Turning Points: A Brief Tribute to Charlie Kirk

When the Japanese launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbour in December 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt famously called it “a day which will live in infamy.”  September 10, 2025, will also prove to be a day that lodges in the collective memory as truly infamous. The murder of Charlie Kirk at just thirty-one years of age by an assassin’s bullet and the polarised reaction to his tragic death mark a new low and an undoubted inflection point in the story of America.  Kirk was neither a President nor a politician. He had no seat in the Senate or Congress. He was basically a popular Christian apologist and conservative commentator promoting historic Christian values and doing so as a devout believer in reference to the Word of God – the Bible.  The organization he founded, Turning Point USA, is one of the catalysts of cultural change among the younger generation in America today, but this was not the turning point anyone expected.

Charlie was not a college graduate himself but rose to public prominence primarily through his activities on university campuses and in the media, promoting freedom of speech and debate, answering questions about life and faith, and speaking out on the critical socio-cultural issues of our time that have caused such consternation, confusion and despair among the young. His sharp mind, polite and respectful conduct, clear and compassionate communication and courageous honesty meant a vast following and warm reception from many, despite his challenging message.

And yet this patriotic American, husband and father of two, was cut down in cold blood whilst answering students’ questions at an open-air event on a university campus in Utah. Though some in the media have already started to implicitly or explicitly blame the victim, Charlie Kirk was not responsible in any way, shape, or form for his own murder. The precise who and how have not yet been fully determined, and whilst the ‘why’ may eventually emerge as either murky or clear – though the early reports suggest ammunition from the rifle used for the assassination was engraved with pro-transgender and antifascist ideology[i] – there are several things that can be said with confidence.

Firstly, Charlie Kirk was assassinated as a faithful Christian man defending biblical truths and Christian virtues in the public space. Though the media will try to spin it as such, this was not simply an act of “political violence” – it was the murder of an outspoken Christian whose message was deemed a threat. There are many socially conservative commentators with huge platforms and many politicians who might have been targeted, but this man was in the crosshairs for the faith he represented and the claims of God’s Word. One might even say without hyperbole that his death was a form of martyrdom, for this is the first time, to my knowledge, that a Christian apologist has been publicly assassinated on a university campus in the United States. And one need not agree with all of Charlie Kirk’s political leanings to recognize that this vicious assault had a religious root.

Secondly, an escalation of violence and assassinations was something that Charlie Kirk regarded as inevitable unless the issues dividing people were openly spoken about, debated and worked through by seeking to engage in courteous, open and public discussion.  He knew and argued that if people stopped talking to each other and engaging in public discourse in respectful ways, then they would turn to violence.  When people get to the point that they cannot stand even to hear the words of another, because they don’t know how to respond, their answer is often violence and verbal abuse. This decay of public discourse happens when the underlying worldview that historically provided the social consensus, and thus a basis for civil discourse, has eroded to such an extent that no one knows what the consensus is anymore. Charlie recognized this decay in his own generation and sought to do something about it, locating the final answer in the person of Jesus Christ.

Thirdly, this kind of murderous violence and wickedness did not emerge overnight; it is the product of decades of indoctrination and internal decline.  In 1962, school-sponsored prayer and Bible reading were made unlawful in the United States. This marked the beginning of an era of moral and cultural decay, opening fissures in the walls of our culture that could be papered over for a season by post-war economic prosperity, but can no longer be hidden. This terrible law demonstrated that there are no ‘neutral’ statutes, governments or schools. Somebody’s morality is always being legislated, and the state is inescapably preferring someone’s worldview. This legally endorsed spiritual uprooting had profound consequences that have now reached the crisis stage in America, with society on life support. When the Word of God is defied and trodden under foot, godlessness and lawlessness will prevail as day follows night. Everywhere the West is fracturing as apostate ideologies have been actively promoted to destroy society throughout our cultural and political institutions – and it is high time the sleepy church woke up to this fact. The gospel of Jesus Christ and the law of God are the only hope and source of justice and peace for any nation, but those who publicly teach this truth now risk a bullet on American campuses.

The prophet Isaiah observed of his own time and for our instruction:

Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands afar off; For truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. So truth fails, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. Then the Lord saw it, and it displeased Him That there was no justice (Is. 59:14-15)

Charlie made himself a target by departing from evil and urging young people to do the same, and he has paid the ultimate price. There is certainly a demonic element to this barbarous preying upon Christians, something that is being noticed by even mainstream commentators in the British Press. Tim Stanley from the Daily Telegraph, reflecting on Kirk’s assassination and the recent killings at a Catholic School in the US, remarked that, ‘The world is losing its mind. This feels like more than a cultural war: it’s spiritual.’ He then proposes with horror and bemusement that, ‘whatever manifesto they stood on…they exuded the sulphuric air of someone oppressed by demons, as if an evil spirit is abroad in the land.’[ii]

We do not yet know the kind of ‘turning point’ the assassination of Charlie Kirk may produce in the USA and beyond. Is it a further nudge toward civil war and balkanization in a radically divided society, or will it be another marker toward the recovery of Christian truth and meaning in the West? That question lies in the almighty hands of a sovereign God. But this the believer does know:

 …For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8: 34-39)

Rest in Peace, Charlie Kirk – we will see you in the morning.

 

[i] See the Wall Street Journal: https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/charlie-kirk-shot/card/ammunition-in-kirk-shooting-engraved-with-transgender-antifascist-ideology-sources-pdymd1sXXMSlVRhpvR4b, accessed September 11, 2025.

[ii] Tim Stanley, The Daily Telegraph: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/comment/2025/09/11/evil-poisoning-societies-charlie-kirk-latest-victim/ accessed September 11, 2025.