Before his assassination, I had very limited interaction with Charlie Kirk’s content. So, I’m as surprised as everyone else at how quickly his murder has turned into a flash point for something bigger than a singular tragedy. His death produced a volcanic eruption of feelings that was swirling under society’s surface. We’ll come back to that a little later.

Grieving

For six days, I’ve found myself grieving. I’m grieving because of the politically motivated quadruple murder/assassination of Minnesota democrats, and the burning of Pennsylvania Governor Shapiro’s mansion with his family still inside (thankfully they escaped), and now the murder of a 31-year-old Christian whose faith informed his legislative policy and social action. With my heart and soul, I deplore these horrors. To take any life is deeply dark. It’s an assault on our humanness and God’s costly investment in us. Justice must protect against the destruction of God’s property; the life and freedoms of his human image bearers.

I am grieving because our politicians play a unique and important role in society. They represent us. To murder a politician because you disagree with them is no less evil than murdering anyone else you disagree with. Politicians and the public alike must be free to argue, debate, differ, change their minds, or even offend without harassment or fear for their lives. Critiquing and examining ideas and truth claims is at the heart of self-improvement, growth, and resiliency. Social policies constantly shift and adapt with economies, wars, technology, and social sensitivities. They are profoundly specific and imperfect expressions of a community’s values and resources. I fear for all that we are losing when communities resort to weapons to coerce people instead of conversations to lead people. If 911 was an attack on our freedoms from the outside, these political assassinations are an attack from the inside; they are a self-destroying autoimmune disease. 

I’ve found myself grieving because, in our communities, family members and classmates are so impassioned by their opinions that they don’t just tell people they are wrong anymore; they call them evil. Everyone is the new “Hitler.” Everyone whose beliefs we can’t tolerate is labeled narrow-minded and hateful. Coworkers feel morally justified and applaud the violent erasure of people they’ve disagreed with, as if the person murdered got what they deserved. Some of the people clapping their hands are promoting the very prejudice they claim to hate and the violence they claim to detest. Our moral certainty is blinding us to our own sins. If the last decade was “cancel culture” and the silencing of everyone we disagreed with, I pray the next decade isn’t a “cancel culture” of bullets.

None of us is winning from any of this. And God specifically warned a contentious people “You should not gloat over your brother in the day of his misfortune, nor rejoice over the people... in the day of their destruction” (Obadiah 1:12). Yet, even though my soul is troubled by all of this, Kirk’s death, in ways I can’t fully explain, is unique and different. It resonates deeply within our younger generation and even other nations. People are empathizing with his cause and martyrdom, and it is forcing us to ask, “Why?”

Charlie Kirk = Christian Faith

Kirk was a civilian dedicated to face-to-face conversations with people who disagreed with him. He made his living challenging ideas and mindsets with his words and arguments. He wasn’t murdered because he was brash, egotistical, dangerous, or racist; after all, his candor was collegiate, and his forums were held openly to public participation. He wasn’t inciting violence or hiding behind rifle scopes or Klan masks. He was showing up, asking difficult questions, and provoking conversations. He was a Socratic figure critiquing his listeners. He was a Jesus figure challenging the “group-think” and moral superiority. He was villainized because of his values, not his conduct. “Hateful” was the label his opponents had to use to describe Kirk because they couldn’t tolerate or refute his arguments with their own. He was murdered for provoking people to seek the truth.

It may be that the reason Kirk’s story resonates around the world is because his views were Biblical to their core. Critics may have disagreed with the way he asserted that faith, but the fact is, he brought his Biblical faith and values to the public arena. In this way, Kirk is a continuation of the ministries of Francis Schaeffer, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Faith is not cloistered in churches or scurried off the streets. It should be bustling in the town square. The things we believe shape everything we think and say, the legislation we write, and the curriculum we advocate. The public doesn’t get Christianity’s charitable deeds without also having the sticky conversations about human life, the definition of marriage and family, and traditional values. These go together. The question Kirk’s assassination raises is this: Is there space for conservative values in a political arena that has abandoned its Christian heritage?

The hostility of the left and right is a societal outcome of people having thrown off the restraining garments of God and morality. Civilians unfettered by moral virtues are propelled by their emotional passions. Every individual becomes the ultimate arbiter of meaning, justice, and the use of power. Some who don’t like Kirk’s message feel justified in being his judge and executioner. Society becomes atomized and segregated, with no common ethic or glue to hold us together; we are all bricks and no mortar.

 If societies have no civil or moral restraint, neither will their political organs. If there is no Creator to keep us accountable, there are no inalienable rights that governments need to respect. Violence becomes the tool of the powerful to impose their will on populations. Both the collectivist left and tyrannical right disdain Christianity’s moralizing restraint on their power. Christians, particularly, are those pesky voices reminding us of our accountability to a higher authority. Kirk voiced a prophetic reminder that humans aren’t final arbiters of law and ethics. There needs to be a moral code underwriting our social and legal institutions. What Kirk’s life stood for was thoroughly and genuinely Christian in the face of an increasingly hostile secular-humanism on the left and ideological violence on the right. Christian ethics are the marrow in the middle, and society has been sweeping it out. So here we are: without the ethical responsibilities and disciplines of Christianity, we don’t reap the good fruit of it. Is there still space for conservative values in a political arena that has abandoned its Christian heritage and marginalized Christian young people? I don’t know. But I believe a generation of young Christians will find its voice and use it. 

How Then Do We Live? 

Here are a few reminders of how we can move forward from here. 

1. Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

These subversive words of Jesus are still the world’s most politically and spiritually revolutionary message. They will set you free from the very hate and intolerance that your enemies are enslaved to.

2. Transform your outrage into tears. 

Christ sat down and wept over the city that was about to crucify him, and we must learn to do the same. Transform your indignation into empathy and learn how to weep. Cry out in prayer for those blinded by darkness. Cry out for the salvation of those undeserving, because we all are.

3. Live your faith everywhere.

No one has the right to intimidate you or tell you to keep your faith in the hallway. “It is no longer I who live but Christ Jesus who lives in me” (Galatians 2:20). How we express our faith may look different in different environments, but Jesus is our very life and breath.

4. Be prepared for negative reactions.

Mentally prepare yourself for the anger, persecution, social isolation, misunderstanding, intimidation, and even violence evoked when you stand for the truth. Jesus instructed his disciples, “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first” (John 15:18).

5. Be prepared to overcome evil with good. 

Romans 12:21 says, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Rehearse the exact moment when someone wrongs, punishes, or embarrasses you and prepare yourself to be an expression of Christ’s love in that moment.

6. Be a thinking Christian.

If we’re going to bring our faith into the arenas of art, business, education, politics, etc., then we can’t be lazy about it. We need to be studied, skillful, diplomatic, and excellent. We need to strive for the highest quality products, intellectual and emotional appeal, and services that add value to everyone around us. Our policies and strategies have to be team-oriented and result in the highest good for the greatest number of people.

The price for speaking truth is growing steeper for everyone in our society. I promise, the price of silence is higher still. Though we are grieving in this moment, we are not cowering. Seek the truth. Live your faith boldly, and love others well. 

Tags: faith, christian, ethics, law, secular, murder, politics, martyr, violence, free speech, society, morality, conservative, virtues, hate, civility, biblical values, assassination, cancel culture, charlie kirk