Herschel Walker Blasted by His Son
My phone rang this evening when I wasn’t expecting a call and I recognized the number, an NBC News reporter who I have given a few quotes to over the past year or so. He asked me about the Christian Walker tweets. “Who,” I asked.
He then read them to me. Oof.
Earlier today I engaged with another reporter who brought an article on The Daily Beast to my attention in which Herschel is accused through circumstantial evidence of paying for an abortion for an ex-girlfriend whom he allegedly impregnated. Walker denied the allegations publicly, threatened to sue, and the source chose to remain anonymous. I wasn’t even going to write about it because, after all, it was on The Daily Beast, which is not known for its fair and balanced journalistic principles. I found the claims in the article to be dubiously timed and not exactly credible.
I only mention that article now because apparently Herschel’s son, Christian, was motivated to publicly declare he was finished with his dad.
I don’t know Herschel Walker. I have only been in the same room with him once when he was speaking at an event where I was in the audience. I did not vote for him in the primary because I never got the sense that he was up for the job and we had other candidates in the Republican field who clearly were. I have only come to know the backstory of the life he has led through reading articles about him. I am not, therefore, qualified to comment on his salvation, but I do want to offer some insight, generically, into one of the phrases that stuck out to me in the younger Walker’s rant.
These words. “I don’t care about someone who has a bad past and takes accountability. But how DARE YOU LIE and act as though you’re some “moral, Christian, upright man.” You’ve lived a life of DESTROYING other peoples lives. How dare you.”
Please do not read this as if I am being anyone’s apologist, I am not. But I wanted to highlight these words because as Christians we recognize our own flawed, horribly ugly, brokenness. None of us are truly worthy of salvation. And when we become saved those we hurt in our past life may never fully understand the path we choose to walk in the future. It may in fact be incredibly incongruent with the person we used to be.
It is possible likely that Herschel lived a life that was destructive to those closest to him for a very long time. As an imperfect human being it is possible that Herschel is guilty of everything his son has accused him of, but it is also possible that he has truly become transformed by his faith in Christ and became something more. Something better. It won’t heal the wounds he inflicted on others and he should remain accountable for his past actions. All of this to say that I can see a scenario where the son’s view of his father’s salvation and who he is today cannot be seen through the hurt Herschel inflicted on him. It doesn’t, however, mean that Herschel is lying about his faith.
Tonight pixels all over the country are being arranged by various members of the media to declare the Herschel Walker Campaign dead. I have seen this movie before, though. A man once bragged that he could grab women by the genitalia and then became President of the United States. Walker’s campaign is not dead. But then again, Walker ain’t no Donald Trump either.
If Walker is to survive this, and I think he possibly can, he must redirect the narrative into one that focuses on the transformation he experienced through his faith journey. In true Christian fashion, he must own his sin and not deny it, and always be transparent about how he got from that person his son knows to the man he claims to be today. If this strategy is to be successful, it will take a crap ton of humility.
Overall I am sad for Herschel and Christian Walker and all of the rest of their family members. Trying to reconcile all of the hurt while engaged in one of the most visible political campaigns in the country cannot be easy. It may not even be possible. I struggle trying to empathize with their situation, knowing that hurt like that never truly heals no matter how sorry the guilty party tries to convey.
Back to the reporter who called me tonight, he asked, “Do you think any of this will stick?”
In a post Trump world, I am not sure. In fact I am not convinced this will matter at all to a large number of voters. The R vs D next to both candidates’ names will matter most. Further, people are getting crushed by inflation, employers are having a hard time finding workers, and Senator Warnock’s voting record hasn’t exactly been great for Georgians and their families. A voter can overlook a lot of negativity about a candidate when their grocery bill has skyrocketed, they are paying more at the pump, and everything from pencils to used cars have become more expensive.
All of this will be up to how Herschel Walker publicly addresses these issues. And like you, I’ll be watching to see if he has it in him to make it through.
