Turning Point, USA
Charlie Kirk, and A Nation That Can't Go Back
We’ve felt it for a while now. The crackle in the air threatening to ignite with the smallest strike of a match. I suppose 2020 really began to pour on the gasoline in a way never done before, and each passing year the tension has risen in a way no one can deny.
Adding to this, the last two months have brought an onslaught of cultural evil that— if we weren’t so unfortunately used to it— should have brought the strongest of us to our knees.
Last month, two atrocities hit that dominated the news. First, 23 year old Iryna Zarutska was brutally murdered on a train in Charlotte, North Carolina. This sparked rightful uproar that’s still felt today.1
Later that month, a trans shooter hit a Catholic school, killing two young kids (ages 8 & 10) and injuring 18 others.2 No words can express the grief that accompanies these horrors.
Just when you might have thought things couldn’t get any worse, another school shooting happened in Colorado just two weeks later on September 10th (yesterday).3
It’s gotten to the point where many don’t even flinch at these incidents anymore— and that is a terribly sad reality. Each of these mournful events feel like another outburst from the faucet of evil that’s been spewing for some time now.
But the climax of the news headlines and the political tension was the event that now rests so heavily on all our minds— the unforeseen assassination of Charlie Kirk. Charlie was murdered in front of his wife, his children, and 3,000 people. Like a sludge hammer, this event has smashed through the bubble of social unrest that’s been growing over the last five years. That bubble has popped, and we’ve got to be ready for what that might mean.
Why Charlie Kirk’s Death Makes a Difference
What was it about this event that’s causing such an uproar? Well, let me suggest three things.
A Future Has Been Stolen
This isn’t the crux of what I’m writing here, but I don’t feel like you can move on without mentioning this. Charlie was only 31 years old. He had just married his wife Erika in 2021. Since that time, the Lord had blessed them with two children, ages 1 & 3.
Because their life was lived out on the world stage, the reality of what’s been stolen from this family has pierced many to the heart. I found one particular video touching, and you can find it here (don’t watch if you don’t want to tear up).
His family will never get this back, and that is enraging.
This was Brutal and on Film
The second reason this has rocked the nation to it’s core is that the whole thing was filmed, and it was a gruesome execution (the close up video is so disturbing that I won’t link it). You might think after years of watching violence on television, maybe people aren’t bothered by things like this. You would be wrong. The knowledge that a person could do this to another person is next level unsettling.
It Was Most Likely a Silencing Attempt
But even beyond this (Not to say you can get beyond it. It really is grotesquely evil.) This had to do with an attack on ideas; and that is quite troubling.
Here’s the thing:
When they shot Charlie they weren’t just shooting a man, they were shooting what he stood for— not only truth, but open dialogue. Charlie was a bastion of civilized discourse, a warrior who braved the front lines of battle with only the weapon of spoken word.
If you’ve ever watched Charlie’s videos, you know that he was passionate about his positions— but he was hardly ever cruel. He took time to hear his opponent out, and though he would dismantle their arguments he would often responding quite calmly. To many Christians (and many Americans) this is so shocking because the man never advocated for violence himself. For the most part, he just pushed normal conservative ideas often rooted in his Christian beliefs.
At the end of the day, Charlie was most likely killed because he was effective; because he’d started a movement which was actually shaping the minds of young American all across the country. The most dangerous thing in the world is an idea; the world knows this, and they cannot let one accidentally escape and be allowed to run free.
Believe it or not, words are not violence— but apparently they incite violence in those who can’t articulate an argument themselves.
Where Do We Go From Here
One thing is for sure, everyone can feel the change in the temperature. Here are a few thoughts for Christians to consider.
1. Don’t Become the Thing You Hate
After this happened someone said to me, “Why don’t we ever see anyone from the other side doing things like this?”
My response was, “You might be about to.”
Our country has been shoved into a state of civil unrest. What cannot happen is more murder and violence over the sharing of ideas. Even though we’re angry, if people begin to respond this way then we really have lived long enough to see ourselves become the villain. There actually is a time for war; but Christians should be quick to denounce violence against individuals. There should be no political rallies of the opposing team that go through a similar tragedy next week. When you see this rhetoric online or hear it from a friend, call them down from the cliff they’ve walked up to. Defend your homeland, fight evil, but don’t plunge into another evil yourself.
2. Take Stands for Truth
That being said, just because violence is an atrocious response doesn’t mean strong stands aren’t required. There are often huge pushes for unity after an event like this. And let me say up front, of course we want unity. But what we’ve got to realize is that unity is only achievable around an agreed upon standard.
We don’t live in the 1950s. Positions are more extreme now than ever before. We must no longer be afraid to say out loud that we cannot be unified around the killing of children in the womb. We cannot be unified around the sexualization of children. We cannot be united around the mutilation of bodies. Nor would we want to lock arms with anyone who thought we could.
When these things exist a stable society cannot.
This only begins to change when normal men and women start to look at all the disorder and say out loud for the world to hear, “This cannot be allowed to happen.”
They’ve got to say along with John the Baptist, “Herod, it is not lawful to have your brother’s wife.” They’ve got to speak to the powers that be, the culture of the day, and be willing to say, “God does not approve of this,” and then lovingly call those who do to a new way, a better way, a way filled with abundant life through Christ.
Charlie knew that this happened most effectively through open dialogue. Go out there, love people well, be jolly and jovial when you can, but fight off evil without reprieve.
For too long we’ve treated many of these issues as if they’re just a difference of opinion or politic. They are not. The fence cannot be ridden any longer.
“Do two walk together,
unless they have agreed to meet?”
Amos 3:3
3. Pray for the Flourishing of Justice & the Destruction of Evil
Finally, the least outwardly visible but the most wide-scale effective, Christians should spend much time on their knees praying that God would bring justice to our land and that He would eradicate sin and it’s effects.
This happens both through individual heart transformation and revival, as well as just laws that restrain evil. Both of these are right and good. When people come to faith in Christ, their desires change, and when people change you see societies change.
Paul says in Galatians 2:20:
20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.
Additionally, when a nation actually employs laws that address evil, sin is pushed back to a degree (1 Tim. 1:9-11).
We should pray fervently for both of these things.
We should pray for justice to win, for truth to win, for evil to be eradicated, and the wicked to be punished. Not just because of Charlie, but in the face of all the evil we so often see. School shootings, bus murders, political assassinations, all of it.
We should pray, and then we should work.
Often events like the Kirk assassination spark movements that the assailants couldn’t have anticipated. Christians, be apart of that— help start a movement. Not just because you feel for a family who lost a husband and a father, but because of what this whole thing represents. Good vs. evil. Open conversations. A country on the brink of collapse.
So work, pray, and fight— but make sure you fight Godly.
Honor Christ. Keep love in your heart. Don’t be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good (Romans 12:21). And start by pressing Christ through our counties— beginning right in your local town.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/chilling-video-shows-moments-before-ukrainian-refugee-stabbed-death-charlotte-light-rail
https://abcnews.go.com/US/minnesota-school-shooting-suspect-robin-westman/story?id=125029777
https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/shooting-evergreen-high-school-denver-metro-area/