Six Moments That Cut Deep About Charlie Kirk's Murder and Where We Go From Here

[00:00] Charlie Kirk, born 14th of October 1993,

[00:03] died 10th of September 2025,

[00:08] 31 years of age. That's one of six

[00:11] things that have really got me about the

[00:14] killing, the murder of Charlie Kirk in

[00:17] broad daylight on a university campus in

[00:21] the States. I want to talk about six

[00:24] moments that really got me that uh had

[00:27] me in tears at points and then I want to

[00:30] talk about why this cuts so deep and

[00:33] then I want to talk about where we go

[00:34] from here. Number one, why it got me and

[00:37] probably why it got you is he's 31 years

[00:40] old. Was 31 years old and you shouldn't

[00:44] have to talk in the past tense about

[00:46] someone in their early 30s. And I think

[00:49] to myself, this is the definition of a

[00:52] man cut down in his prime. It's not too

[00:55] much to say he could have been

[00:57] president. Charlie Kirk was going

[00:59] around, especially university campuses

[01:01] in the world. And the banner under which

[01:03] he died was a pretty good motto of what

[01:06] he was attempting. Prove me wrong, he

[01:09] would say on university campuses. And

[01:11] you might think that's needlessly

[01:13] provocative. You might think he was

[01:15] doing it for the clicks. I do think he

[01:17] genuinely believes with his dying breath

[01:20] in free speech and not just fringe

[01:23] speech. I think too many people believe

[01:25] in fringe speech that you should simply

[01:28] be able to say the edgy thing. I think

[01:30] he genuinely wanted to dialogue with

[01:32] people genuinely wanted to change minds

[01:35] and he was cut down in his prime aged

[01:37] 31. The first thing that got me was just

[01:41] here is a flower cut. And the second

[01:44] thing that got me was seeing his family.

[01:48] I saw footage of his young children who

[01:51] were apparently there at the university

[01:54] campus, a three-year-old girl, an

[01:56] 18-month old boy,

[02:02] and that got me. Thirdly, my daughter.

[02:06] As we prayed for Charlie Kirk, I I heard

[02:08] the news that he'd been shot. It was

[02:10] hours before it was confirmed that he

[02:13] died. We were praying for Charlie Kirk.

[02:16] Who's Charlie Kirk? asks my 10-year-old

[02:18] daughter. Well, he goes on university

[02:20] campuses and he speaks. And actually,

[02:22] he's a Christian, too. And we need to

[02:25] pray for healing for Charlie Kirk and we

[02:27] need to pray for his family. And my

[02:30] daughter said, "Are you going to get

[02:31] shot, Daddy?" It's like, "No, I'm not

[02:34] going to get Why do you think I'm going

[02:35] to get shot?" She said, "Well, cuz you

[02:36] go on university campuses and you talk

[02:39] about Jesus. Are you going to get shot?"

[02:42] I don't think I am going to get shot. I

[02:44] don't think I'm like Charlie Kirk in the

[02:46] calling that God has on my life. But

[02:48] that got me. Are you going to get shot,

[02:50] Daddy?

[02:51] And then the fourth thing that got me, I

[02:54] saw it.

[02:56] I saw it on Twitter. The first few

[02:59] videos I saw of the campus event, uh,

[03:03] there wasn't footage of the shooting and

[03:05] I expected that to be the case on the

[03:08] very next video that I encountered. Uh,

[03:10] but I was wrong and I saw it and I don't

[03:14] recommend seeing it. But having seen it,

[03:18] you cannot unsee the force, the violence

[03:23] of it all. I don't know if the shooter

[03:26] targeted his neck, but a shot to the

[03:28] throat is a particularly violent,

[03:31] tragic, and emblematic symbol of trying

[03:34] to silence a man's speech. And the

[03:36] difference between a man in the middle

[03:39] of speaking and being shot in the neck

[03:42] more forcefully than anything else shows

[03:44] the difference between words and

[03:45] violence. They are very, very different

[03:48] things. And it is so tragic to see the

[03:51] silencing of words with the force of

[03:55] violence. And then the fifth thing that

[03:56] got me was a BBC correspondent who

[03:59] finished his report about the shooting

[04:02] and just said he didn't even get to

[04:05] finish his sentence. And I don't know if

[04:09] that really got me because I'm a

[04:10] speaker. I don't know if that really got

[04:12] me because Charlie is was a speaker.

[04:17] He didn't even get to finish his

[04:20] sentence.

[04:21] Even if you execute people, you give

[04:24] them their last words, their final

[04:27] words, even if you execute people, they

[04:29] get to finish their sentence.

[04:32] Charlie Kirk, whose whole life was given

[04:35] to speaking on campus, did not get to

[04:39] finish his sentence because of a bullet

[04:41] to the throat. That really got to me.

[04:44] Those are five things that really got to

[04:46] me. I'll tell you the sixth at the end.

[04:48] But these moments have cut me deep. I

[04:50] don't know what's cut you deep about

[04:51] this moment. But here's why I think it

[04:55] cuts so deep. A man in his early 30s

[04:59] armed only with words of persuasion is

[05:02] met by violence and comes to a bloody

[05:05] end. This cuts so deep because it

[05:07] resonates with the story. The tragedy of

[05:11] all history is the word made flesh who

[05:15] comes unarmed.

[05:17] He comes only with words of life and he

[05:21] is cut down in his early 30s. The the

[05:24] story

[05:26] the story of human history, the story

[05:28] that explains the world, the story that

[05:30] explains God is that the word is made

[05:34] flesh and speaking only truth, he is

[05:38] struck down. And according to the

[05:40] Christian faith that Charlie Kirk

[05:42] shares, that is the most divine thing

[05:44] you've ever seen. God reaches down into

[05:47] the tragedy of human experience, armed

[05:50] only with truth, and he is met by

[05:52] violence. To see a bullet in hate fired

[05:57] at a throat speaking words is to be very

[06:02] deeply into the tragedy of this world.

[06:05] And there is a weight to it all that I

[06:09] think is an echo of the great tragedy

[06:12] which is also the greatest revelation of

[06:15] what we are like and what God is like.

[06:18] What what are we like? We are the sorts

[06:21] of people who silence the truth. When

[06:23] the truth comes, we crucify the truth.

[06:26] When the word is spoken, we silence the

[06:29] word. That is what we are like. But what

[06:31] is God like? My reading yesterday was

[06:34] Proverbs chapter 15. A gentle answer

[06:37] turns away wroth, but a harsh word stirs

[06:41] up dissension. And it paints this

[06:43] picture. Can you imagine the dissension

[06:45] of harsh words, harsh words, harsh

[06:46] words, harsh words going back and forth

[06:48] in a community, in a society, in a

[06:50] culture? Can you imagine such a thing?

[06:52] We're living through such a thing. What

[06:54] does it look like to speak a gentle word

[06:58] in the midst of harsh words that are

[06:59] stirring up dissension? It is

[07:01] excruciating. And I use that word

[07:03] advisedly. It's excruciating. It is like

[07:05] the cross to bring a gentle answer when

[07:10] all is chaos, when all is hatred. And

[07:12] you might just get cut down for it. You

[07:14] might just get shot in the throat. You

[07:16] might just get crucified for it. A

[07:18] gentle answer turns away wroth. But it

[07:20] does so by first absorbing that wroth.

[07:23] And the Christian story is that the God

[07:25] of truth has descended into our chaos

[07:28] and our hatred and our dissension and

[07:30] has come armed not with violence but

[07:34] only with words. Jesus said, "Put away

[07:36] your sword, for those who live by the

[07:38] sword will die by the sword." He said

[07:39] that on the night of his death. He said

[07:42] to Peter, "I could call down 12 legions

[07:44] of armies on my enemies, but that is not

[07:47] the way of the kingdom. The way of the

[07:49] kingdom is to come with your face,

[07:52] invulnerability,

[07:54] speaking only truth and persuasion. And

[07:57] to be cut down in that moment is a mini

[07:59] crucifixion because the crucifixion was

[08:03] the gentle answer that comes down into

[08:05] our hellish world. And we silence that

[08:08] word. We crucify the truth

[08:12] wonderfully.

[08:13] The truth rises again.

[08:16] And that is part of the Christian hope

[08:18] that Charlie Kirk believed as well.

[08:20] Jesus rose up again to turn the other

[08:22] cheek to a world that had killed him. He

[08:25] rises again and he says, "Peace be with

[08:26] you. Peace be with you. Peace be with

[08:28] you." And in receiving his peace, there

[08:31] is reconciliation

[08:32] for a a wrothbound world. To meet

[08:36] dissension and anger and hatred with

[08:40] words is an incredibly Christlike thing.

[08:43] To be struck while doing so, to be

[08:46] killed, to be silenced while doing so is

[08:49] an extremely Christlike thing. But now

[08:51] to believe in the power of cheek turning

[08:55] love that in resurrection we can rise up

[08:58] again and offer ourselves again with the

[09:02] faith, the courage that Charlie Kirk

[09:05] had. That's what's called for in this

[09:08] moment and that's what I want to talk

[09:10] about in this video. What has cut me so

[09:12] deep? I want to talk about that. Why it

[09:15] has cut us all so deep. I want to talk

[09:18] about that. Where we go from here, we

[09:20] need to talk about that. Our last video

[09:22] on this channel, Tom Holland, laid out

[09:24] three futures for the West. A West that

[09:28] has been built by century after century

[09:30] of Christianization. It has three

[09:32] possible futures to it. Perhaps a fourth

[09:34] if you add in Islam, and we talked about

[09:36] that in the last video. But here are the

[09:39] three futures that Tom Holland laid out.

[09:42] future number one, progressive

[09:43] liberationism. He called it

[09:45] Paddingtonism. It's this this idea that

[09:47] we can jettison all our Christian

[09:50] baggage and just blast off into the

[09:52] stratosphere, having gotten rid of the

[09:54] booster rockets of Christianity. Now,

[09:55] off to oblivion we go. The be kind

[09:58] hashtag is our only slogan and away we

[10:01] go. And that's future number one. Future

[10:03] number two is the anti-woke backlash

[10:07] against that. Many people suspect that a

[10:10] progressive liberationism shorn of its

[10:12] Christian commitments merely has be kind

[10:16] as a thin slogan as a thin cover for

[10:20] power. They suspect virtue signaling in

[10:23] the progressive liberationists and

[10:25] therefore the anti-woke might start to

[10:27] doubt virtue itself. And if progressive

[10:30] liberationism is power with a bek kind

[10:34] veneer, then the anti-woke backlash will

[10:37] be power with no veneer. And very often

[10:40] those in the progressive liberation camp

[10:42] look to anyone who disagrees with them

[10:45] as though they are this second camp. And

[10:48] those who saw Charlie Kirk as such a

[10:50] threat, I think identified him as

[10:53] fascistic and hardright and all the

[10:55] things that the progressive

[10:56] liberationists say about those who are

[10:59] politically to the right of them. Now, I

[11:00] don't know very much about Charlie Kirk.

[11:02] I don't follow him. Every now and again,

[11:05] a Christian will retweet something

[11:06] Christian that he said into my feed, and

[11:08] I'm glad for those things. I share a

[11:10] faith with Charlie Kirk. I suspect that

[11:12] I don't share some political beliefs

[11:14] with him. But to identify him as fascist

[11:17] or hard right seems to me from a great

[11:19] distance to be absurd. And the inability

[11:22] to simply hear his views as one more

[11:25] view in the marketplace of ideas is a

[11:28] horrendous indictment. Charlie Kirk

[11:31] recently came to the United Kingdom and

[11:33] he spoke at the Oxford Union. He spoke

[11:34] at the Cambridge Union. I don't think he

[11:36] did that well at the Cambridge Union. I

[11:38] think a lot of people actually bested

[11:40] him in a war of words. And I'm so

[11:43] grateful that that was a war of words at

[11:45] the Cambridge Union. But to identify him

[11:47] as such a threat that he needs to be

[11:48] shut down or shouted down or shot down,

[11:52] unbelievable. Unbelievable. So, we've

[11:54] got the progressive liberationists,

[11:56] we've got an anti-woke backlash, and

[11:58] there is a hard right. And there are

[12:00] power plays that we should be worried

[12:03] about, not just from the left, but also

[12:06] from the right. Sure. But that's why we

[12:08] need this third future that Tom Holland

[12:11] spoke about. A return to the source, a

[12:13] return to Jesus. And a return to Jesus

[12:16] is neither the progressive liberationism

[12:19] sha of its Christian values, shorn of

[12:23] its Christian commitments, nor is it an

[12:25] anti-woke backlash. And you know, at

[12:27] this stage, a lot of Christians will

[12:28] hear me and they'll say, "Ah, that's

[12:30] just third wayism. That's the kind of

[12:32] Tim Kellerite Manhattanite evangelical

[12:36] elite luxury belief that you could hold

[12:39] back in the 2000s. We're in the year

[12:41] 2025 now and we can't have such third

[12:44] way nuance now. Uh no, never has it been

[12:47] more important to differentiate in a

[12:50] third way kind of manner because

[12:52] Christianity is not progressive

[12:53] liberationism and Christianity is not

[12:56] anti-woke backlash. And distinguishing

[12:59] between those two errors will be a huge

[13:01] part of how we respond rightly to this

[13:05] tragedy. The distinctively Christian

[13:08] response to this tragedy is yes to be

[13:11] angered by it, to be saddened by it, to

[13:14] grieve with those who grieve, and to not

[13:17] put up with the shouting down and the

[13:21] shutting down and the shooting down of

[13:24] speech just because you disagree with

[13:26] it. that has always been appalling. But

[13:28] on the 10th of September, we saw it in

[13:30] all its vulgarity. A bullet to the

[13:33] throat of a conservative activist, a

[13:36] bullet to the throat of a speaker who

[13:40] was saying, "Prove me wrong." And

[13:41] instead of being proved wrong, he was

[13:43] killed. That is appalling. And we

[13:45] mustn't stand for it. And we must

[13:47] continue even more with the courage of a

[13:50] Charlie Kirk to continually offer speech

[13:56] to those who would violently oppose it.

[13:58] But we're only going to be able to find

[14:00] that courage if we believe in the risen

[14:03] Lord Jesus, the one who rises up again.

[14:06] The truth is silent. The truth is

[14:09] crucified, but it rises again. The word

[14:12] is silenced, but it is spoken again. And

[14:15] when it is spoken, its message is peace.

[14:18] With the convictions of the crucified

[14:20] Christ and the courage of the risen

[14:23] Christ, we are to go on speaking. And

[14:26] that's the sixth thing that cut me deep.

[14:28] And I just want to finish with this

[14:30] because Erica Kirk's Twitter feed um

[14:35] her last tweet has had well 22 million

[14:39] views as of this recording. It will have

[14:42] many more as it goes on. Uh, doing the

[14:45] maths, it seems like she wrote this

[14:48] before the tragedy. Um, but never has a

[14:52] single tweet proved more apt for a

[14:54] moment than her tweeting out Psalm 46

[14:58] verse one. God is our refuge and

[14:59] strength, a very present help in

[15:02] trouble. And I just want to finish with

[15:03] Psalm 46 as a prayer for us all to

[15:06] return to Jesus in this moment. Will you

[15:09] take this as your own prayer? God is our

[15:12] refuge and strength, a very present help

[15:15] in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear.

[15:18] Though the earth be moved, and though

[15:20] the mountains tremble in the heart of

[15:22] the sea, though the waters rage and

[15:24] swell, and though the mountains quake at

[15:27] the towering seas, there is a river

[15:30] whose streams make glad the city of God,

[15:33] the holy place of the dwelling of the

[15:36] most high.

[15:39] God is in the midst of her. Therefore

[15:41] shall she not be removed.

[15:44] God shall help her at the break of day.

[15:48] The nations are in uproar and the

[15:50] kingdoms are shaken, but God utters his

[15:54] voice and the earth shall melt away. The

[15:58] Lord of hosts is with us. The God of

[16:01] Jacob is our stronghold.

[16:03] Come and behold the works of the Lord.

[16:05] What destruction he has wrought upon the

[16:07] earth. He makes wars to cease in all the

[16:11] world. He shatters the bow and snaps the

[16:14] spear and burns the chariots in fire.

[16:18] Be still and know that I am God.

[16:21] I will be exalted among the nations. I

[16:24] will be exalted in the earth.

[16:27] The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of

[16:30] Jacob is our stronghold.

[16:33] Amen.