The death of Charlie Kirk feels different, and it has taken time to process why. It strikes on two levels. First, because at the most basic level, he was simply a man with an opinion. His murder was an assault on free speech itself.
Second, because he was a Father and a Husband. I am a Father and a Husband. I also lost one of my parents when I was a toddler. Yesterday I struggled to shake the thought of his two girls waking up the next day without their Father, as well as all the days to come when they will wish he is with them.
Charlie Kirk was unapologetically Christian. Yet his death has provoked a response that goes beyond just the Christian community. Why? Again, because of those two realities: his defence of free speech and his role as a Father. These are not just private matters of faith, they resonate at the level of common humanity.
Identifying the (Real) Enemy
As the grief begins to settle, outrage will almost certainly grow. Anger itself is not the problem. The real danger comes when that anger is directed toward the wrong enemy.
So who is the enemy? As I write, there are images circulating of a suspect running across a rooftop. His name is not yet known. In the days ahead, he will no doubt become infamous. He will be widely reported and branded as “the enemy.” But the truth runs far deeper.
The real enemy is the ideology that has captured this man’s heart and mind. The extent of this man’s bondage is him climbing onto a roof and shooting another human being for simply holding a different opinion. Shooting him in front of the world, and more tragically, in front of his wife and children.
I use the word captured deliberately here. The Apostle Paul in his letter to the Church in Colossae writes, “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, which are based on human tradition and the spiritual forces of the world rather than on Christ.” (Colossians 2:8). For Paul, false ideas are not merely mistaken thoughts, they can also be spiritual forces that bind a person’s mind and behaviour.
When Ideas Justify Killing
Why kill Charlie Kirk? why not simply debate him? Because debate is not the strategy of the worldview that has captured the Killer. For example, if he had been a Secular Humanist, perhaps debate would have been the strategy. In that worldview, Kirk’s “sin” was that he was just unenlightened. His Christian belief would be seen as childish. The solution then for the Secular Humanist is just more "education", maybe ridicule - but never murder. The refusal to face Kirk on the mic is evidence that the killer was not captured by Secular Humanism.
Yet, there is a worldview that does justify violence as a solution - Marxism. For Marx, history advances through struggle, and violence is both necessary and justifiable. Just check out the histories of Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot and Kim Jong-il.
Those names may feel distant now. Yet today Marxism has taken on a new form. “Cultural Marxists” argue that classical Marxism failed to spark revolution in the West. Where the classical Marxists identified the issue as rooted in economics and class struggle, the Cultural Marxist reframes all of culture in terms of conflict between the oppressors and the oppressed.
For Secular Humanists, Charlie Kirk’s Christian worldview meant he was simply unenlightened. However, for Cultural Marxists, his perspectives are not merely wrong but oppressive and dangerous. This is why we see the disturbing celebrations of his brutal murder on social media. They are also captured. In their minds, the revolution is advancing, and the oppressors are being eliminated. This thinking is totally foreign to us, despicable even. Yet completely rational to them.
The Solution
So, what is the solution? As we wrestle with the grief and (righteous) anger, we must diagnose the enemy correctly. If we think the problem is merely “that person” or “those people on the left,” we risk having a shallow diagnosis of the issue. The deeper problem is not merely the killer, of course once caught he must be punished with the full extent of law. The deeper problem is the ideology that has captured him and those who cheer his death online. My biggest concern in this moment is the spread of that ideology and violence it promotes.
As Christians, we must always be ready to stand for truth, regardless of the cost. This is the example of Our Lord, and this is what Charlie Kirk embodied. Yet as we do so we must be able to separate ideas from people carrying those ideas. As long as they have breath, people can change. People can grow. People can ultimately be saved. The truth is that, apart from God’s grace, I could have been that man on the roof, or one of those celebrating on social media.
Paul message to the Ephesian rings true for all Christians:
‘And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.’ (Ephesians 2:1-3)
However, Paul continues:
‘But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.’ (Ephesians 2:4-7)
The ultimate solution to combating evil ideologies is the one Charlie Kirk himself pointed to: the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is why, for him, preaching the Gospel was never an optional extra to his message but the climax. Charlie knew the true effects of sin, and he knew the true medicine.
So, again, as we mourn and wrestle with (righteous) anger, we must remember: our battle is not ultimately against flesh and blood (Ephesians 6:12), but against the spiritual powers and ideologies that enslave human hearts. We press on, knowing that true and eternal transformation for every captive, is found in Christ alone.
