Note: Before you read, let me acknowledge I took some time to gather my thoughts. Hopefully what I say in the following paragraphs comes off clear. Charlie's death was a horrible tragedy. My prayers go out to his family especially his kids who will likely have to see the video of their father dying for years to come. What I have wrote below is my thoughts surrounding his death, and the online conversation that is happening. If Charlie meant a lot to you, that's okay and understandable for you to mourn his death. I believe it is also okay to disagree with the various positions he held and to help distinguish the fact that just because you claim to be a Christian does not mean the values you hold are historic Christian values, even if you can prooftext them with Scripture. Thank you for reading; whether you agree or disagree.
On September 10th, 2025 a wife and her two kids lost a father and a husband.
On September 10th, 2025 Charlie Kirk was murdered in broad daylight during one of his campus debate events. This was suppose to be the beginning of a nation wide tour, but the worst in the world struck first landing a final death blow to a man praised by many but also to a man who sparked tons of controversy around the world.
Reality
Life is complicated. In the same field where flowers bloom, a carcus of a slaughtered animal can lay. In the same workplace that is leading the world in innovation, workers can be burned out and treated as less than human. In a media landscape where tales of true love winning at the end of the day play, we can also watch where true love turns into utter lust ripping apart families.
Two things can be true at the same time. This is the nature of the world we live.
Charlie Kirk
Charlie Kirk’s murder is an example of two things that can be true existing at the same time.
It is true that Charlie was a devoted Christian like he claimed many times. He loved God according to his own confession and encouraged others regularly to attend church on Sunday.
Charlie was also a husband and father. A human being made in the image of God and whose death not just is a tragedy towards his own family but is a tragedy to the creation of God. Regardless of who you are, or where you come from, or what you believe the Christian doctrine of the imago-dei proclaims to us that all people, including Charlie, are made in God’s image according to His likeness. And it is on this very basis that regardless of whether Charlie was a father, a husband, or loved by many, his death is a crime against God’s good creation. We as humans have intrinsic value and worth not because of who we are or what we do, but based on God’s good design. This is true of Charlie like it is true of all of us.
It is also true that the world we live in is broken. Things are not as they ought to be. Charlie should not have died. Charlie also should not have said many of the things he proclaimed week after week.
Two things can be true. It can be true that Charlie claimed to be a Christian. It can be true his death was wrong. It can also be true that Charlie during his life used his platform to sow hate and division not just within our own country but within the church. (At the time of me writing this a trend online has started of people leaving their church because the pastor did not mention Charlie Kirk, as if church is about Charlie Kirk and as if every time someone dies publicly or within our own communities, Pastors mention that from the pulpit)
Charlie was not perfect. And he was not a martyr of the christian faith.
The quick google definition of martyr is: a person who is killed because of their religious or other beliefs.
Charlie was not murdered because he was Christian. There is no evidence of that in when Charlie was wrongfully murdered or in what we know off his killer so far(which is not a lot).
Charlie is not a martyr for the Christian faith the same way Martin Luther King Jr. is not a martyr of the Christian faith. Martin unlike Charlie was not just a devout Christian but an ordained reverend. But his killing was not because of his Christian faith. When Charlie was murdered he was murdered in the middle of debating gun rights. This is not even to say he was a martyr for gun rights but it is a point to be made that Charlie did not die defending or because of his christian faith. He died more likely because of his political beliefs and how he presented them. He may not be a Christian martyr but he much more likely is a political martyr. Dying because of freedom of speech.
Why Does This Matter?
In the days since Charlie’s passing, social media has erupted. Both praise and hate has came Charlie’s way. Praise to the point that some churches are holding memorial services in honor of Charlie(more on this later). Hate that someone people are laughing at Charlie’s death saying “he had it coming.”
This deserves further analysis.
Why are there such different responses to Charlie’s death? Is it because the world(All the non-christians hated him for standing for truth? Do they hate truth that much that they rejoice over his death?
Maybe, but also maybe not.
The Bible teaches us that the world is broken. And we are all apart of contributing to this brokenness in the world. Charlie was no exception. He often equated conservative/republican values with Christian values which could not be further from the truth.
An in Charlie equating Christianity with republican values, he helped contribute to the divide within the church. Suddenly, if you voted for anyone other than trump and you claimed to be a Christian, your faith was questioned. Which often times meant that black and brown communities within the Christian tradition had their faith questioned because of how they voted differently than conservative white evangelical christians.
It was not questioned because you voted in a way to help the poor, or the marginalized. Your faith was questioned because you did not vote for Donald Trump.
Trump like conservative values has been a golden calf for the American church. Something that has been erected through the blessings of God and in order to replace God.
We live in a time where there are pastors who by just the mere looking at their social media or their churches you can tell where they stand politically but you cannot identify whether they are a Christian or not. The cross(a symbol of self sacrifice) was replaced with the flag(a symbol of pride). The communion table(the table where anyone was welcome) was replaced with a party sticker(a badge for only those on your side).
Charlie contributed to this problem for much of his life.
Whether it was through labeling the black community as a people who had no problems with having children out of wedlock and not having issues with the murders of people in their own community: Charlie seems to take a very biased approach towards issues within the black community and misrepresents what they value.
Or through his justifying school shootings for the right to bear arms: His Quote in Context
Or for using a bad theology to justify his views on Israel: Charlie lays out his theology of which he does claim he is not a theologian but does identify where he leans which informs his political stance on Israel.
Or his justifying of Christian Nationalism: Charlie clarifies he is not a Christian nationalist but a Christian and a nationalist.
The point is as Christians we are people who in following Christ are “not of this world”(John 8:23 ESV). What this means is the way we go about bringing God”s goodness into this world cannot be by the ways of this world.
Charlie along with many on the right, voted for trump because they believed he would bring the hammer down on the evil in this nation. The problem lies when we forget as Christians that the evil in this nation does not start with others but it starts with ourselves. It starts with our pride, our arrogance, our refusal to listen to others in good faith arguments.
This is why when Paul is writing Romans a letter to a multiethnic church(Jews and Gentiles) he calls out the sin in both his own people and the Gentiles who are new to the faith. This church was split, one side thinking they are better than the other which is why Paul spends the first bit of his letter to them telling “None is righteous, no, not one”(Romans 3:10 ESV).
The right wants to bring the hammer down not realizing their own sin. And when the church, like Charlie, does not call that out but instead calls people to be more aggressive, then the church like Charlie has failed.
Jesus did not seem to care about the right to bear arms. Even to defend his own self. Which is why at his arrest he tells his student to put the sword down(Matthew 26:51-53 ESV). The way of Jesus is a way of not building the empires of this world but by building Christ’ Kingdom. Something other worldly.
The book of Revelation is a book not detailing future events of how the world will come crumbling down but is a form of Jewish Apocalyptic literature that through symbols and signs tells Christians in the first century how to exist in a world of Babylons(evil empires).
Note, Revelation has no desire to tell Christians back then or today how to rise up and take back the government and instill “Christian morality” onto the masses. It’s a letter of hope to a community of believers who are being hunted down and killed, reminding them that Jesus’ Kingdom is different than the Kingdom’s of this world.
So as Christians it is okay to say Charlie got it wrong, and let’s mourn his death.
Two things can be true.
Final Thoughts
We live in one of the most free countries in the world if not the freest country in the world. Christians in the West are in large part not persecuted. And when we claim persecution when there is no persecution; we are like the boy crying wolf.
Christians all around the world are experiencing real persecution. And when we cry at the slightest hints of persecution and act like the world is ending; then we show our true colors.
We show that we were not ready to “pick up our cross daily and deny ourselves”(Luke 9:23).
It shows that maybe as churches, we failed to teach our students the cost of discipleship.
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