I had the good fortune to meet Charlie Kirk during one of his visits to Vermont. I drove over an hour to meet the young man who was setting conservative politics on fire with his impassioned speeches and indefatigable debating style. Where was he speaking? At the appropriately named Ignite Church in Williston. That day’s speech was one consistent with Charlie’s approach to the revolution he was leading on college campuses across America – which was to encourage friends and enemies to let the battle take place via open dialogue with respect and dignity to all. As a Christian Charlie took his Bible to heart, difficult passages and all, and dared to live them out for the world to see including Jesus call to love one’s enemies.
Which is why his unthinkable assassination, at one of his largest and most energetic college rallies yesterday in Utah, is painfully inexplicable to most. Even Charlie’s fiercest political opponents are shattered by his death. Described by those whom he debated as “moderate” and “a great guy” Charlie Kirk’s primary threat to the political left was his fearlessness. Kirk had been receiving death threats for years, including the day I met him. He had begun wearing well disguised body armor that would not dissuade students from coming to see him. Despite the many threats Charlie continued to attend open air events with a small security team having no worse than a few heated exchanges all caught on video and shared online by his TPUSA organization, as Charlie typically came out looking the wiser among his foes.
However conservative politics was only half of his mission. His love for America was superseded by his love for Jesus, which explains his boldness in sharing the gospel at his events. Kirk had the uncanny ability to unpack American history, constitutional legalities, and the role Christians played in establishing both that was at once forceful and winsome. The integrity of his message and the enthusiasm he shared with friend and foe alike clarified the hope implicit in the Make American Great Again movement. The introduction to his podcast included a sound bite from an amazed Rush Limbaugh stating “Charlie Kirk is running the White House folks”.
This was all the more remarkable, as Kirk famously chose not to attend college to get a degree but instead spoke at colleges about the history they weren’t being taught, the rights they may not have known they might be losing, and path back to American greatness didn’t include safe spaces and cancellations but open dialogue and free speech. He didn’t have an Ivy League pedigree, he wasn’t an insider from the Beltway, he was a force for good who emerged from his generation with the civil and moral authority reminiscent of Martin Luther King Jr.
When the great lion of conservatism Limbaugh passed there was a moment where many were saying his mantle had been passed on to Charlie. I noticed it in Charlie’s manner of speech on his podcast, so I reached out to him with this message. “America doesn’t need another Rush Limbaugh, we need you to be Charlie Kirk.” I know he got the message as the days that followed he dropped the Limbaugh tone and remained true to his authentic voice, which was more charitable than Rush’s and arguably more winning. Rush also rarely held public events or extended his arms to the disaffected youth preferring the comfort of his radio studio. Charlie was designed to meet people face to face and win them over by sheer force of his good and thoroughly well thought out political will that included their freedom to vehemently disagree with him. This was happening in droves as the reach and influence of TPUSA was becoming massive. Young people inherently recognize fairness and freedom, both things Charlie espoused, despite the malignant rhetoric of those who characterized him has hateful or threatening.
The threat of Charlie Kirk was not physical but ideological and spiritual. Charlie was winning back the hearts and minds of college aged students who had been indoctrinated in schools around America to hate our nation’s history, to disconnect from social interactions, to devalue marriage and sexual fidelity and to fracture upon any number of dividing lines from race to gender identity. A very powerful group of forces had been achieving this fracturing here over decades yet were seeing it undone in an even more powerful way by a young man with the vision and leadership rarely found throughout history.
They called him hateful, yet the videos of him show him smiling and extending his platform to those with whom he disagreed. They called him divisive, yet his crowds grew larger still, filled with testimonies from students of all walks who found resonance and solace in his hopefulness. Despite their best efforts to disparage him Charlie’s sheer desire to make America prosperous, free and filled with opportunity, and rooted in a respect for and relationship with the divine, was unyielding. Not only was he not the next Rush Limbaugh he was being considered a viable candidate for the presidency. At thirty-one years he was less than a term away from eligibility.
The question of who killed Charlie is now being bandied about online. A nation rife with both conspiracies and conspiracy theories are moving the dot from “crazy liberal” to “professional hit-man” to “intelligence agency” and on. We may never know as we still don’t have closure on who really killed president Kennedy, who was to blame for 9/11, what really happened on October 7th.
Charlie, a long-time supporter of Israel, was actually starting to ask some of these questions as the conservative civil war over Israel’s response in Gaza was tearing at him personally. Long time friends like Candace Owens, who Charlie toured the country with multiple times, have been openly critical of Israel on a number of topics. Charlie was also just on Megyn Kelly, Tucker Carlson, another critic of Israel, and had allowed comedian Dave Smith (a Jew who is also critical of Israel) to debate the pro-Zionist Josh Hammer. Commenting to Kelly he said he felt “deflated” from the attacks he was getting from the Israeli lobby who were now saying he was an anti-Semite for simply “raising questions”. Charlie reiterated he was and would always be pro-Israel, however he was an American who reserved the right to ask questions critical of anyone including our long-time ally in the Middle East. Just days before his assassination an anchor for Alex Jones’ Infowars, Harrison Smith, tweeted out on X that Charlie had expressed concerns to a mutual friend that if he continued to turn his stance on Israel that they would kill him.
It is likely that we will never know, but the nature of his assassination have many questioning high level actors.
I can safely say Charlie would encourage inquiry into who killed him and to not accept easy answers. His love for his family and his fellow American’s, our freedoms, were emblazoned on his face that day as he stood tossing out red Make America Great Again hats to his fans while wearing a white t-shirt with the simple word “FREEDOM” on his chest. Charlie’s preferred weapon was always the truth, and he believed wholeheartedly that the truth is what sets us free, and that truth was embodied in the person of Jesus Christ, who also states His love for Israel. Ironically, Jesus was also killed in Israel for His dogged insistence on publicly speaking uncomfortable truths to those who opposed Him.
As the ugliness of this event spills over onto social media where those who didn’t know Charlie personally are celebrating his death, I have this much to say to them…
…ALL OF HEAVEN IS ALSO CELEBRATING HIS ARRIVAL. You cannot win, as Jesus is the victory, whether you believe that or not. Charlie’s spirit lives on eternally and it will be magnified among his many adoring fans and followers who will celebrate his passing by carrying the torch that burned so brightly in his grasp.
A good name is better than fine perfume, and the day of death is better than the day of birth.
Ecclesiastes 7:1 & 2
And this is the testimony, God has given us eternal life and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
1 John 5:11 & 12
