Honoring Charlie Kirk's Legacy: Faith, Courage, and Civil Dialogue in Dark Times
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Honoring Charlie Kirk's Legacy: Faith, Courage, and Civil Dialogue in Dark Times
Charlie Kirk was killed on September 10th, 2025, while hosting one of his signature open debate events at Utah Valley University. He leaves behind his wife, two young children, and a profound legacy of communicating Christian values through respectful dialogue. This tribute explores Kirk's commitment to good-faith engagement, his bravery in facing opposition, and why his moderate, thoughtful approach to cultural discourse matters now more than ever. As conservative Christians grapple with an increasingly hostile political climate, Kirk's example offers a path forward rooted in truth, charity, and unwavering faith—rejecting both passive weakness and aggressive tactics in favor of the dialogue that kept our society from descending into violence.
Charlie Kirk was a good man. He embodied the idea of acting in good faith and was willing to charitably dialogue with those on the left who disagreed with him. I met Charlie in January of this year when we were both speaking at the pro-life summit in Washington DC during the March for Life. We were hanging out in the speakers room and Charlie said to me, "I've seen your videos about me. I think they're great." These included a video where I affirmed Charlie's defense of the pro-life view on Jubilee and a video where I was critical of his objections to Catholicism. He told me, "Look, I think it's great when people defend what they believe." He did not take any of my criticisms personally. We had a really good chat, and one of his friends was in the process of setting up a longer dialogue between the two of us.
I appreciated that while Charlie did not agree with Catholicism as a whole, he loved Catholics and he valued many aspects of the Catholic faith. His wife is Catholic and he had been attending mass with her. In a previous episode of Charlie Kirk's podcast, he said that Protestants undervalue the Blessed Virgin Mary and he saw her as an antidote to the modern world's toxic feminism.
"I think we as Protestants and evangelicals under venerate Mary. She was very important. She was a vessel for our Lord and Savior. I think that we as evangelicals and Protestants, we've overcorrected. We don't talk about Mary enough. We don't venerate her enough. Mary was clearly important to early Christians. There's something there. In fact, I believe one of the ways that we fix toxic feminism in America is Mary is the solution. Have more young ladies be pious, be reverent, to be full of faith, slow to anger, slow to words at times. Mary is a phenomenal example and I think a counter to so much of the toxicity of feminism in the modern era."
Handling Criticism With Grace
Charlie Kirk's goodwill can also be seen in how he handled criticism, insults, and other attacks. When South Park parodied him, Charlie was excited that he had now made it. He achieved a level of influence that few people in American politics, especially at his age, have today. Even the writers of South Park, probably without knowing it, had to make their parody of Charlie Kirk use good pro-life arguments because those are just the kind of arguments that he would use that would stump college students.
In one scene, a character challenges him: "Oh my god. What makes you think you have the right to say what I do with my body?" Charlie responds: "Let me ask you something. If a pregnant woman is murdered and the baby dies too, why is the killer charged with a double homicide?" The response comes: "Well, but because people have different beliefs." Charlie replies: "It's not about belief. It's about truth. Science confirms life begins at conception."
A Brave Man in Battle
Charlie Kirk was not only a man of goodwill, he was a brave man. When I heard Charlie had been shot and then that he had died, I felt like a lieutenant colonel who just found out that the general had been killed in battle. But Charlie didn't believe in battling or vilifying people. He believed, as the Bible says, in battling ideas. This is embodied in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5, which says: "For though we live in the world, we are not carrying on a worldly war. For the weapons of our warfare are not worldly, but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every proud obstacle to the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ."
When I was in my mid-20s, I used to do similar open-air debates on college campuses. I remember having to keep my eyes open for unhinged people who might snap. However, I never faced the level of scrutiny or vitriol or danger that Charlie Kirk faced. So I commend his bravery.
The Frightening Climate We Face
Here's what's so sad and frankly frightening to me about this incident. Nobody deserves to be murdered, even if they have disgusting evil views. But Charlie Kirk was a moderate conservative. On Jubilee, he defended the supposedly radical claim that abortion is murder and trans women are not women—things everybody believed a few decades ago or even just a few years ago.
However, we live in a culture where simply believing that it should be illegal to kill children in the womb or mutilate them in the name of transgender ideology is considered the equivalent of genocidal Nazi ideology. As a result, it's considered justifiable to meet such ideology with lethal force, just as you would meet a Nazi on the beaches of Normandy with lethal force.
Two Camps Among Christian Conservatives
So how should we as Christians respond to this scary political climate in which we inhabit? First, Charlie's death is not a sign that his moderate, respectful, and thoughtful approach should be abandoned. I worry that the conservative Christian movement is splitting into two camps.
One camp, embodied by people like Charlie Kirk, believes that we should not stoop to the level of our ideological opponents. They might shout down speakers, dogpile, dox and verbally abuse people online and even use physical violence, but our side should not do that. Instead, we should openly and peacefully engage anyone in respectful dialogue and through this change people's minds so that we change public policy.
However, the other camp among Christian conservatives and those on the right say that anything is fair game to defeat our opponents. If they stoop to evil, we will do the same. Instead of good faith debate, we'll use mockery, trolling, and almost any other tactic our opponents would use against us, no matter how obnoxious.
The Danger of the Heckler's Veto
One of these tactics is the heckler's veto, or shouting down a speaker to prevent others from hearing their message. I was the victim of a heckler's veto at a Canadian university several years ago, where, ironically, some of the protesters wanted to talk to me, but other protesters simply sang songs to try to make me quit my presentation. I then asked the campus security guards if this counted as a disruption that warranted removing the students from the event and they said that they considered the students engaging in free speech, not a violation of campus rules.
According to the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, or FIRE, in the past five years, while strong Democratic college students have become less likely to want to shout down speakers they disagree with, strong Republican college students have become more likely to want to shut down speakers they disagree with. Even more shocking is the question of using violence to stop someone from speaking. Strong Democratic students have slightly increased in supporting violence, but strong Republican students have dramatically increased, going from about 10% in 2020 supporting violence to shut down speakers to nearly 40% in 2025, which is higher than the strong Democratic college students.
For this group of people on the right, the ultimate goal is to gain power and then outlaw dissent. It's not to gradually change people's minds who then collectively change laws and culture. This camp will say that Charlie Kirk's death proves the former approach should be abandoned. But that doesn't follow because death does not disprove truth.
Christ Crucified: The Model for Our Approach
1 Corinthians 1:23 says, "We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles." Our Lord was the victim of a political assassination, but it did not invalidate his nonviolent approach. Jewish approaches to the Roman Empire that relied on violence ended up being monumental failures. In contrast, Christianity's peaceful approach destroyed pagan Rome and turned it into the golden age of Christendom.
The split among young conservatives and others on the right today also reminds me of the split in the civil rights movement decades ago. On one side, you had Martin Luther King Jr. who advocated for peaceful nonviolent resistance when whites attacked blacks for doing things like sitting at segregated lunch counters. On the other side, you had Malcolm X who advocated for defensive violence when blacks were assaulted and said, in his words, "Freedom for blacks should be achieved by any means necessary." Both men were assassinated, but King's non-violent approach was ultimately the effective one in securing legal rights for blacks. I believe history will vindicate Kirk's thoughtful approach against those who say we should rely on more aggressive tactics.
Killed Because He Was Effective
Virginia State Representative Nick Freitas notes that Kirk was killed not because he was a political extremist, but because he was extremely effective. "Let's get one thing straight. They didn't murder Charlie Kirk because he was an extremist or a fascist or a threat to democracy or inciting violence or any of the other reasons that they're now trying to put out on X and TikTok and everywhere else. They murdered him because he was effective. He was effective. The man made incredible arguments while at the same time always trying to seek out common humanity. He might have disagreed with arguments, but he didn't hate anyone and they murdered him. That's what happened."
You can see the superiority of this approach in that it reaches people you think would be died in the wool leftists. People like Governor Gavin Newsom's children. Newsom shared: "The worst part though, Charlie, no BS. True story. Literally last night trying to put my son to bed. He's like, 'No, Dad. What time? What time's Charlie going to be here? What time?' And I'm like, 'Dude, you're in school tomorrow.' He's 13. He's like, 'No, no.' This morning wakes up at 6 something. He's like, 'I'm coming.' I'm like, he literally would not leave the house."
The extreme approaches will also reach some people on the left, but we have to ask which approach is going to be most effective at reaching the largest number of people. Also, rejecting the far right or barbarian right does not mean you have to be mealy-mouthed or weak. Charlie Kirk would frequently use blunt language when talking about important cultural issues. He was also a person of goodwill. He did not resort to bullying or abusive tactics when he debated people. He reasoned with them and embodied what scripture says in Isaiah 1:18: "Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool."
Dialogue: The Alternative to Violence
Charlie Kirk believed in dialogue because he saw it as the one thing keeping us from devolving into violence and the best way to make our culture better. Here he is explaining this to a woman on the street:
"I go around universities and have challenging conversations because that's what is so important to our country is to find our disagreements respectfully because when people stop talking, that's when violence happens." The woman responds: "I've never seen someone do this." Charlie continues: "Well, it's a growing trend because people like me are facing violence, assaults." She asks: "The left?" Charlie confirms: "Yes. The campus Antifa. I've been stormed out of restaurants. I've been assaulted publicly. Multiple death threats." She asks: "Okay. So what's your goal in all of this?" Charlie explains: "There's more people that agree with me than some people would actually believe and they come out of the woodwork when I do stuff like this. We record all of it so that we put on the internet so people can see these ideas collide. When people stop talking, that's when you get violence. That's when civil war happens because you start to think the other side is so evil and they lose their humanity."
The Hitler Label and Dangerous Rhetoric
Honestly, that has happened with the left saying that anyone who disagrees with them is Hitler. I have a news flash for you. The Hitler label does not make your opponents look worse. It just makes Hitler look better. If being against child killing and child mutilation apparently makes you Hitler, if anything makes you Hitler, it's being for things like killing innocent human beings in the womb. But the truth is only Hitler is Hitler. And this kind of rhetoric needs to stop before more people get killed.
There are two extreme reactions among the targets on the right when it comes to this rhetoric. One is on the far right who just embrace the terms like being a Nazi or being a Hitler. They say it isn't just bad ideas that ruin society. They say it's bad groups of people who ruin society because those groups of people are morally inferior due to their sex or their ethnicity. They also say that they might as well be full-blown radicals because you risk being killed no matter how thoughtfully you engage the other side.
But if you want to honor Charlie Kirk's memory, you'll disavow that camp's methods. We don't speak with nuance and charity because it's safer. We do it because that's what God wants us to do. Second Timothy chapter 2 says this: "The Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but kindly to everyone, an apt teacher, forbearing, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant that they will repent and come to know the truth. And they may escape from the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will."
Rejecting Victim-Blaming
But that doesn't mean we have to go to the other extreme and just passively accept any insult from the other side. Here's what Matthew Dowd at MSNBC said in response to Charlie Kirk being shot: "He's been one of the most divisive, especially divisive younger figures who is constantly sort of pushing this sort of hate speech aimed at certain groups. And I always go back to hateful thoughts lead to hateful words which then lead to hateful actions. And I think that's the environment we're in that people just you can't stop with these sort of awful thoughts you have and then saying these awful words and not expect awful actions to take place."
The only thing awful in this analysis is you, Mr. Dowd. Anyone who utters this kind of stupidity should be rightfully shamed and refuted. We should love our enemies, but that does not preclude us from defeating our enemies' sinful schemes through moral means. I pray that conservative Christians who want to renew our culture will honor Charlie Kirk's memory by rejecting abusive, trollish, or barbaric approaches to public discourse that Charlie himself would have rejected.
A New Civil Rights Movement
The truth is, we are fighting in a new civil rights movement. One that says that children have the right to not be dismembered in the womb or psychologically and physically mutilated after birth through gender ideology. A civil rights movement that says women have the right to not compete against biological men in sports. They have the right to change in locker rooms and not have to see counterfeit women with their penises hanging out. Women have the right also to be on public transit and not have to be afraid of violent maniacs who were arrested over a dozen times and have been set loose to prey upon them. And it is a new civil rights movement that says white people have the right to be treated as human beings and not be slandered as racists merely because of their skin color.
Here's a clip with Charlie Kirk and Xaviaer DuRousseau on Fox News making this point: "If you look at what diversity, equity, and inclusion actually is, it's just a fancy way to say anti-white. And if things don't change and people keep getting kicked out of multicultural centers or stopped from getting jobs just because of their skin color, then white people are going to have to start their own civil rights movement because things have gotten way too woke and just toxic."
We Will Not Be Silenced
It will be very difficult to fight for our rights. And just like in the last civil rights movement, there will be evil people who want to deny human beings these rights. And they may use violence in doing so. I urge you once again to honor Charlie Kirk's memory by emulating his compassionate, moderate, and winsome approach to dialogue and not becoming like the monsters he often faced or even like the monsters who gloated about his death.
And if you are someone who wants to deny others these basic rights, rest assured we will not be silenced. You might be able to kill us, but you cannot kill our ideas because the truth cannot be killed. And deep down, it's that fear which motivates these cowards towards violence because they know they cannot win in a fair political fight. They can only win if, as the quote attributed to Edmund Burke says, "Good men do nothing."
Prayer and Faith in Dark Times
Finally, I ask that you please pray for the repose of Charlie Kirk's soul and for his family during this difficult time. And on a personal note, I'd ask for your prayers for my family. The day before Charlie Kirk was killed, I found out that my mother had passed away. The stress from everything has also stalled Laura's recovery from brain surgery. Your prayers are deeply appreciated.
If you feel overwhelmed by recent news of violence and depravity, please do not give up and fall into despair. Charlie Kirk had a robust Christian faith and four days before he died he wrote this: "Jesus defeated death so you can live. We must always keep our eyes on Christ especially when the world envelops us in darkness."
The Litany of Trust
I want to close with a prayer from the book "Jesus I Trust in You" by Sister Faustina Maria. Laura and I recite it often to help us weather the storms of this life and I hope you will consider praying this prayer or the litany of trust on a regular basis. Here is a portion being recited by Sister Faustina who belongs to the Sisters of Life:
From the belief that I have to earn your love. Deliver me Jesus. From the fear that I am unlovable. Deliver me, Jesus. From the false security that I have what it takes. Deliver me, Jesus. From the fear that trusting you will leave me more destitute. Deliver me, Jesus. From all suspicion of your words and promises. Deliver me, Jesus. From the rebellion against childlike dependency on you. Deliver me Jesus. From refusals and reluctances in accepting your will. Deliver me Jesus. From anxiety about the future. Deliver me Jesus. From resentment or excessive preoccupation with the past. Deliver me Jesus. From restless self-seeking in the present moment. Deliver me, Jesus. From the disbelief in your love and presence. Deliver me, Jesus. From the fear of being asked to give more than I have. Deliver me, Jesus. From the belief that my life has no meaning or worth. Deliver me, Jesus. From the fear of what love demands. Deliver me, Jesus. From discouragement. Deliver me, Jesus.
That you are continually holding me, sustaining me, loving me. Jesus, I trust in you. That your love goes deeper than my sins and failings and transforms me. Jesus, I trust in you. That not knowing what tomorrow brings is an invitation to lean on you. Jesus, I trust in you. That you are with me in my suffering. Jesus, I trust in you. That my suffering united to your own will bear fruit in this life and the next. Jesus, I trust in you. That you will not leave me orphan. That you are present in your church. Jesus, I trust in you. That your plan is better than anything else. Jesus, I trust in you. That you always hear me and in your goodness always respond to me. Jesus, I trust in you. That you give me the grace to accept forgiveness and to forgive others. Jesus, I trust in you. That you give me all the strength I need for what is asked. Jesus, I trust in you. That my life is a gift. Jesus, I trust in you. That you will teach me to trust you. Jesus, I trust in you. That you are my Lord and my God. Jesus, I trust in you. That I am your beloved one. Jesus, I trust in you.
