounded by savages who delight in the death of men, women and babies. Will we proclaim the answer that the Auca people embraced?

By the power of the merciful Christ, our citizens could be like those repentant savages, overcoming oppression and choosing reconciliation over revenge.

Have we moved from civility to savagery? Have Americans changed places with the Auca? In September 2025, each American must answer Dawa’s question: “Which one of you wants to follow God’s trail?” By the power of the merciful Christ, our citizens could be like those repentant savages, overcoming oppression and choosing reconciliation over revenge. This is the power of God’s transforming forgiveness in the Gospel.

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by Gordon A. Dickson, LiveServeLead.com, 09/19/25 © 2025

To better understand the message of the gospel, please see the book, “TRUST. What religions don’t tell you but God wants you to know” by Gordon A. Dickson

To understand how God’s grace has dramatically changed people throughout history and can change you today, see the book, “12 Ways You Can Make a Difference in This Crazy, Mixed-up World” by Gordon A. Dickson.

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Blessed Is the Man

(a paraphrase of Psalm 1)

Blest is the man who shuns ungodly counsel
Who stands not in the path that sinners take
Who will not sit to listen to the scornful
And all the wicked plans that sinners make

Blest is that man, delighting in the Scriptures,
Who meditates upon them day and night
For like a tree beside a flowing river
He brings forth fruit in which we all delight

This blessed man whose leaf shall never wither
He prospers in whatever he shall do
Ungodly men are like the chaff that’s scattered
The Judgment will show them to be untrue

The Lord Christ knows His own whom He made righteous
He blesses them with strength that He renews
Ungodly men and all their ways shall perish
So think, dear friend, of which way you will choose

© Gordon A. Dickson (12/30/24)

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Photo by ev on Unsplash

1. Stephen F. Saint, “The Unfinished Mission to the Aucas” Christianity Today, March 2, 1998, 42-45, cited in “Unfolding Destinies, the Ongoing Story of the Auca Mission” by Olive Fleming Liefeld, Grand Rapids: Discovery House, 1998, 247-254. [↩]
2. Liefield, 247-254. [↩]
3. Liefield, 248. [↩]
4. Liefield, 249. [↩]
5. Liefield, 250. [↩]
6. Liefield, 250. [↩]
7. Liefield, 250. [↩]