The Martyrdom of My Pal Charlie Kirk

[ad_1] It's troublesome sufficient to write down about essentially the most high-profile political assassination on this nation for the reason that Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy killings of 1968. It's significantly harder to take action when the sufferer was a private pal. The ache is profound. Charlie Kirk and I had gotten shut, and we had spoken lower than 24 hours earlier than the deadly bullet struck to debate his upcoming campus tour. But when there may be one factor that I find out about Charlie, the quintessential public sq. warrior, it's that he wouldn't have needed us to take a seat on the sidelines.

The stakes are too excessive. We now have a nation—and a civilization—to avoid wasting. So, we battle again our tears and we summon the fortitude to plow forward. We achieve this not as a result of it's simple however as a result of it's proper. An murderer could have completely silenced Charlie, however we cannot let him silence us too. Because it says within the E-book of Psalms, one in every of Charlie's favourite books of the Bible: "Hope for the Lord, be sturdy and He'll give your coronary heart braveness, and hope for the Lord." We should all now channel that braveness—Charlie's signature trait.

Charlie Kirk died, as so typically appears to occur to the greats, doing what he liked: modeling civil discourse within the public battle of concepts. The residing embodiment of the First Modification in his tragically truncated life, Charlie died as a (literal) martyr free of charge speech. He was murdered in the future after the Basis for Particular person Rights and Expression launched a discomfiting survey exhibiting that one-third of college college students consider violence is an acceptable response to speech. The celebratory response to Charlie's assassination throughout swaths of left-wing social media was additionally positively chilling.

To not put too high-quality some extent on it, however: That is how republics die. A folks that loses the flexibility to interact in civil debate and as a substitute resorts to violence is a individuals not able to republican self-governance. It's a folks that has ceased to be human and has as a substitute turn into indistinguishable from the animals. It's a folks that has renounced the elemental uniqueness of mankind, rooted in one other one in every of Charlie's favourite books of the Bible, the E-book of Genesis: "And God created man in His picture; within the picture of God He created him."

There may be nothing good down that highway. There can solely be chaos and anarchy. There will be no civilization or human flourishing.

Sisters Clara Hetland, 4, left, Haddie Hetland, heart, 9, and Audra Hetland 6, of Shock, Ariz., spend time at a makeshift memorial arrange at Turning Level USA headquarters after the capturing demise at a... Sisters Clara Hetland, 4, left, Haddie Hetland, heart, 9, and Audra Hetland 6, of Shock, Ariz., spend time at a makeshift memorial arrange at Turning Level USA headquarters after the capturing demise at a Utah school on Wednesday of Charlie Kirk, the co-founder and CEO of the group, Thursday, Sept. 11, 2025, in Phoenix. (AP Picture/Ross D. Franklin) Extra AP Is that this—the mindless assassination of a loyal younger father and husband—lastly, lastly, the turning level after which America will pull itself again from brink of political violence and willful self-destruction? I might actually wish to assume so. However it's exhausting to not be skeptical. There was no turning level after James Hodgkinson tried to assassinate the Republican congressional baseball staff in 2017. There was no turning level after Nicholas Roske tried to assassinate Justice Brett Kavanaugh in 2022. There was no turning level after the mindless homicide of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson final 12 months. There are too many different examples to rely.

There are two simple methods we are able to all honor Charlie's legacy. On the time of his demise, Charlie was placing the ending touches on a ebook concerning the Sabbath—yet one more biblical idea he championed in his private life. It might be a becoming tribute to Charlie—and the Hebrew Bible-rooted type of Christianity that he, just like the American Founders, so significantly championed—for extra Christians and Jews alike to honor Charlie by committing to honor the Sabbath similar to he did. We should additionally double down like by no means earlier than in our dedication to free speech and the civil alternate of concepts. His martyrdom should impress youthful conservatives like by no means earlier than. We should not enable Charlie to have died in useless as a free speech martyr.

Charlie and I held a special conception of the character of the Divine. However we shared a ardour for the Judeo-Christian biblical inheritance that's the spine of Western civilization and the explanation for that civilization's superiority over the forces of darkness. As a spiritual Jew and a spiritual Christian, moreover, we additionally each believed in the opportunity of everlasting life.

To cite the psalmist as soon as extra, then: "Although I stroll within the valley of the shadow of demise, I'll concern no evil, for You might be with me; Your rod and Your employees—they are going to consolation me." Charlie, at all times one to not merely discuss the discuss but additionally stroll the stroll, has now himself walked within the valley of the shadow of demise. And I've little question that the Lord is reassuring him at this very second.

Pray for his stunning spouse, Erika, and the Kirks' two younger kids, who will now develop up with out their father. And as for you, Charlie: Thanks for all you probably did. I hope to see you on the opposite facet, my pal.

Josh Hammer is Newsweek senior editor-at-large, host of "The Josh Hammer Present," senior counsel for the Article III Mission, a analysis fellow with the Edmund Burke Basis, and writer of the brand new ebook, Israel and Civilization: The Destiny of the Jewish Nation and the Future of the West (Radius E-book Group). Subscribe to "The Josh Hammer Report," a Newsweek publication. X: @josh_hammer.