The video of Charlie Kirk’s daughter, Gigi running into his arms, gleefully screaming “daddy!”, as she hugged him tightly, is heart-breaking. As I watched, a deep sadness gripped me when I realised that little girl will never have that moment again. If only she could bottle that for the years to come. I heard her mother later say, that after Charlie’s death she was asking for her dad. While Gigi is too young to grieve in the way that adults do, she will grow up experiencing the profound void from his absence; a void only to be filled by Jesus Christ Himself.
I saw the brokenness and emptiness of a wife who has lost a husband way too soon, and saw the grief of family and friends who have lost someone they respected and cherished. I witnessed strangers grieving for someone who inspired them. I too grieve for Charlie Kirk because of all the above, and because of our shared humanity. I grieve for Charlie Kirk, because of all the potential that died with him – the potential for greater knowledge in Christ; to become more like Christ, and the potential to learn, grow and make a more positive difference in the world. He did not deserve to die.
As a Christian, I agreed with his Biblical views on some matters. He was a champion for values like traditional marriage, protecting the unborn (though not to his extreme) and others that are upheld by believers in Jesus Christ. But I also disagreed with many of his views such as those on race, guns, what truly represented servant leadership and his excuses for failures in certain leaders. And most of all, I disagreed with how he went about doing what he did.
Even as the world mourns him, we must critically reflect on his legacy. For someone who lived his life embodying free speech, it is only fitting that people can freely give their views on his life and death.
In doing so, I have a few questions that I will attempt to answer.
Did He Have the Right Heart?
Did Charlie Kirk truly reflect the heart of Jesus?
The Bible in 1st Corinthians 13 says, “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.
Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.”
His Stance on the Struggle of others
Jesus loved with all his heart. He had compassion for those who were suffering, the lost, the vulnerable and downtrodden. Throughout the Gospels, you heard the phrase, “Jesus was moved with compassion.”
Jesus’ love shone through as, “He went around doing good and healing those who were oppressed by the devil”.
He gave grace to the woman caught in adultery; he spoke strength and restoration into the man at the pool of Bethesda. He was touched by the woman with the issue of blood and she was healed, and the woman at the well received grace to leave a sinful lifestyle to follow Jesus. He revived a dead girl and healed a woman bowed over for 18 years. He told the parable of the Good Samaritan to remind people that we are to love and have compassion for even those who are different and those with whom we are in conflict. A prostitute, Rahab, and Ruth, a Moabitess (the enemy of the Jews) are in the lineage of Jesus Christ.
How many non-white persons with a different political view who encountered Charlie Kirk truly left that interaction knowing that God loved them? How many were made to feel that they had a Father in heaven looking out for them and looking after them? The Bible says that “mercy triumphs over judgement.”
Jesus’ ministry lifted up people and tore down oppressive and ungodly systems. In the world today, there are ministers of the Gospel who uphold systems and tear down people.
The Two Angles of the Cross
It is often pointed out that the cross has two angles—one is vertical and the other horizontal. It has been noted that the vertical angle of the cross, speaks to our relationship with God and the horizontal signifies our relationship with each other. On the surface it, Charlie Kirk got the vertical. He had a great love for God and the ways of God. He led people to Christ, knew the word, and could defend his beliefs, sometimes vociferously. His life was spent debating and advancing “what he saw” as Christian worldviews. And he did say some things that were biblically sound.
But there are those, like myself, who felt as if he failed in living and advancing the horizontal angle of the Gospel. He did not give his heart to loving others the way Christ loved them and commanded us as Christians to love others. First John 4:20-21 says,
“If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.”
Many felt Charlie Kirk demonstrated love and compassion only for those who were like him and believed what he believed politically, socially and doctrinally. Persons of different races, beliefs and ways of living were dismissed and further dehumanised by his utterances and the movement he built. He disavowed the civil rights movement that sought equality for black people. He dismissed excellence, hard work and elevation of other groups as evidence of unacceptable diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). His famous comments about his fear of flying with a black pilot because he thought they were less qualified, smacked of bigotry. So were his alleged comments that black women were stupid and taking away college places from white women.
He mocked empathy as a new age, made-up word and honoured gun ownership over life. Jesus was about healing the hurting and restoring the broken; he came to earth and was able to experience and feel what we feel—our pain, joy, sadness, anxiety, compassion, excitement, suffering and loss.
The Bible says, Christ was touched with the feeling of our affliction. The fact that Jesus walked the earth in a human body, made Him able to empathize with human beings, know what we are feeling and ask the Father to have mercy on us.
Another scripture says, if we only love those who love us our faith is meaningless, and that we are to love our enemies and do good to those who spitefully use us.
Charlie Kirk’s gospel, many said, gave permission only to love those who looked like him and thought like him. It was a gospel steeped in invalidating persons from different races, backgrounds, experiences and political viewpoints. This ran contrary to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Did he have the Right Tone?
As Jesus sent his disciples out into the world, He advised them to be as “Wise as a serpent and gentle as a dove”. In Psalm 15, we are also reminded that, “A soft answer turns away wrath, but grievous words stir up anger”.
Kirk’s style of going around debating and offending was not the most fruitful. When Jesus was 12 years old, his parents found him in the synagogue questioning and challenging the teachers of his time. But in the later years, when Jesus was more mature, we saw Jesus just speaking the truth and the message of His Father—not his opinions.
Yes, His tone was at times sharp with the Pharisees, the representatives of an ungodly religious system. But with the poor and hopeless, Jesus was gentle. Jesus had no time to debate anyone about the Gospel. With Authority, He challenged the Pharisees and Scribes about their loveless, false doctrine. He did not debate them; He simply spoke the truth of His Father and walked in His power, signs, wonders and miracles.
When the angels proclaimed Jesus’ birth in Luke 2, they said, “Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” The heart of the Gospel and its tone are goodwill towards men.
Romans 14, reminds us, “Do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died. Therefore do not let your good be spoken of as evil; for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. For he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men. Therefore let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another.”
Peace is not capitulating to the ways of the world and appropriating its values, but it is speaking the truth of Christ in love. We do not accept the ways of the world, but we do not win the world to Christ by debating with unbelievers. We win them but by being an example of Christ before the world.
Matthew 5:14-16 says, “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”
Our job as Christians is to dispel the darkness in the world, not to create more darkness or become part of the darkness with our speech, attitudes and actions.
I believe Charlie Kirk was like Saul in Bible, later renamed Paul after his encounter with Christ on the Damascus Road. Paul “was zealous for the traditions of his fathers” and what he saw as righteous living, until Jesus gave him a revelation of the truth. Sadly, Charlie did not live long enough for God to reveal Himself to him. The Bible also talks about people who are zealous for the word, but not according to knowledge.
In comparing Kirk to Saul, I am not saying he persecuted Christians, but many marginalized and vulnerable groups felt persecuted by him. Christianity is a firm faith based in uncompromising truths, and sometimes the truth of the Gospel brings discomfort and offence. But even in bringing offence, Jesus was never harsh, he was never hateful, he never pushed superiority of one people over others. Charlie Kirk was passionate about Christ and the Gospel, but was he passionately wrong on some things?
Did he have the Right Focus?
You see, perhaps Charlie Kirk really believed he was speaking the truth of Gospel, but was he preaching a different Gospel? Was it a gospel according to man? Was it a MAGA gospel?
Charlie Kirk held huge sway among young people. In the midst of debating the Gospel and talking about his political agenda, he shared about Jesus intellectually, and many young people gave their lives to Christ. Many also gave their hearts to MAGA.
But by and large, many of his rallies came across as evangelism, not for the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but for a political cause and leader. That in and of itself is not against the law. But how does one serve two masters? Shrouding the Gospel in a political wrapper or cloaking politics in the Gospel was sending the wrong signal that both philosophies were one and the same.
This approach also shifted focus away from Jesus Christ, and His message of love and salvation. The last act that Charlie Kirk carried out before his death, was not issuing Bibles and words of Christ, it was launching 47/MAGA hats and other paraphernalia like Frisbees across the crowd.
God hates idolatry and he hates mixture. God says He does not share His glory with another. Some felt that Kirk held his events with God on the left and MAGA on the right, and very often the messaging in support of MAGA was in conflict with the principles of God.
Money over Jesus
Did economics impact the message? There are megachurch pastors who have amassed great wealth just preaching the Gospel. But some people believe that the meteoric rise of Charlie Kirk, shows that he found a winning formula in mixing God and politics, and as a result the money poured in from major donors.
Did he exercise selective morality? Rather than holding certain leaders to the same standard of morality he demanded from transgender people, blacks and others, he dismissed the failings of people he supported. Comparing one leader favorably to Samson, He argued that Samson was flawed but God still used him. He failed to mention that Samson did not fulfil his purpose in the way God ordained for him. Samson’s lack of discipline and dark proclivities led him into captivity and blindness. His eyes were gouged out by the Philistines and he died in captivity, only taking a last stand with the little strength he had to bring down a building on the Philistines.
Rebuilding the Foundation
In the aftermath of her husband’s death, Erika Kirk courageously stood up and vowed to continue his legacy. This is a woman in deep pain and who stood in the strength of God to speak about her late husband. Now, some persons feel she should have laid low a little longer until after the funeral perhaps. Some persons were concerned with her tone and the resoluteness of her speech, seeing it as a dog whistle for more violence. What I heard, in Erika Kirk’s comments, was a woman in grief, and also saw a glint of her anger. That is understandable, given the gravity and senselessness of her husband’s murder. I also saw a deep determination to do what she says she will do.
My condolences to Erika Kirk, their children, his parents and Charlie’s team on their tremendous loss. My only charge to Erika Kirk, however, is that she goes into deep prayer and ask the Lord how to build on her husband’s foundation and legacy.
It is easy to make assumptions that it is just a matter of continuing what he has started in the same way. If the deep counsel of God is not sought, one runs the risk of proceeding to build on a faulty foundation. The Bible says that if we build on the wrong foundation, we will not lose our salvation, but our work will be burned up on the day of judgement.
1 Corinthians 3:12-15,
“For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw,each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.”
Those who Charlie Kirk left behind should pursue the things that make for peace, and to reflect on whether the movement they have built is founded on the image of Jesus Christ. It is an opportunity for Erika Kirk to use her platform to dispel bitterness and heal divisions in the nation.