Late this afternoon, one of my students stopped me in a parking lot at Boyce College and asked if I had heard the news. I had been teaching for hours at that point and told him I hadn’t heard anything. So he informed me that Charlie Kirk had been shot and was fighting for his life in the hospital. My student then described in violent detail what had happened. The videos were all over social media, and he had seen the horrifying spectacle with his own eyes. He also asked me to pray—which I did as I hurried to my vehicle to get my phone out and see the news for myself.
I did see it. All of it. It was horrible beyond words. I sat there in my car praying and looking for any glimmer of hope that maybe Kirk had survived. Then news started trickling from back-channels and then was confirmed in a social media post by President Trump. Charlie Kirk was dead.
From that moment until now hours later, I am still horrified by what I saw—which is what everyone saw. We watched a good man – a brother in Christ – get murdered in cold blood. The horror of it is too much for words. Thirty-one years old. A father of two small children. A husband to a precious wife. His light snuffed out at the hands of an assassin. I can hardly imagine the shock and grief of his family. Lord, have mercy on them.
The horror of what happened is only amplified by contemplating what it might mean. The truth is that we don’t know for sure yet what it means. We do know that Charlie Kirk was the founder and leader of one of the most important grass-roots political movements in the country, Turning Point USA. Kirk’s organization and his own sheer force of personality had built a movement that engages young people in politics and civil disagreement. His work was persuasion, and he was good at it. He was a happy warrior for the conservative cause and along the way a bold witness for Christ. He did not shrink back from proclaiming Christ no matter where he was or who he was talking to. He was really extraordinary.
So it is very easy to assume that whoever did this was trying to put an end to all of that. As I write this, there is an investigation, but there is no suspect in custody. News reports indicate that the shooter fired one shot from a nearby roof about 200 yards away and then slipped away. The New York Times in particular has video that shows someone running away on a roof top immediately after the shot was fired. Who could have done this? Who is capable of that kind of marksmanship with one shot? Was this a professional? Was this a hit? Or was this a lone gunman? We don’t know the answers to those questions, much less the motives of the shooter.
Nevertheless, many Americans have a sinking feeling that they know where this is going. They believe that this is political violence perpetrated for political reasons to achieve a political effect. Those assumptions are difficult to resist in a moment like this, but they are nevertheless only assumptions at this point. We will have to reserve final judgement until all the evidence is in, and we aren’t even close to that yet. But still, that sinking feeling persists, doesn’t it? Until we know more, I’m going to resist the temptation to speculate. We don’t know what we don’t know.
But here’s what I do know. I believe in what Charlie Kirk stood for. He was a follower of Christ trying to be salt and light in a very dark culture. He fought to conserve the true and the good and the beautiful, and he did it for the common good—even when people hated him for it. And he did it peacefully in a way that honored and respected those who disagreed with him. He was respected by young people from all sides of the political spectrum because of that. He built a movement that was the envy of his opponents on the left.
A Christian brother fighting the good fight was murdered today. He leaves behind a grieving widow and two children. We need to pray for them and for the long road of grief before them. We need to pray for our fractured nation. It feels like a tinderbox right now.
The prayer in my heart and on my lips when I first heard the news today is from Habakkuk. Habakkuk faced a mountain of violence and injustice from among his own countrymen. When God announced to Habakkuk his coming judgment on that homegrown wickedness, Habakkuk prayed this:
“LORD, I have heard the report about Thee and I fear. O LORD, revive Thy work in the midst of the years, In the midst of the years make it known; In wrath remember mercy” (Habakkuk 3:2).
Indeed, O Lord. Remember mercy. We need it now as much as we ever did.
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Below are some of the comments and tributes I’ve been reading today. I want to save and remember them, so I’m doing it here.
Psalm 46:1 – God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
— Erika Kirk (@MrsErikaKirk) September 10, 2025
Megyn Kelly breaks down reporting the death of Charlie Kirk pic.twitter.com/YKS617I37m
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) September 10, 2025
.@benshapiro recites Psalm 23 in memory of Charlie Kirk:
"Charlie will dwell in the house of the Lord. Charlie belongs to history now." pic.twitter.com/QRRbbopQbJ
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) September 10, 2025
Like all of you, I am utterly stunned and heartbroken and sick to my soul today. It is unimaginable to write these words. I met Charlie Kirk when he was 18 years old, a young man so eager and determined that I immediately turned to a friend and said, “That kid is going to be the…
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) September 10, 2025
A while ago, probably in 2017, I appeared on Tucker Carlson’s Fox show to talk about God knows what. Afterwards a name I barely knew sent me a DM on twitter and told me I did a great job. It was Charlie Kirk, and that moment of kindness began a friendship that lasted until today.…
— JD Vance (@JDVance) September 11, 2025
Charlie Kirk appeared on Fox and Friends with his family just weeks before he was shot in Utah. Prayers are continuing to pour in for the Turning Point USA co-founder. pic.twitter.com/DuHDjaHP22
— Fox News (@FoxNews) September 10, 2025
Before tonight’s game we held a moment of silence in memoriam of Charlie Kirk.
Kirk founded the youth activist group “Turning Point USA” and had become a fixture on college campuses. Charlie Kirk, a husband and father of two children, was 31 years old. pic.twitter.com/Fz5xPlmdu0
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) September 10, 2025
From @robmccoyus, Charlie’s pastor and my friend:
“My friend Charlie Kirk was murdered today by a coward. His life will be remembered for many wonderful things. He built it all with the power of the spoken word. He never used violence but was threatened every day with violence…
— Megan Basham (@megbasham) September 10, 2025
You can tell a lot about a person by how they react when someone dies.
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) November 27, 2016
