Charlie Kirk was a good man, husband, and father. He was charismatic, civil, combative, entrepreneurial, patently partisan, a fearless friend of Israel, and an effective lay evangelist. He was also a sinner like us all.
Kirk was so well esteemed by the U.S. Senate that they passed on September 19 a “resolution [designating] October 14, Kirk’s birthday, as the ‘National Day of Remembrance for Charlie Kirk,’” and [called] for Americans to remember his legacy.”
However, I think that Kirk will be remembered more as a martyr to the Christian faith than a saint. Perhaps history will prove me wrong, but I doubt it.
Unfortunately, the 31-year-old died at the hands of a far-left lunatic assassin and will never see his children and grandchildren grow up as adults.
Kirk had already been a patron saint of MAGA (Make America Great Again) for young adults since 2016, when he spoke at the Republican National Convention at the age of 22. He was also the antithesis of the Antifaterrorists, who espouse violence and hate instead of peace and non-violence.
Kirk notably galvanized the Republican young adult vote during the presidential election of 2024, especially men under the age of thirty (Gen Z) in the battleground states of Arizona, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Consequently, his supporters heavily voted for Trump in those three swing states and many others.
I greatly admired Kirk’s willingness to talk to his political opponents in a civil manner. This was quintessentially true when he texted CNN commentator Van Jones on September 9 that he was willing to talk with him about their many polarizing political differences.
That was a noble deed. That was Charlie Kirk at his finest.
I had listened to Kirk on a local AM radio station since last March after he replaced Dennis Prager. I often listened with an open mind without knowing much about his past political or religious views. Despite some disagreements, I was deeply saddened to hear about the news of his assassination during the early afternoon of September 10.
I strongly feel that his tragic and highly preventable death was partially caused by his incompetent campus and private security, who reminded me of a bunch of amateurs or simpletons. It was an extremely sad moment in the U.S. because bullets have never been a way to settle political disputes. I sincerely hope that Kirk’s assassin receives either life in prison or the death penalty.
Kirk, who founded Turning Point USA in 2012, at times reminded me of a young non-ordained minister similar to Billy Graham circa 1950. The big difference was that Kirk neither attended theological school nor gave any formal sermons, but usually spoke in a more conversational and personal approach at campus events, amicably called “Prove Me Wrong.“
Kitk’s expertise was usually with a high school, college, or university audience instead of an actual church service or revival resembling Graham’s jam-packed televised Crusades in prime time.
Although Kirk did not have a church pulpit, his “pulpit” was often at campus podiums and elsewhere, later podcastedon YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram, with the highlights later broadcast on the Charlie Kirk Show on the radio, which began in 2019. He even had two recent courageous debates at the lion’s den of both the Oxford Union and Cambridge Union last May in the U.K.
Unfortunately, his last “pulpit” was at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. The colorful canvas-covered canopy where he spoke was like a fishbowl of death with no bulletproof glass in front of him at the podium, no metal detectors, and nobody using binoculars to surveil the surrounding rooftops.
To be continued
Robert L. Maronic
