I first became aware of Charlie Kirk last year when a pro-life organization in my city announced he would be speaking at a private dinner. Having no idea who he was, I looked him up only to find a trove of controversial statements he's made, including the claim that the Civil Rights Act was "a huge mistake."
It's worth noting the pro-life organization at which he spoke does a wealth of positive things for new and frightened mothers - and fathers, even - in rough places, making them truly pro-life and not simply anti-abortion. This made it all the more disappointing that they would welcome Charlie Kirk, who unrepentantly made such claims as implying Jews are using money to plot a Marxist cultural coup (click here for more context), or that deaths by gun violence are "worth it" for the sake of the 2nd Amendment (click here for more context). These are not pro-life beliefs, and it was a bad look for the organization to be associated with this person.
When I found out about Kirk's murder the day before yesterday, I felt a heavy heart for his family, and for the fact that sociopolitical violence has claimed another life. But that heavy heart soon lightened as I fell prey to making my typical morbid jokes (my dark sense of humor being a coping mechanism for...well, everything) and laughing at memes that made fun of Charlie Kirk's murder. My reasoning was, "I'm still sad for his family, and he was a bigot, so it's kind of okay for me to laugh." Which, of course, is wrong.
Then, God reminded me - not audibly, but you know what I mean - of two other influential racists in American history: Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee.
God moved me to think of these two men - who were so racist they tried to start their own country based on the principle of slave ownership being a divine right - and their reactions to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. When the President was shot, widespread outrage gripped the nation, North and South. Jefferson Davis denounced the assassination and felt "it could not be regarded otherwise than as a great misfortune for the South," knowing Lincoln's policy of reconciliation rather than hangings for treason made him the best friend a defeated Confederacy could have at the time.
Robert E. Lee's reaction was more emotional. A cohort who was with the General at the time the news came stated that Lee "covered his face and refused to listen to details of the murder." Lee used a word to describe the assassination that recently became a buzzword in American politics - "deplorable."
God invoked these images to make this point: here were two men so brazenly racist that they saw black people as inferior to whites, mourning - genuinely - for a man of compassion, one who believed in the principle that "all men are created equal." So, if these two could be so deeply grieved for a good man, what does it say about me when I can't show as much empathy as literal slaveowners?
I made excuses for my empty mourning. I was frustrated and disappointed at fellow Christians who were praising Charlie Kirk as a pillar of righteousness, when he espoused such terrible things against Jews, minorities, and victims of gun violence. That, somehow, made it less sinful for me to delight in memes that minimized the taking of a life. Charlie Kirk was, as we all are, made in the image of God.
I must mourn for a life snuffed out, and that a life was used to promote hideous ideologies. I must mourn that someone was so filled with hopeless rage that they took it upon themselves to kill. I must mourn that Charlie Kirk's family has been deprived of their husband and father. I must mourn that so many of my fellow believers in Christ are lionizing a man who represented the values of Christ no more than the Ku Klux Klan. And I must mourn that our President, aware of Charlie Kirk's beliefs, nonetheless called him "the most eloquent truth-teller" in recent times.
I'll mourn for all of this, with genuine grief, and will eschew the memes and morbid jokes I've made concerning Charlie Kirk's murder. These words of Jesus have floated in my head since the day of Kirk's death: "by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned."
-Matthew 12:37
[Edit, 9-13-25: It occurs to me I should add a few words addressing the incredibly lopsided grief of conservatives, both in politics and private citizens, when it comes to victims of gun violence. Donald Trump did not order flags to be flown at half-staff after the murders of Democratic politician Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark in June - but did so for Charlie Kirk, whose qualification for such an honor was saying things Trump likes. Just two weeks before Kirk's death, a shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis, which killed two children, Fletcher Merkel and Harper Moyski, was met by Republicans with a fraction of the grief and shock for Kirk, the usual "thoughts and prayers" cliche, which has now become little more than a meme. This lack of outrage is absolutely disgusting. And perhaps it's just as disgusting that I didn't go for my blog when these tragedies occurred.]
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| Photo courtesy WTSP |
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