Charlie Kirk

14 October, 1993 – 10 September, 2025

Charlie Kirk was called a lot of nasty names during his life as a political activist, and that continued after he was shot and killed at an outdoor event on the campus of Utah Valley University on 10/9/2025. The New York Times reported that “it was easy to find left-wing posters reveling in Mr. Kirk’s death and suggesting he got what he deserved.” He was a Christian conservative, a supporter of Donald Trump’s re-election, and argued against abortion, overreaching gun-controls, open borders and trans-gender irrationality. He did not cancel or mock those with a passionate opposition to his views however, and through his Turning Point organization and its affiliates, he would come onto the ‘safe spaces’ of campuses and high schools and dare anyone to engage in debate, and “Prove Me Wrong.”

His debating style was forceful, factual and funny, though he never descended to hate speech or anything more than gentle mockery. If you glance at his events online, you can see that he often called for respect for his opponents in debate, and reason, rather than invective, was his weapon of choice. A young husband and father, he made his approach to the young, not so much in loco parentis, but rather like an older brother or a youngish uncle. It was this effort that may have turned the 2024 Presidential election: ABC (US) reports that “Trump performed better with voters under 30 – winning 43% to Harris’ 54% – than any Republican presidential candidate since 2004, when George W. Bush won 45% of voters under 30. Trump drew even with Harris with men under 30 (49% to her 48%), an 8-point improvement from the 2020 presidential election.”

Kirk stated, without embarrassment, that his life had been enhanced by his belief in Jesus Christ’s life and teaching. Jesus was a transformative figure in history who, to quote Douglas Adams, was ‘nailed to a tree for saying “Hey! Why don’t we be nice to each other for a change?”‘ Kirk was shot in the throat for encouraging, cultivating, and facilitating a theory and practice whereby people could disagree agreeably.

Kirk was troubled by the levels of polarization in America, describing an increasing “culture of assassination.” It speaks to some strength of character in him, that despite his fears, he continued to turn-up and speak out for what he obviously truly believed. He welcomed the flac he got in return, believing that ‘when people stop talking, the violence starts.’ He knew that such violence might one day be visited on him, just as Lincoln, JFK, Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King had the same sense of potential personal doom.

As of writing, a suspect is in custody but we make no comment, recognizing the golden thread that presumes a suspect innocent until proven guilty in a court of law*. [*As we write, there is a contention that the wound from the front of his throat may have been an exit wound]. And we bear in mind that a guilty act must be animated by a guilty mind, which might be lacking in this case, due perhaps to mental illness. Excessive online radicalization and the fomenting of extremism is as real as attempts to suppress it are silly. Still, unless you are a cultural warrior who considers all opponents to be less than human, it is hard to stomach the killing of a 31 year old man with much to give and lots to live. It is hard not to be ashamed of whomever killed him, especially if it were only because of differences of opinion. It is hard not to declare “Je suis Charlie”. Whether this incident becomes a ‘turning point’ or just another chapter in the book of political violence, only time will tell.

Much will be said in honour of Charlie Kirk, and we will have to suffer in silence the doubtless mawkish odes to his memory. Lacking the gift of faith, this writer, who only knew Charlie through TV and online, can’t regard a religious homily as apt; that will come from his friends and family, of the faith. But Robert Louis Stevenson’s Requiem seems not out-of-place:

Under the wide and starry sky,
    Dig the grave and let me lie.
Glad did I live and gladly die,
    And I laid me down with a will.

This be the verse you grave for me:
    Here he lies where he longed to be;
Home is the sailor, home from sea,
    And the hunter home from the hill.