Mike Winger Explains Seven Things He Learned About Charlie Kirk's Christian Faith and His Martyrdom
Enjoying this? Share it with someone who needs to see it.
Up Next
Peter Schweizer Exposes Chinese Billionaires Funding the Trans Movement to Divide America
21:40
Karlyn Borysenko Exposes How the Far-Left Uses Capitalism as Their Target for Revolution
1:46:10
Pastor John Delivers Prophetic Message Following Charlie Kirk's Alleged Death: A Call to Spiritual Warfare
24:16
Mike Winger Explains Seven Things He Learned About Charlie Kirk's Christian Faith and His Martyrdom
Mike walks through seven things he says he learned about Charlie Kirk after looking closely at his life and the circumstances of his death, framing him as a Christian martyr rather than simply a political figure killed for free speech. He pushes back on what he calls widespread mischaracterizations of Kirk's views on race, sexuality, and other topics, argues that several of Kirk's most controversial positions on abortion, trans ideology, feminism, and marriage were rooted directly in scripture, and contends the shooter targeted him specifically for those Christian convictions, comparing his death to that of John the Baptist. He argues the killing was not the act of an isolated, unstable individual but connects to a broader leftist ideology he says has increasingly justified political violence, while also praising how Kirk handled disagreement and warning against figures on the right who he says lack the same grounding in scripture.
Mike says the first thing he learned about Charlie Kirk was that he was an outspoken Christian who used his rallies and debates to share the gospel directly, presenting faith in Jesus as more important than politics itself. He describes this as genuine evangelism rather than political messaging designed to appeal to a religious voting base.
Correcting Mischaracterizations
Mike says the second thing he learned was that many widely repeated claims about Kirk, including that he was racist, wanted to criminalize homosexuality, or believed black people were unfit for certain jobs, were not supported by the available footage. He compares this to how the words of Jesus were twisted by religious leaders to stir up opposition against him.
Positions Rooted in Scripture
Mike outlines several positions Kirk held that he says were explicitly grounded in a biblical worldview:
Opposition to abortion, based on the belief that life begins at conception and that all humans are made in the image of God
Opposition to what Kirk and Mike both describe as a harmful trans ideology, while distinguishing this from opposition to trans individuals themselves
Opposition to feminism, rooted in a biblical view of family and marriage
Encouragement for people to marry and have children as a source of fulfillment
A Modern Martyr
Mike argues that Kirk was killed specifically for holding these Christian-derived political positions, comparing his death to that of John the Baptist, who he notes was executed not for preaching the gospel directly but for publicly condemning the immorality of a political ruler. Mike states that if people believe Kirk deserved to be killed for these views, the same logic would apply to him and to anyone who shares them.
Not an Isolated Act
Mike argues that Kirk's killing should not be understood as the act of a single unstable individual, pointing to public celebrations of the killing that he says occurred in some corners of the political left. He connects this to what he describes as a broader pattern of rhetoric, including the justification of political violence and the labeling of opponents as Nazis, that he argues has built toward this kind of violence over time. He draws a parallel between the normalization of abortion and what he describes as a justification for violence against those who do not affirm certain LGBT-related beliefs.
Handling Disagreement Well
Mike says the sixth thing he learned was that Kirk handled disagreement constructively, and notes that he personally did not agree with Kirk on every position, while still affirming that their shared Christian convictions formed substantial common ground. He warns against treating any acknowledgment of disagreement with Kirk as unacceptable.
A Warning About the Woke Right
Mike cautions against political figures attempting to position themselves as Kirk's successor without sharing his grounding in scripture, describing the woke right as a movement that mirrors leftist identity politics with different priorities rather than offering a genuinely biblical alternative.
Blessing Enemies and Supporting the Death Penalty
Mike closes with a reading of Romans 12, arguing that Christians are called to bless those who persecute them and to leave vengeance to God rather than pursuing it personally. He pairs this with Romans 13, arguing that government, as God's appointed authority, is permitted to carry out that vengeance through measures including the death penalty, which he says he supports being applied to the shooter while also praying for his repentance.
Video Transcript
I could simply say Charlie Kirk was killed for using free speech and for
for his words. He was murdered for his words, which is true. And that this is a horrible and evil thing and it will
degrade society and it will lead to totalitarianism and oppression and all
kinds of vile evils and losses of freedoms and all sorts of wickedness.
This is historically a fact that this this will lead to that. That is all true.
But I don't want to only say that. I'd like to say a lot more than that. So, I'm going to share with you guys seven
things I've learned about Charlie Kirk, who I didn't know much about. I did not know that much about him before his horrible, horrible murder, his
martyrdom, I will call it. And I'll explain why in this video. But yeah, I think a lot more needs to be said than just that it's wrong to kill people for
using speech. That's important. But I as a Christian, as someone who wants to think biblically about everything, as
someone who wants to let my Christian worldview impact my political engagement as well, I think I should say more. So,
the first thing I learned about Charlie Kirk was that Charlie was an outspoken Christian. Um, and I mean I was blown
away watching the actual footage of Charlie Kirk sharing the gospel with
people during his rallies or events, you know, in his his back and forth discussions and debates in ways that
were clearly not political. It wasn't a politicel, you know what I mean? A polit the politicel is about appealing to a
religious base. What he was concerned with was evangelism, which is a very different thing. This is the thing you
don't see the political guys do. They don't do evangelism while they're out
there, you know, trying to affect political change. Instead, they speak
very personally about their personal belief in Christ, their personal relationship with God, that kind of thing, but not in a way of trying to
compel others to turn and put their faith in Jesus, to proclaim his death and resurrection in a way that is simple
and factually true. And I loved this about watching these Charlie Kirk videos. He presented Jesus like he was
the most important thing you needed to get in your life. Period. You needed to
know Jesus. You needed to know him as your Lord and your savior. You needed to be a Christian. That this was more
important than your politics, more important than anything else in your life. And that man, I have tremendous
respect for that. Uh this was to my discernment. This was real gospel love
for Jesus presenting Christianity out there um in a very
powerful way to exactly an audience that needs it, desperately needs it, the youth of our culture who are being
indoctrinated in colleges. I'm just being honest here. The second thing I learned about Charlie
Kirk, so I heard when I first started doing a little research on the guy, I heard that
he was a complete racist. I heard that he wants to advocate for stoning gay people in modern American law. I heard
that he thinks black people are incapable of holding positions like president. I heard that he was a fascist who spews hate everywhere he goes. One
of the first things I learned while looking into Charlie Kirk is that none of those things were true. Now, you may
be believing some of those things. I'd encourage you to go and watch the actual footage of these things in context and
you'll see that he's he simply is not doing that. Now, you may even disagree with some of his logic in those in those clips. You might say, "I think you're
wrong there." But it's a it's it's a malicious lie to say that he's trying wants to stone gays and things like
this. Uh that he thinks black people are incapable of holding jobs like president or uh pilots uh or that if if your pilot
is is black then you're less safe because of the person because of the person being black. That is of course
not what he said. These aren't his claims. And I've seen especially in
because you know how it is. We're all in our bubbles. you you you either get conservative media, you get liberal media, you or you get like the
neutralish kind of media that that you've clicked on in the past, that's what you get more of. Those who click
click and get the liberal stuff, the reality is that there's just widespread mythology about Charlie Kirk online,
about what his views were, about how hateful he was. You actually look at the footage, you're like, you'd have to be
pretty jaded to interpret misinterpret him as as doing those things. in all of
the clips I've seen, the evidence I've seen, um, and I have looked for some. Okay, maybe there's something out there
I don't know about and I would address it and deal with it accordingly, but it seems like more of the same every time I see it. You might disagree with the guy,
but it's not. He was not those things. The second thing I learned about Charlie Kirk, other than his incredible Christian commitment and uh willingness
to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ and to make that his priority, including him saying things overtly and with all the
appearance of sincerity that I can find that Christianity, that Jesus, that his
relationship with God is his number one issue and priority in his life and obedience to that. uh even going so far
as to actually have political positions like his view of Israel that is based upon his understanding of scripture and
doing this openly and courageously. Man, I respect that tremendously. But there's
a lot of people who will think he had these hateful positions that I just I don't see. I I haven't seen even the
examples I've seen were actual lies against him. Remember when Jesus was in trouble? Now, I'm not saying Charlie's
Jesus, obviously. Obviously, for those who care about truth, Jesus was in trouble because he said to the to the to
the leaders of Israel, he says, "Destroy this temple and in three days I will rebuild it." He was referring, we learn,
to the temple of his body. He's like, "You're going to kill me and I'm going to rise from the dead." This was a death and resurrection prediction. But what
they did was they twisted the words of Jesus and they went out and said, "Jesus says he's going to destroy the temple."
And this lie went around and stirred up a lot of opposition to Jesus. people who otherwise might have wanted to follow
Jesus or hear what he had to say but who believed this lie about him because that's what always happens when you have
a well-known figure who's being influential. There will be those who will twist their words to bring slander
against them in order to stop them from getting followers. Now, this happens on all sides. Yes, it does. It happens on all sides, but it's definitely happening
and had happened to uh Charlie Kirk. So, the third thing
the third thing I actually learned other than the the lying positions, the positions he never really held that people claimed against him. Um, not that
there's nothing you can disagree with. I'll come to that later. But there were positions he did hold that did get him
in trouble. And let me elaborate some of those positions because they're really important and relevant for us as we're
trying to evaluate what to think about these things. Abortion. He was very much
against and opposed to abortion. This was because he believed in the IMO day.
He believed that we're made in the image of God. So he has a biblical value. IMO day, same one I hold image. That's just
means image of God, right? Humans are all made in the image of God. From the time of the our first existence when I'm
first brought into the world, it's really not through birth. It is through conception. And from that moment on, I
am in the image of God. I I'm an image bearer and therefore my life is totally sacred. That was one of his views that
he held. Another view he held was he was opposed to trans ideology. Not opposed to trans individuals
just like in fact he has the same view as me on this. I'm opposed to the ideology which is destroying trans people which is harming them which is
mutilating them and causing them to uh castrate themselves to be despondent to
be full of anxiety and uh angst over the the physical body that they were born
with as though this was like a problem instead of something to embrace and be happy about. I'm for those trans people. I'm opposed
to the ideology that's destroying and ruining them and causing untold harms.
That's the same as Charlie Kirk. Actually, his view here is it stems from scripture. It's based on God's design.
God made them male and female. That God has assigned these realities of gender. You don't get to reassign it yourself.
That that is a rebellion against God's very design and it's harmful to people. So, out of love for God and love for people, you oppose trans ideology.
That's a position he held that he held very strongly to. That's a good one. I like that. How about feminism? He's
opposed to feminism. Now, he may not like all that he said about this issue, but he's in principle opposed to
feminism because of his belief in God's design for family and marriage. That's a biblical value. Now, I have this whole
epic series I've done on egalitarian theology and testing it and finding it
wanting, and I will link that down below for those who are interested. But yeah, feminism has become a major problem and
it is in direct opposition to biblical values of family and marriage that God has orchestrated and set up and
reinforced both in old and new testaments. Charlie would encourage men and women to have kids and get married.
He would strongly encourage them to do this. Have kids, get married, have kids. Well, not in that order, get married, have kids. That this is a major thing
that they should do in their life and they'll find more fulfillment there than their in their in their careers.
That is absolutely a biblical value. That's a wonderful thing that he taught there. Charlie was a man of incredible
courage in the way that he communicated these things. Whether or not you agree with him in every aspect of his tone is
secondary and not a primary topic of issue. So the third thing I learned was the
positions that Charlie held these were a lot of these positions he held, not every position perhaps, but a lot of
positions he held, major positions he held were because of his biblical commitment to the truth of God's word
and him having a Christian worldview. And he didn't, this wasn't just an accidental thing. This was a deliberate
and intentional thing. The man very much was vocal about this is that he's getting these values from scripture as a
Christian and he can build a secular case for them. I I've done the same thing for years. Not as successfully and
skillfully as Charlie probably. Uh not as influential for sure, which I'm fine with. I'm glad he had all that
influence. But I'll say this, I've got a secular case against homosexuality. I've got a video on that.
I'll link it down below. But I also have my biblical case against it. And I'll bring both depending on the context,
depending on the the need at the time. The next thing I learned about Charlie
is that, and this is a big deal, is that the shooter, whose name I will not use
and you should not use, these men often, not maybe every one of them, but a m a large number of those who commit
horrific horrific public crimes like this and and uh mass murderers and shootings and stuff is there is a desire
for fame. Yes, even evil fame, even fame for being wicked and and and terrible,
there is a desire for that. So, I refuse to use the name, but the shooter, uh, it turns out killed him for his Christian
views. Now, this is going to be a controversial bit in my video right now, but I believe it's absolutely true. So, I'm going to share it with you. The
views that he was killed for from all the available evidence appear to have been his Christian views. That is, his
views that come from his biblical commitment, his commitment to God first that then translate into his political
advocacy. the shooter was was uh protrans, was wrote anti-fascist
comments. And if if you don't know this, it's only because you are being
well either you're unaware, maybe you're just not you're not following the story. But if you're following the story and you don't know that he was a leftist,
like an extreme leftist um on issues that relate specifically to Christian values, he was opposed to those things,
then you're you need to get out of the bubble you're in and start looking for extra sources of information outside
those people. There's immediately there was beginning to be spread lies online about the man being conservative or MAGA
and all this stuff and it was simply not true. More of the same spin we always see. We always see for those who care
more about controlling group think than they do about telling people the truth so that they might make judgment calls
on their own. So the shooter killed him for holding Christian positions. I believe that
Charlie Kirk was a martyr. He is an actual martyr. Now, you might think, "But he wasn't technically killed for
the preaching of the gospel, Mike. It wasn't specifically probably because of the gospel. It was because of trans
issues or feminism or or um marriage and family issues." Um, that's Christian
values getting him martyed. And I think we have an example in scripture of of somebody who if you're going to say Kirk
wasn't a martyr, then I think you'd have to say John the Baptist wasn't a martyr. John the Baptist was not killed for
preaching, greater is he who comes after me than me. I'm not worthy to tie untie his sandals. He wasn't killed for that.
He wasn't killed for saying, "Behold, like the the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." He was not killed
for that. John the Baptist was killed because he held up moral values to the political power of Herod. And he said,
"Your fornication, your incestuous relationship with your brother's wife,
this is wrong." And he spoke openly about it and it got him killed. John is absolutely a martyr. He's a martyr for
this. And he's not the only martyr in scripture who was killed for holding up moral values, right, in a political
fashion. That's a good thing that to do. What he did was good here. And he was
killed by the shooter for his Christian values. This means this means that if
people believe that Charlie Kirk deserved it, then I also deserve it. For I share and will continue to advocate
for those values that I just outlined. Absolutely. Absolutely. Now, if you think I'm a fascist, it's because you
are brainwashed to think so. If you think that I deserve to die, it's because you are demonically inspired by
Satan, who is the ruler of the power of the air, who's who's in control of the world. In effect, he is the one who is
guiding and directing. You need to move from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. And there is a lot of darkness. This is
the next thing I learned about Charlie Kirk.
I learned that it isn't just one lone crazy gunman. It's not. Now, we're still
learning information about the whatever network he may have been a part of, uh, who may have been aware of it or may
have only helped inspire it or I don't know the details there. I'm not going to speculate on that yet. But here's what I
mean when I say it wasn't just a lone crazy gunman. There have been raging celebrations from the left. Not
everybody on the left, but too many to be insignificant. far too many to be no big deal. Raging celebrations delighting
in the horrible martyrdom of a man who was a Christian in public, in politics,
who was advocating and convincing a lot of people in many ways to hold to biblical values when it comes to their
voting. The raging celebrations, the countless videos of people delighting,
celebrating teachers in schools telling their students how happy they are and delighted they are that this man was
murdered. This is not just one guy who killed another guy in a vacuum because
he was unstable. This is a leftist ideology that expressed itself in violence. And this
is not the only time it's happened. Now, not all leftists are violent or liberals are violent or however you want to parse
out those terms. Not all of them are like this. Not not not at all. Right? But you don't need the majority of them
to be this way. You just need the ideology to stir it up and create a significant number. And then that leads
to scary places. So as a Christian, can I say that the justifying of riots
as opposed to protests or calling riots protest, that's an unbiblical thing that I have to reject as a Christian. The
justifying of violence, even people calling for political violence, even political leaders in our own country as
an American calling for political violence, that's coming typically from the left, right? I remember Nancy Pelosi
doing this. I remember when Biden said that Trump is a threat to democracy
itself, which is not a truth. And you may disagree with him. You might want to say whatever you want to say about his
policies, but that's like in no world was that actually true. You could say he's an immoral person in a bunch of
ways. You could say a bunch of stuff about him, but saying he's a threat to democracy,
that is what helps to instigate this sort of thing. I don't think that this is a coincidence. I know what I'm saying
now is turning some of some of you off. I know some of you are like, "Mike, I don't want to follow your content anymore. Um, that's okay. I'm okay with
that. I'm okay with that. But I I believe that this is a problem you're having, not a problem that I'm having
here." Okay? So, I'm speaking truth to you. I'm not interested in the politics for the sake of politics. I'm interested
in the kingdom of Christ. And that does impact how I view politics. One of the impacts is to say that instigating,
encouraging or otherwise celebrating the martyrdom of Charlie Kirk or similar
types of violent acts. It's something that's actually happening in the real world and has been for some time and
it's immoral and it's unbiblical and it's something I would stand against as a Christian. So I think I I think we should call it out. Calling people
Nazis. So this here's the steps I see in our culture. First, you say punching Nazis is okay. Remember that
conversation? It's okay to punch Nazis. I remember at the time thinking this is a slippery slope. This is this is a
slippery slope. It's not okay to just go punch people because you're mad at them. Even if you feel like, but I'm really justifiably mad at them, so I could just
be violent to them now. Because first you say it's okay to punch Nazis. Then you point your political enemies. You
point to your political enemies and you call them Nazis. And you convince your followers that they're a greater threat. They're a far worse danger. They're
evil. So this is where these two pieces of rhetoric come together and they
justify violence in the minds of your followers, the people who you're you're you're leading. Now I'm not encouraging
reciprocal violence either. This is a principle we have that is saying, "Hey, this kind of violence is wrong. This is
not a justifiable use of force. This is wrong. It's immoral."
There's plenty of people who are uh liberals who are going to agree with me on this, but you need to agree with me
loudly because you have to say it to your own people. You have to do this loudly. Can I also say I I think that um
while many have become convinced that the right leans towards violence, like that it's just inclined towards
violence, uh political violence, unjustified political violence. I think that that is far more true of the
ideology that's on the left. And let me explain why. And I think it's important as a Christian to talk about this because again these are Christian
principles that we're seeing in politics or uncchristian principles we're seeing in politics. And so my Christianity
influences how I view these things. So abortion is one of the key issues, one
of the most agreed upon topics and issues on the Democrat side of the aisle. Abortion is a blatant attack
against an image bearer. It is the mass murder of our babies. It always has
been. It's always been humans killing humans because they're very small and very vulnerable and they're
underdeveloped. Well, they're they're underdeveloped, so it's okay. The people who otherwise you would think
that baby in the womb should be given absolute priority of protection, right?
There's a there's an earthquake. We're going to say, you know, women and children first, but hey, pregnant women first first, right? You're going to be
like, women and children first. Well, there's a woman and her child. Let's get her out there real quick and safe.
But instead, we're working to kill them. We're justifying it. We're going, "Well, it's complicated." And all this other
stuff. Abortion is a key and core doctrine in the Democratic party now. It
has been for some time. There is a direct line, I think, between the
theology or the the um the doctrine of abortion being okay and also the idea of
killing political opponents. I think that this line is an actual real connection. So, I'll give you some
examples here. You can kill a baby and then you have LGBT type doctrines and you start to inflame your rhetoric
against people. You say you you uh you're trying to erase trans people or you are killing us. The trans rhetoric
is that you're killing us by not affirming us our genders. The logic here is very strange because the logic goes
like this from the LGBT side of things. It says, "If you don't support me in my
trans stuff, my identity, my all this stuff, then you're actually encouraging me to commit suicide. So when I kill
myself, it's your fault cuz you didn't support me. So you're you're to blame for me killing myself." So your ideology
is causing people to be killed. Now, I already believe that if a baby is
inconveniencing the mother's life in some way, it's okay for her to kill that baby. And here you are actually killing
us trans people. And so you start to evolve a actual trans
death culture side of things where they want to actually kill and they feel it's justified to kill the people who don't
support their trans ideology. This is this is not a just just wild occasional random crazy people. This is a logical
outgrowth of the doctrines and beliefs that they're grabbing on to. And what do they have in common? Abortion, LGBT
doctrine. This all has in common the rejection of the image of God and the rejection of God's design. That's what
it has in common. It's specifically an attack on the truth of God. It's not just a political thing.
So, it's not just a lone crazy gunman. The they've claimed credit effectively. You know, they said, "Hey, that happened
and yes, we're celebrating. We're supporting this thing. We love this thing. This is a great thing." Now, right now, the the Democrats are at a at
a potentially at a crossroads. Maybe they've already passed the crossroads. I don't know. where they can hopefully
actually confront these issues and deal with these things. It doesn't seem likely. I'm not optimistic that that's
going to happen. I think what has to happen is people actually leaving that party entirely. As as a Christian, I think that you have to leave the
Democratic party. I I I believe this. Now, if you think I'm wrong, I here are
the reasons why you think I'm wrong. Um I imagine they'll they'll center around things like gun rights and immigration
and stuff like that. And I think that you can advocate for different views of those things without being part of that
party. That think about that. Consider how that can work. But it wasn't just a lone crazy gunman. This is
indirectly pushed forward by rhetoric we've been hearing for quite some time now. You might respond you might respond by
saying, "But Mike, um, it's on the right, too. It's equal. It's equal parts. There's just as bad. It's just as
bad on the right as it is on the left. And I don't think it's just as bad. I think you can find some examples, but they're going to be fewer and farther
between by a long shot. Uh, let's give a specific here. When Charlie Kirk died,
what we saw on the right is vigils and peaceful gatherings, worship gatherings,
events, people going to church. In fact, churches all swelled in attendance, a lot of them this this last Sunday
because of what's gone on. Because that's the impact he had. We also know that he would have taught against such things. He he Charlie Kirk himself
taught openly like you have to have open and dialogue and disagreement and he would go for clarity if you can't have
agreement on an on an issue on a topic which is it's not new to him that's something that um people who have the
same sort of values have been saying for a very long time on the other hand what you have from the
left if a prominent you know if if a prominent leftist person who was like
the equivalent of Charlie Kirk was was killed there would probably be violent protests we've come to expect this sort
of thing. It's very likely. And then there'd be debate about whether they counted as violent protests or if they
were really just normal protests. Was it was it a riot or a protest? And that would be the discussion. Whereas there's
no debate with these Charlie Kirk vigils. There's a difference between the two sides because what I see on the
leftist side of things is something that is actually opposed to core Christian values. What I see on the right is
something that could be consistent on the right side of the pol politics, could be consistent with Christian
values, but isn't always and could also move into carnality or even turn into
the woke right, which is a whole another thing. Basically, identity politics on either side of the aisle is a problem.
But the violence thing, the instigation thing, the rebellion against the image of God or the design of God, that is
significantly weighted towards the left. That's just reality. As Christians, I
don't think we should be ashamed of that. I don't think we should be embarrassed to say that out loud. I want to try to persuade those who would
disagree with me. I don't I don't want to elevate the rhetoric where we start hating each other over it. Let's attack
the ideas, not the people. But the ideas affect the people. So, we've got to talk about it.
The sixth thing, the sixth thing that I learned about Charlie Kirk, um he handled disagreement well. Um sometimes
he one phrase I heard was he matched people's energy. And that's true. And you may not have liked that. Um, and I'm not sure if I always liked it. I don't
think it's that huge of a deal, but just being honest there. There are people online right now who,
as I'm doing this video, you're listening and waiting for me to say, "I didn't agree with Charlie Kirk on
everything." And if I say that phrase, it will trigger you and you'll be very upset with me. Okay? It's a small group
of people, but you're vocal group. And if you hear me say I didn't agree with Charlie Crook on everything, you'll get upset with me because you you feel like
right now, no, it's the time for conformity and for us not even acknowledging disagreements on the right
kind of thing. Um, that seems to be opposed to actually Charlie Kirk's values. It's definitely opposed to my
values. It certainly is opposed to my values. I did not agree with Charlie Kirk on everything. I don't even know
what his views are on everything. There's times where I'd seen a video and I thought, "Oh, I wouldn't have answered it that way. I actually disagree with
that." I would tweak it. Um, other times I thought, well, that's interesting. I would want to think about that some
more. And so, there are some differences that go on there and probably if I listen enough, I'd find more issues of
disagreement. But there is substantial agreement. And the substantial agreement that's there is based upon our shared Christian values. What I'm saying is I
think Charlie Kirk was a force for good in the world. I think he was a force for good in our country. I think that he was
a force for good for the name of Jesus. I know that's controversial, but I also believe it's very true. That is my
understanding of of the man, and I'm grateful for him as my brother in Christ. Scripture says, "Precious in the
sight of the Lord is the death of his saints." That's a verse I would use for Charlie. Precious in the sight of the
Lord, it's the death of Charlie Kirk. I think he was killed for his Christian beliefs. There was other things he said.
Not everything he said was necessarily biblical or always consistent with those very Christian values. He's gonna
there's going to be areas of disagreement, but what I've learned from Charlie is he can handle disagreement and I can certainly handle disagreement.
Can you? Because if you can't handle disagreement and if you become volatile at the moment someone says, "Well, I
didn't agree with him on everything." That is an unhealthy thing that is potentially going to create instability
in the movement you seem to you seem to want to push forward. That being said, what do we do now?
Um, I do believe we're at a watershed. um things are shifting and changing and
it could go bad. Okay. The way in which it could go bad is to reject these
biblical principles. Um Charlie stood out as someone who was certainly more
more than most political pundits. He was deriving his values from scripture. Not just sometimes coinciding with biblical
values, but actually deriving them from scripture in a lot of ways. And that's a pretty rare thing. Um, but it could go
bad when people mobilize the right but are not deriving their values from
scripture. So, I'll give you one example. The woke right. This is an offensive term to many. I think it's a
very accurate term. I think that's why it's so offensive is because it's fairly accurate. when there are some people on
the right who start using the same um the same philosophies effectively that
the the woke left are using except they're flipping priorities, right? So the priorities are white, right? The
priorities are um men and instead of having just full biblical values. Now
that woke right will look more biblical than the woke left, but it's not. It's
not it's not enough. It's not good enough. Um it's it's got some rot that's in there. that's going to be a problem.
And there's a number of woke right individuals who are trying to appeal to Charlie's audience because he got such a
great influence and audience that they want to grab the it's the power grab. Everybody give me I'll be your next I'll
be your new Charlie Kirk. I'll be your new Charlie Kirk. Um I don't know of any of those guys that are qualified to to
uh really step into those kinds of roles. I'd rather they just stopped to be honest. Um so it could go bad. it
could go bad if if we head down that road or if we start to basically if we start to copy the left if the response
is we'll respond in kind fire with fire. You just be violent, we can be violent, too. I don't expect that to be the actual response generally speaking. Um
there might be individuals who say certain things. Um there's always that sort of thing. But I think in general
it's going to be largely a good response. Um, it's a it's a great tragedy to lose Charlie Kirk, but I
think it's gonna be largely a good response from individuals, even an awesome response potentially
because people are gaining courage. People are gaining courage. People are saying, you know what,
I'm going to speak up, too. And there's something that happens when you you you see what happened to Charlie Kirk and
then you're you feel it, right? Many of you are like this. You feel it and you think to yourself, I'm not going to hold
my tongue anymore. I don't maybe I wouldn't agree with them on every little thing, but I've got a lot of agreement and in at least in those areas and
certainly with the very gospel itself, I can't believe I've I've ever been quiet or ashamed or uh lacking boldness
because pride is a sin. Yes. But courage is a virtue and you want to be courageous. You know, Charlie was
courageous in his faith. He was very courageous and he was bold because of it. John the Baptist was bold because of
his faith. Jesus was bold. In the book of Acts, they pray for boldness in Acts chapter 4. And then they go out and they
charge forward and they deal with the political idols. What do I what do I mean by that? In Acts, they confront the
idolatry of the people when they tell them that they have to change their lives, reject their idols, and then
follow Jesus. Back in ancient Rome, telling people they had to reject their idols was a
political statement because the government was convinced that the prosperity of the city was dependent on
this idol worship for a couple different reasons. First, they thought the gods themselves would be blessing them. Second, the religious and political
realms were so intertwined that to come against the idols was seen as coming against Rome itself.
when they went out and preached the gospel, they inherently shared a message that had political ramifications and
they weren't ashamed of it. They weren't afraid of it. And when they were almost killed in Ephesus, remember great as Diana of the Ephesians, if you guys know
this passage in Acts, that was because of the political ramifications of the gospel message. There are political
idols now. Abortion, feminism, trans rights, etc. These things, Christians,
it's okay for you to be public and open and honest about these things. Yes, it will bring heat, but as you're being
consistent with what we read about in scripture, as long as your values are based upon biblical truth and not based
upon just party affiliation, and and the test of this, I think my opinion here, the test of this, do you have the
kingdom first and then that's guiding your political engagement or are you using the kingdom of Christ to leverage
political engagement? I think Trump is an example of someone who uses the kingdom to leverage political
engagement, but but he doesn't have the kingdom first. I think Charlie seems to be an example of a man who had the kingdom first. If you have the kingdom
first, it will reveal itself when you have the ability to disagree with your own core group because they're being
inconsistent with your Christian values. Well, I celebrate this gay surrogacy
adoption of a child um by by a by a right-wing political guy. Um
that is a test of my political or kingdom first. Which one's first? Our
allegiance to Jesus will cause us to properly criticize our own side and will
it will help create a healthy environment where it's okay to do that. That's a good thing. And I'm not saying Charlie did it perfectly, nor or would
he, but but I have this passage I want to share with you guys. It's just my main passage. This is the main passage that came to my mind as I was processing
this stuff and hoping to help others process it, too. Romans 12:14,
it says here, "Bless those who persecute you. bless and do not curse them.
That's hard hard pill to swallow if you're angry. Rightly, hear me, rightly angry about all the stuff that's gone.
Understandably and correctly angry about it. But bless them anyways. Bless them anyways. You you remember this as a
Christian. Jesus on the cross prayed for the people crucifying him. Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing. Jesus on the cross,
Steven, when he was being stoned, he prayed, Lord, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing.
This is a radical and incredible gracious love where I will seek to defeat all your bad ideas and I will
seek to influence and spread the gospel of Christ and the political implications of that as well. But I will bless those
who persecute me. Bless and not curse them. Let me read on. There's more to this. And if you think this is about
inactivity, it's not. It's not about pacifism or inactivity. It's just about following Jesus, doing the right thing,
and not responding in kind. Now, I will tell you what I think should happen to the shooter in just a moment. And it's
not good. Let me just unpack this briefly with you. Okay? So, verse 18 of Romans 12, it
says, "If possible, so far as depends on you, live peaceibly with all. Make this effort. I want to live peaceibly with
you. Doesn't mean I won't speak truth to you. Doesn't mean I won't confront issues, but I want to try to live
peaceibly at the same time. I'm a gracious, kind, good neighbor, good friend, uh someone who loves you and and
cares for you. Even if I'm at sometimes I have to publicly defeat your views,
beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God. For it is written, vengeance is mine. I This is a
promise. I will repay, says the Lord. You don't need to go get revenge against anybody because God's going to deal with
vengeance, and he's going to do it perfectly. It doesn't belong to you. You're usurping God's place when you go
out and get personal, private revenge on people. Seek to love them because Christ loved you. Know that this was you. If if
you think, I'm going to go out and and do this and that. I mean, Jesus could have done that to you, but he graciously
took your sin upon himself and how he wants he wants you to be an example of this to others. To the contrary, if your
enemy is hungry, feed him. If he's thirsty, give him something to drink. For by so doing, you will heap burning
coals on his head. And this is the main point. do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. So the agenda
here is I'm overcoming evil with good. I'm doing positive things instead of um sinful things. Overcoming evil with
good, I mean sometimes that can be getting a guy in a headlock so that he can't keep attacking somebody. Okay, I'm
not saying that those things that's a good thing to do. You're overcoming evil. But overcoming evil with evil is
when I actually get in the flesh and I do sinful carnal things. I do things that dishonor Christ. I walk in the flesh and not the spirit. any of those
activities. I'm being being overcome by evil instead of overcoming evil with good. This is Christianity 101 stuff.
But what should happen to the shooter? I mean, the shooter should get the death penalty. That's what should happen. But Mike, aren't you supposed to bless him?
Yeah. I pray that he comes to Christ. I pray that he repents. I pray that he sees the the the truth and the light and
he is forgiven for his sins and he gets to spend eternity with Charlie Kirk in heaven. Um I I pray that happens. But
part of vengeance is mine, says the Lord. Means that God has the right for vengeance. Is that government is
actually supposed to exact that vengeance in the name of God through things like the death penalty. I'm just
not going to do it as a vigilante. I'm going to advocate for the government to step in. Let every person, it says here,
let's read on just right after the passage, telling you not to seek vengeance. Let every person be subject to the governing authorities, for
there's no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authorities resists what God
has appointed. And those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad.
Would you have no fear? Where are we at? Um
would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good and you will receive his approval. For he is
God's servant for for your good. Now listen, this is about the death penalty here in a second. But if you do wrong, be afraid for he does not bear the sword
in vain. for he's the servant of God, an avenger. Remember, vengeance is God's,
who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. So, the proper thing is for
the death penalty to be given. The death penalty is a biblical thing. That's one of the political things I would advocate for as a Christian because I biblical
values. I'll link a video below where I go through why the death penalty is biblical. And I know most of you don't
agree with me on this. I believe you are very incorrect on that. I hope you'll listen to that video and think about it.
I think it's abundantly clear. It's incredibly obvious that this is a biblical thing. Now, should it it should
be done with justice. It should be done with proper protocols and checks and balances, all that all that stuff. But
the core value of death penalty good, that's actually biblical. And the sword
he he carries is because he's God carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer.
That's what should happen. Let's pray for him. Um I don't want to mention his
name. I don't want to give him any clout or glory. And if indeed he doesn't repent and God after his he receives a
death penalty or whatever sentence or or whatever happens next, he'll still stand before God and have to be dealing with his own sins. And me knowing that that
every injustice will be balanced either by the blood of Jesus or by the very direct wrath of God. This gives me the
ability to make sure I'm not overcome with evil, but that I do the right thing. I'm aware of the time. And this is my encouragement to you. I'm aware of
the time. I'm aware that we need more Christians boldly out there proclaiming Christianity, wearing the gospel on
their sleeve, being kingdom first and also doing political engagement. I don't
know how to do this perfectly myself. Still trying to figure it out. Maybe I'll always be trying to figure it out. But I know there's a lot of areas where
it's really obvious what my political engagement should be based upon my Christian commitments. I know there's
plenty of people who will disagree with me and will always disagree with me no matter how long we talk about it on this topic. But I'm convinced and I'll stand
before God for this that on some areas, abortion, feminism, trans rights, this
sort of thing, family values, um, freedom of religion, that these are
areas where my my political convictions come from my Christian commitment and I should not be ashamed. So whether you
are going to be a pastor or whether you're just going to be like a politician or just maybe a mechanic,
whatever you are, be a Christian first. Let that influence you and be bold. Be
courageous. I think that Charlie Kirk's um life and his martyrdom will result in
a lot of people having courage and strength and going for it. Now, we're going to stumble along the way. Be
teachable. Be correctable. Don't be so ironclad in every opinion that you can't learn and grow. try to realize that
there are camps that are trying to grab you and will use the name of Jesus
although they are not truly serving his his cause. So read the Bible, study, do your
homework, really understand what it says. Avoid confirmation bias that
sometimes leads to conspiratorial thinking. Not that there's no conspiracies, but not as many as people
say there are, right? Some of my encouragements to you guys. I know I'm not going to be able to guide everybody
through all these things, but I I hope and pray that I've shared something here today that's given you some encouragement and some help. These are
things I've learned about Charlie Kirk. Um wish I'd known uh more of this sooner, actually, to be honest. And um
yeah, areas of disagreement, I'm sure, but that's not the main message here. That's not the highlight. Yeah. So, be
bold, be biblical, be Christian, and don't put your Christianity into a tiny little bubble where all you can say is
is the gospel, but you're not allowed to carry out the implications of what being a Christian means into any other area of
life because you fear somehow you're stepping on toes. That's not true.
