At least Erika Kirk’s widely promoted December 13 appearance with Bari Weiss on CBS News raised one timely question: What did we just watch?

I could be alone in wondering. The audience for the town hall was minuscule, according to Nielsen—41 percent smaller in the key 25–54 demo than the year-to-date average for the 8 p.m. time slot, formerly devoted to the third hour (!) of 48 Hours.  

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.”

Kirk, who now runs Turning Point USA since her husband’s assassination in September, warmed to her subject. “We’ve been to Israel twice together, and to be able to walk in the place where Our Lord walked and see the Bible come to life in Technicolor.... How could you hate that place? How could you hate the Jewish people? ... We are human. No one is perfect. No Christian is perfect. No Jew is perfect. No Muslim is perfect. We are broken, sinful humans in need of a Lord and Savior.”

Oh dear.

“And that’s why it’s so important to give........

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