Charlie Kirk is dead. The bullet launched from an assassin’s high-powered rifle some 200 yards away pierced his neck, splattering blood and slumping him into an unconsciousness that he’d never recover from. His voice was permanently silenced after a questioner asked if he knew how “many transgender Americans have been mass shooters over the last 10 years?”
Shock and grief permeated the nation. But some rejoiced at Kirk’s untimely and violent death. Scroll through the social media cesspool and you’ll see among the vulgar posts a young woman on Tik-Tok dancing to the news; a college-age kid with a megaphone leading a chant “We got Charlie in the neck, neck, neck.” Trans activist attorney and author Sheryl Weikal posted “I wish the bullet that hit Charlie Kirk a very pleasant day.” Outliers? Maybe. Reinforcing political violence? Yes. Ugly, unacceptable and inhumane? No doubt.
The co-founder of Turning Point USA commanded a huge media platform and an organizing presence that influenced younger generations with a conservatism that onboarded a Christian worldview and principles into the public arena. Kirk regularly attracted thousands of students on college campuses (an estimated 3,000 attended the American Comeback Tour at Utah Valley University on Wednesday) where he engaged political, moral, and social issues from a theocentric view—that is a view that acknowledges the reality of God and how that truth relates to public policy and human flourishing.
Kirk’s influence on American politics is recognized internationally as condolences from world leaders are pouring into the White House. President Trump announced Thursday he’s going to award Kirk posthumously the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Over the years, Kirk was turned away by scores of college administrators who said he was hateful, divisive, and polarizing. A cursory review of his interactions show that he engaged opponents with civility on the toughest of subjects. His crime was that he failed to conform to elite opinions enforced by the majority of gatekeepers at our universities. Even at Utah Valley, a thousand opposed his presence and signed a petition asking administrators to ban him from campus “for his divisive rhetoric that often supports policies and laws which aren’t inclusive and can marginalize various communities.” Yet the signatories saw nothing wrong with marginalizing Kirk and his views embraced as mainstream in at least half the country.
Kirk’s appeal was to a generation unrooted in anything solid, a generation told to define their own reality—right down to their very genetic code. This is untenable. Kirk brought a sane response to an entire generation confused and threatened by an expressive individualism that jeopardized women’s safety and private spaces in public.
Instead of dialoguing and bringing better arguments to the table, the cowardly assassin permanently silenced Kirk with the pull of a trigger. The perpetrator could not live in the same universe with a prominent person who believed that God defines male, female, marriage, and reality itself, so he ended Kirk’s life. FBI investigators found the killer’s bullet casings had pro-trans and anti-fascist messaging engraved on them.
The question this killing brings to light is whether Americans will accept living in a political universe where intolerance turned to violent rage and celebrated by too many will become normalized. Kirk’s death was arguably an inflection point in the culture war. According to author and blogger Samuel James:
The truth is that it’s precisely the embarrassment over spirituality and unwillingness to submit to transcendent truths that has turned our civic life so gangrenous. What keeps people from shooting the necks of people they dislike? A commitment to individualism, free speech, or pluralism? No. In the end, it is only the fear of God that preserves the center. In losing God, we are burying ourselves.
Kirk regularly argued that God was the center of our political compact as the Author of our rights. He contended that embracing this reality and living it out publicly is necessary for maximum freedom and social cohesion. Lose this idea and you lose the basis of freedom and moral order. As James said, if we lose the fear of God we bury ourselves. Political violence becomes acceptable. So does cheering another’s death.
To insist that Kirk wasn’t worthy to continue living is an idea that can only be birthed by a militant secularism. That this was so widely celebrated is disturbing, a sign that the body politic of the Republic is very ill.
Charlie Kirk was more than an amalgam of policy positions—he was a fellow human being. Charlie was a husband to Erika, and father to two beautiful children. He was a member of Dream City Church, a follower of Jesus, a neighbor, and a friend to many. Now he is gone. And failure to grieve over his violent end makes us less human.
Rest in peace Charlie Kirk.