Like many of you I have been in shock and sadness over the death of Charlie Kirk. He influenced more college students in America for good than any other, and was a significant factor in the re-election of Donald Trump. If you had a chance to hear him, you know that he was effective because he obviously cared about those he spoke to on campuses.
College campuses in America are enormously dominated by leftists. Over 90% of faculty support the Democratic party, and at Harvard University, 97% of employee donations went to Democratic candidates in a previous election. It’s at these colleges where Kirk went to speak not just to social and political issues but to the spiritual and religious issues that are foundational to everything. He was an evangelist and apologist for the faith, remarkably effective and only 31 years old with a beautiful young family, his wife Erika and two kids.
I watched one video where a student started off his comments toward Charlie claiming that because Charlie dropped out of college (“Community college”, Kirk hilariously corrected him), he knew very little about economics and far less than the college students he was challenging. Charlie responded, “Who was Milton Friedman?”, to which the student had no response. Kirk consistently stated the truth in love which is why he had to have security. Our universities are more about “safe zones” than free speech. When speech is equated with violence, violence is justified. When the left consistently calls the opposition Hitler and uses the word “fascist” (with no idea what it means), people take up arms. Obviously this clashes with our 1st Amendment right in the Constitution, an inalienable right that has been bestowed by our Creator. Ditch the creator and you will lose the rights. Free speech, in other words, has a religious foundation. Take away that foundation and all of our liberties will collapse.
Grief and anger at Charlie’s senseless assination are entirely appropriate, but they are not the last word. Many people are tempted to despair. Does this mean our colleges are forever forsaken? No, in fact, this is exactly the kind of sacrifice willingly made by a virtuous man that God loves to bless. When Stephen was murdered, Christians were “scattered [and] went everywhere preaching the word” (Acts 8:4). No doubt many enemies celebrated his death as many are Charlie’s, lying or culpably misunderstanding or just hating what he said about God, about guns, about sexuality and so on. But it didn’t matter. Faithful Christians proclaimed the word: Christ is Lord; He died for our sins and rose again so we can repent and believe the gospel. This is what we are to do.
Sometimes we feel isolated from the New Testament, as if Stephen, James, Peter, and Paul sacrificed their lives but we don’t really do that anymore. But this is false. Charlie named his organization Turning Point because he wanted a change from violent revolution, fruitlessness, hatred, socialism and communism, all stemming from alienation from God, and he gave his life to make it happen. May God bless his sacrifice as it appears He is certainly doing.