Missed previous emails in the series? You can read all the emails we sent online by clicking here.

How do we respond to Charlie Kirk’s death?

September 10 shocked the world. Charlie Kirk was dead. Brutally murdered by a gunman. 

As horrific as his death is, it is not so much his death I want to talk about, but rather the response of the world to it.

His death sparked worldwide discussions. The left and the right blaming each other.

Some people celebrating. Some people mourning. It was and is chaos.

So what do we as Christians make of it?

Is he a martyr?

“US Conservatives Fight for 'God, Charlie Kirk, and Country'" was the headline of a Dutch news article I saw today.

It is well known that Charlie Kirk was an outspoken Evangelical Christian, and many evangelicals in the US have taken him as a symbol of someone who fought for God and died for it.

While we don’t know why the gunman shot him down exactly, I think it can be fairly confident that it was not strictly his religious views that caused him to be a target.

It was, in all likelihood, his outspoken political views, which did at times come from evangelical values, and other times, were simply his own political viewpoints. 

So, does that qualify him as martyr? In my opinion. I don’t think so. He did not die for his faith.

Is he a villain?

Of course there are many others who take the opposite view, and say that his death was a blessing.

I think this too, is misguided. Murder is a tragedy. We should not celebrate the horrific death of a another. Plain and simple.

Was he a human? 

Yes.

This I believe is the view Christians should take on Charlie Kirk. Whether you believe in what he professed or not.

Charlie Kirk was a young man, with a young family, who died much too young. But he was also a sinner in need of repentance like so many of us.

I am reminded of an odd story in the Bible about some Galileans who had evidently been killed by Pilate. The crowd brings up this topic to Jesus, perhaps trying to get him to take a political side, for or against Pilate.

And this is how he responds:

Jesus sidesteps and focuses on another issue. On repentance. 

Charlie Kirk was not killed because he was a worse sinner than all of us, or because he is saint. He was simply killed. A sad consequence of a broken world.

And Jesus warns us, that in this broken world, we do not know what is going to happen to our bodies.

We could be here today and gone tomorrow.

So focus on what matters. Getting right with God.

So that whether we live or die, we do it all for the glory of Christ.

Until next week,

Be Blessed,

Aaron

Theophilus Newsletter