An American Turning Point: Remembering Charlie Kirk

​I’ve thought for several hours about how to write this piece and have settled on the following approach. First, I want to be transparent about the extent and limitations of my own insight and experience with Charlie Kirk. Next, I will cover some brief information about his assassination earlier today. Then, in a fashion I can only hope would make Charlie proud, I will issue a call to righteous and lawful action.

Charlie Kirk: The Great Patriot of Our Age

I knew Charlie professionally but not personally. As a politically active millennial who enjoys cultural commentary from a Christian perspective, Charlie Kirk was what I and many like me aspired to be. I find it entirely reasonable to say that Charlie shaped a generation of Christian leaders, he was one of the three top three reasons that Donald Trump won the presidency in 2024 (with the other two being Musk and Trump), and he shaped modern history in a major way. Charlie was a Christian warrior who consistently strived to share truth in love and showed dignity to all humans. Charlie Kirk was, as a close friend said to me earlier today, the great patriot of our age. And he was taken from us.

Yesterday afternoon, while Kirk sat under a tent to escape the Utah sun, interacting with ideological opponents and fans alike, a despicable shooter took aim, pulled the trigger, and ended Charlie’s life. The rifleman appears to have taken the deadly shot from atop a university building. At the time of this writing, a manhunt is ongoing and additional information is pending.

Multiple videos capturing the minutes before and moments of the incident can be found easily online – some are extremely graphic. I am torn between whether or not to share the videos as on one hand, I want to ensure that Charlie and his family are respected and I do not want to offer the shooter any sort of sick and twisted credit for what happened. On the other hand, Charlie himself did not hide from identifying the overt violence of the left – and sometimes, answering evil starts by first looking it squarely in the eyes and acknowledging what that evil is capable of.

With that said, I will leave the decision up to you – this Telegram thread has done some excellent reporting on the incident and if you choose to view the images which are blurred for safety, you can do so – I only ask that we approach this with a respectful posture and have our minds set on understanding and answering evil. I think Charlie would want that.

We’ve Got a Couple Trumpers Here: Charlie Wasn’t the First

I want to take you back a few years to 2020 – specifically to the months of BLM and ANTIFA riots which saw leftwing radicals burning, looting, and killing across American cities. At one such riot in Portland, a group of Trump supporters showed up in an attempt to counteract the violence and destruction. Aaron Danielson was one of those Trump supporters, and as the sun set, he strayed from his own group and was unfortunate enough to be found by a group of leftwing extremists.

A now infamous video captures what happened next, as a voice can be heard shouting, “We’ve got a couple [Trump Supporters] right here!” and moments later, shots ring through the night air. Danielson was killed, his only crime being that he was a Trump supporter who dared to show up in an area where the left was active. That incident stuck with me – we’ve got a couple here – followed by *bang bang bang* in the city streets. It was so blatant and casual, it was almost entirely ignored by leftwing media, and it seemed to mark an open season on anyone who dared to be publicly right of center. And of course it didn’t stop there.

The left did what the left has always done – since it’s roots in open calls to political violence via Karl Marx. And as the left started losing politically and culturally, it only got worse. When they felt their grip on power slipping, they tried to get Trump not once, but twice. And then the attention shifted to cultural gorilla warfare, up to and including political violence – tragically, Charlie Kirk was high on the list of targets.

Root and Stem

“What happens now?” you might ask. I think YouTuber WranglerStar answered this question well when he stated, “The time for talk is over. Now, I’m not advocating violence, but if violence is going to be brought, violence needs to be stopped by violence…don’t take violence to the street, but protect yourself.” The only thing I would add is that unlawful violence needs to be stopped by lawful and righteous threat of necessary use of force (which I would wager is exactly what WranglerStar intended to convey).

“Alright, Luke, but what does lawful and righteous use of violence look like?” you may ask – and the answer is simple. We see this concept enforced every day through soldiers who guard our nation and law enforcement who guard our communities. What we need to acknowledge is that there is a segment of radicalized individuals who have declared themselves to be enemies to free discourse, justice, and Americanism – and they must be identified and investigated accordingly.

What does this look like? It looks like starting to treat the openly violent left the same way we treat groups such as the KKK. It means Americans uniting and deciding that such individuals are not welcome in polite society. It means watch lists being populated by those who actively call for violence, participate in violence, and traitorously claim American soil as their own as was seen in CHAZ/CHOP.

In short, it means treating the radical left – which has largely been allowed to exist unchallenged – the way that January 6th protesters were treated. They were tracked down. They were ruthlessly investigated and imprisoned. It is time that the violent left felt the same pressure that the right has felt for years. Leftwing extremism needs to be pulled out of American society root and stem. Root. And. Stem.

An American Turning Point

It is said that in many instances, political and religious martyrs become even more influential in death than they had been in life. I believe that will be true of Charlie Kirk, who truly gave his last full measure of devotion today as both a political and religious martyr.

My favorite memory of Charlie is his reaction to Trump defeating Kamala Harris several months ago. Charlie quietly cried tears of joy as he heard that all his hard work had been rewarded and America would live to fight another day. The following is conjecture, but I think it is well-informed conjecture; my guess is that Charlie was not simply crying because Trump won nor was he under any delusion that Trump was or would be perfect. I think he was crying because he knew that America had avoided full-blown Marxist takeover – even if only for four more years. I think he was crying because values he supported would largely be protected – including freedom of religion, the rights of the unborn, and the rights of Americans to be protected against mass illegal immigration. But most of all, I think Charlie cried because he truly believed that he was right where God wanted him to be and he had completed a mission.

Charlie Kirk was a white, conservative, male, Christian who lived out his faith-based values in an impactful way – and for a certain segment of the American population, those descriptors read like a rap sheet which demands immediate and extreme punishment. For that radicalized segment of Americans, justice must be swift and harsh if our country is to survive. We must demand that our political leaders take action – enough is enough. The line has been crossed.

I will leave you with a point that I truly believe is the one thing Charlie would want to leave you with – even above calls to preserve Americanism and demand justice. That point is simply this; as I write, I am aware that at this time yesterday, Charlie Kirk was alive and thriving. He was probably with his family or friends or preparing for his upcoming speaking engagement. If I know anything about Charlie, he had business plans and travel arrangements for weeks – if not months – to come. He may have even had dinner plans for tonight, but instead, he is no longer on this earth.

Instead, today we mourn Charlie Kirk, though not as those without hope (1 Thessalonians 4:13). If the fruit and consistent proclamation of his life is anything to judge by, Charlie is with Jesus right now. He knows mysteries that we on earth only wonder about – and those who are in Christ will see Charlie again. So ask yourself – what if your plans for tomorrow, next week, and next month never happen? What if your story ends as abruptly as Charlie’s did? Do you have confidence that when your eyes close for the last time – whether expected or unexpected – you know what will happen next? Charlie Kirk had that confidence and I think he’d want you to have it, too.