Assassination and the war against God

A single round from an assassin’s rifle ended a life and plunged the nation beneath waves of anger and sorrow, deepening the divide in an already-polarized country.

On September 10 at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, speaker, author, and media personality Charlie Kirk was murdered before some 3,000 shocked onlookers, most of them college students.

The 31-year-old Kirk, an outspoken Christian, was well known in both conservative and leftist circles – respected and beloved in the former, hated and vilified in the latter. He was nearly ubiquitous, speaking and debating wherever he was invited, and frequently being the guest on television talk shows and podcasts. (See sidebar on p. 11.)

Something dreadfully wrong

A 22-year-old man, Tyler Robinson, was arrested for the murder. According to Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, the suspect was in a romantic relationship with his transgender roommate. FBI Co-Deputy Director Dan Bongino told the media that Robinson had an “obsession” with Charlie Kirk because of his conservative views.

Is that all there is to this? Was the alleged assassin simply targeting Kirk for opposing transgender ideology? Was this about a politically divided nation?

The aftermath of the shocking murder indicates that something else is at work. While millions mourned the death of Charlie Kirk, countless thousands on the left seemed ghoulishly delighted. Social media exploded with Kirk-hating posts celebrating the assassination – and calling for other conservatives to be murdered as an encore. What could cause so many to be so callous?

The murder was not committed in a vacuum. It came roughly 14 months after the failed attempt to assassinate Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024. Trump was struck in the ear by a bullet, shocking the nation. Another attempt on Trump’s life was prevented by the Secret Service on September 15, 2024. (See The Stand, 10/14.)

What is happening in America?

A YouGov poll conducted one day after the Kirk murder showed that Americans know there’s something dreadfully wrong with the country. Nearly 80% said the assassination “represents a broader problem in American society.”

What is that “broader problem”? Certainly, there would be a host of different explanations from the fields of psychology, sociology, economics, political science, etc.

Biblically speaking, however, every problem is ultimately a spiritual one. Our nation is unraveling because spiritual darkness has entered the hearts of far too many people.

Even President Abraham Lincoln, certainly no Bible-thumper, knew that deep spiritual maladies often lie beneath the surface of political turmoil. On March 30, 1863, during the Civil War, Lincoln issued a proclamation for a day of national humiliation, fasting, and prayer. He addressed what he called “the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people.”

He referenced the nation’s prosperity, noting: “We have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God.”

The war against God

“We have forgotten God.” Lincoln’s words in 1863 certainly apply to this nation 162 years later.

In America, people who either hate or dismiss God have waged a long, determined war against Him and the Holy Bible. It began revealing itself especially in the middle of the 20th century when Supreme Court rulings struck the Christian foundation of the nation like a succession of hammer blows. These decisions reflected a desire to secularize the nation.

In Everson v. Board of Education (1947), for example, the high court introduced the concept of a wall separating church and state, turning the original metaphor on its head. Thomas Jefferson used the figure of a wall of separation in an 1802 letter to a Baptist organization, promising that the federal government would not interfere in church activities. Instead, the Supreme Court erected a wall that began pushing the church toward the fringes of the public square.

The public school system continued to be secularized, as high court rulings banned school-sponsored prayer (1962), Bible reading (1963), and the posting of the Ten Commandments (1980).

These Supreme Court rulings overthrew the traditional understanding of Christianity’s importance to the health of the republic that had existed since the nation’s founding era. Those who defended these entirely novel legal ideas claimed they were not an attack against Christianity but merely the evolution of constitutional principles.

Tearing away the mask

This genteel explanation for gutting America’s Christian heritage was eventually revealed to be a ruse – and that revelation came in the wake of national tragedy.

In the year following the September 11, 2001, attacks by Muslim radicals, Christian leaders at the time – such as AFA founder Don Wildmon, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and Franklin Graham – criticized Islam itself as the ideological source of the terrorism. That seemed obvious to anyone with a fondness for logic.

Secularists went bonkers, with many stating flatly that there was little difference between Muslim fanatics and Christian evangelicals.

In a 2002 article for Newsweek, for example, journalist and CNN commentator Fareed Zakaria raged against “America’s own homegrown fundamentalists,” like the aforementioned Christian leaders. He called them “extremists” and warned against “bigoted ranting by preachers” and their “hate-filled campaign” against Islam.

Despite Zakaria’s hypocrisy – harshly criticizing preachers for harshly criticizing Islam – he was merely part of the secular vanguard that was unleashing its hatred of Christianity.

Members of the so-called New Atheism fired off repeated broadsides against religion and, in the U.S., against the dominant faith – Christianity. Men such as scientists Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris, the late journalist Christopher Hitchens, and philosopher Daniel Dennett wrote popular books and aired their criticisms in debates and on talk shows. Their tone toward Christianity was not only dismissive but insulting.

Of course, this frontal assault on Christianity came after decades of ridicule by college and university professors, outright rejection of biblical morality by sexual revolutionaries, and Hollywood’s snarky and poisonous propaganda about faith. The cultural groundwork had certainly been laid before the popularizing of Dawkins and company.

New Atheism, however, was a new animal altogether. There was no longer any pretense of polite debate; the mask had been torn away. The undercurrent of hatred toward Christianity – and Jesus Christ – had surfaced. If this hostility had been a monster swimming in the depths of American culture, the beast had now not only surfaced, but breached – in full view and in all its ugly virulence.

What had long been suspected now became painfully clear: The secular progressive elites in America were at war with God.

A cross raised up

In the nearly 25 years since the 9/11 attacks and their cultural aftermath, the depth of hostility in America’s radical, political, and cultural Left has only deepened. As the nation slowly moved away from God, spiritual darkness began to creep in; then it established strongholds that spewed forth moral pollution that corroded long-standing institutions; and finally, it boldly elevated demonic evil as a moral good – like drag queen story hours with children, celebrity musicians performing satanic rituals on stage, and yes, assassinating Christian leaders.

More than anything else, Charlie Kirk was famous for his faith. It existed at the core of his life and his politics. This was especially true when the subject was abortion or the transgender movement.

Just months before the assassination, Kirk was on the Iced Coffee Hour podcast with host Jack Selby, who asked Kirk how he wanted to be remembered.

“If I died?” Kirk asked. Selby said, “[If] everything just goes away.”

“I want to be remembered for courage for my faith,” Kirk said. “That would be the most important thing; most important thing is my faith.”

The clip went viral in the days following Kirk’s murder.

“One of the last things that Charlie declared before the shot rang out was that Christ is Lord and that He defeated death,” said Brandon Russon in an interview with CBS News on the day of the assassination. As a witness to the murder, Russon said he was at the event and standing about 15 feet away when Kirk was shot.

Not surprisingly, the murder of Charlie Kirk followed on the heels of another tragedy in late August. Robert Westman, a 23-year-old biological male who “transitioned” to a woman and changed his name to Robin, opened fire on the Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, while children were gathered for morning Mass. A hundred rounds were fired into the church, injuring a total of 21 people and killing two children. Westman then killed himself.

Christopher F. Rufo, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, and investigative reporter Ryan Thorpe had no doubts that the motivation was a hatred for Christians. As they noted in City Journal, “Prior to the massacre, [Westman] had drawn an upside-down cross on his weaponry and pinned a photo of Christ on a paper target hanging on the wall of his room.”

Making Jesus Christ a target – in the middle of a war against God – does not end well for rebels, as Satan himself once discovered.

Yet, strangely, it might very well be that America is about to get a lesson on the grace and mercy of God. Could it be that, at its darkest hour, this angry, defiant, and rebellious people are about to discover that “where sin increased, grace abounded all the more” (Romans 5:20)?

Stories have surfaced that young people who have never picked up a Bible or gone to church are doing just that – because of a young man who quite clearly seems to have been a martyr for his faith.

Perhaps people will soon see the upside-down cross raised right side up, so that all can see and understand “the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints” (Jude 3). That cross is what Charlie Kirk believed in.

On his show, in the aftermath of Westman’s attack on those gathered for Mass at Annunciation Catholic Church, Kirk addressed the question of evil, reporter Tyler Arnold noted.

Kirk said: “The cross is God’s answer to evil. … The question should not be, ‘Why does evil exist?’ Instead, it should be, ‘What has God done about it?’ And the cross is the answer.”

CHARLIE KIRK

1993 – 2025

After co-founding Turning Point USA (TPUSA) in 2012 at only 18 years old, Charlie Kirk began cementing his place as a leading voice in the conservative movement.

As a committed Christian, Kirk’s biblical worldview compelled him to address political hot-button topics, such as abortion, gun control, climate change, gender and sexuality, and many others.

Though he was a prolific public speaker who addressed a broad audience by speaking at Republican events and on his daily radio show, Kirk’s primary focus was convincing the future generation to embrace conservative and biblical values.

Through his popular visits to school and college campuses, Kirk, while seated under his famous “Prove Me Wrong” tent, welcomed dialogue and debate and sought to change hearts and minds.

The husband and father of two was largely effective, as many news outlets and commentators pointed to Kirk’s influence on young voters being one of the primary factors that propelled President Donald Trump’s return to the White House.

In her first address after his assassination, Kirk’s widow, Erika, vowed her late husband’s work would continue.

“The movement my husband built will not die,” Kirk said. “My husband’s mission will not end, not even for a moment.”

Prior to Kirk’s death, TPUSA had 900 college chapters and 1,200 high school chapters.

In the days following Kirk’s death, the organization received more than 62,000 inquiries from people interested in starting new chapters – an encouraging sign Kirk’s work will continue and grow stronger.

As of press time, President Donald Trump had stated that he would posthumously award Charlie Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom, considered the highest civilian honor a citizen can receive.