“Draw and quarter him. Hang his parts in all 4 corners of the state.”
“Public execution where he’s strapped to a chair and shot in the neck. Livestreamed with a crowd. All ticket proceeds go to Kirk’s family.”
“Public hanging. Very public. Televise him blubbering, begging, and crying before raising him off his feet by his neck and watching him flop until dead. No drop and sudden stop.”
These are all real things circulating on social media about what should be done with Charlie Kirk’s assassin.
Many are much, much worse.
Unfathomably worse.
Between the savagery of the Russian-Ukrainian war, the tragedy of the Hamas-Israeli war, the butchery the, the horrors of the UK’s Pakistani Muslim rape gangs, and the remarks above, I hope it’s becoming clear to all that the so-called Enlightenment did zilch for humanity and we’re just as evil and sinful and brutal as we’ve ever been and are hopelessly in need of a savior.
Speaking of saviors…
Charlie Kirk wasn’t a holy man.
He was aggressive, confrontational, cocky, and prideful.
(It takes one to know one. More on that in a minute.)
The overspiritualized hagiographies of Charlie Kirk are coming in thick and fast—as if he was a gentle and loving Christian evangelist-apologist.
His wife, in her public address, even called him a martyr.
But Kirk wasn’t a martyr.
He didn’t selflessly die for his faith in Jesus.
He died because a young psychopath disagreed with Kirk’s politics.
Kirk’s organization, Turning Point USA, wasn’t a Christian evangelism operation.
The site states this very clearly:
Turning Point USA is a 501 © (3) non-profit organization founded in 2012 by Charlie Kirk. The organization’s mission is to identify, educate, train, and organize students to promote the principles of fiscal responsibility, free markets, and limited government.
In other words, Charlie’s mission was to:
cut services to the poor and give tax breaks to the rich
get rid of protections for workers, consumers, and the planet
centralize power into corporate hands
Frankly, it’s not a very compelling vision.
Things get even worse on Kirk’s About page:
As a Christian, he should’ve known all three of these things to be false:
The Bible is the most exceptional political document ever written.
The Kingdom of God is the greatest country in the history of the world.
Christian Economics is the most moral and proven economic system ever discovered.
What was he smoking?
And the answer is:
A noxious mix of Christiandom mixed with American nationalism and Trump-worshipping MAGA Republicanism.
Which is not Christianity.
Jesus + anything = a diminishment of Jesus and his message.
Charlie Kirk’s tone was terrible, too.
Imagine if Jesus had a YouTube channel.
Do you really think Jesus would post videos with titles like:
“Jesus Hands Out Huge L’s”
“Jesus Christ Sends Van Jones into a Mental Breakdown”
“Jesus Crushes Woke Lies”
“Jesus Goes Full Oppenheimer & Drops a Nuke on Pro-Choice”
“[Too Many People Groups to List] Gets Destroyed by Jesus Christ”
Quit playin’.
Charlie Kirk was an evil, sinful, fallen, human man who needed Jesus just as much as the rest of us.
Sure, he was quick on his feet, but was he kind, gentle, and loving like Jesus?
That’s what I’ve been thinking about for the past few days.
This whole Charlie Kirk thing has been very convicting for me personally.
Especially when my wife reminded me of Proverbs 15:1 —
“A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.”
The hard reality is that Charlie’s tone stirred up wrath and anger in the hearts of millions of people. He inflamed people.
None of this is any excuse for killing him, of course.
And, of course, there will always be millions of people who hate and kill others, no matter how kind and gentle and loving their opponents are. Think: Islamic jihadists, psychopaths, demon-possessed folks, Nazis, communist dictators, and high-level capitalists like the folks at Boeing and OpenAI who ordered the murder of their whistleblowers.
People who hate the truth hate the truth.
Jesus is the textbook definition of someone getting killed, regardless of tone. Dude literally heals the ear of one of the guys sent to arrest him.
Charlie wasn’t Jesus.
Jesus didn’t “own” and “destroy” people.
Tone matters.
I’m seriously re-thinking mine.
Not because I’m worried about getting shot.
Because I share the same perspectives in kinder, gentler, more loving ways.
It’ll probably be more effective, too.
The left also needs to admit that Kirk wasn’t all bad, either. By all accounts, he was a committed husband, loving father, good friend, decent employer, etc etc.
Even more still, the left needs to stop denying that Kirk’s killing is the right’s George Floyd moment, and that it’s a much bigger deal than the left can imagine. Remember, an entire generation of young conservatives grew up listening to Kirk. For more than a decade. Dude had more than 1 billion views on YouTube alone. For millions of young people, Kirk was more than a political pundit and public debater — he was their mentor, their friend.
Tyler Robinson
The alleged killer has been arrested, thanks to his roommate (and alleged boyfriend), Lance Twiggs, who is currently transitioning into looking like a female.
The kid was in the 99th percentile and won a scholarship to university.
Then he dropped out, moved in with his trans buddy, and got rapidly radicalized by antifa ideologies.
Now in custody, Robinson is refusing to cooperate and showing no remorse.
Countless people on social media (and bots, no doubt) are calling for the death penalty.
As is the President.
And the Governor of Utah.
So this is where a Christian needs to stand up and say it loud and clear:
NO.
First off, the appeals process will take 20+ years and cost impoverished Americans several million dollars in extra taxes.
But second, and far more importantly, Tyler Robinson should not be executed because of the Christian truth that Tyler Robinson is a human being created in the image of God.
This is the bedrock of all human rights.
People matter because God made people in His image.
That is worth protecting.
Charlie Kirk, if he was indeed a true Christian, would be against putting Tyler Robinson to death.
Jesus says…
If someone hits you in the face, turn the other cheek
If someone forces you to carry their bag a mile, carry it two miles
If someone steals your jacket, give them your shirt too
If someone robs you or can’t repay a (interest-free) loan to you, forgive them and don’t ask for the money back
Love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you
Do not return evil for evil, but return evil with good
This is not rocket science.
This is not hard to understand.
The Way of Jesus isn’t like the world’s way.
No good can come from killing Tyler Robinson.
It makes us just as cold and cruel and savage and heartless and evil as Tyler Robinson and the millions who want him dead.
The desire for the death of others — no matter how evil they are — is evil.
That’s not to say Tyler Robinson doesn’t deserve death.
He does.
We all do.
(Before you start pearl-clutching, remember that you have in your possession hundreds of items containing components derived, manufactured, or assembled by sweatshop serfs, child slaves, and Ughyur slaves. People are homeless because of your real estate stocks, people are in poverty because of your banking stocks, people are dead because you made a profit off a passive index fund on the Fortune 500 that included cigarette makers and arms manufacturers.)
Tyler Robinson deserves death.
But grace — God’s grace — says, “let him live, that he might have the opportunity to find the life that is truly life.”
That said, justice must also be served.
Justice is not to charge taxpayers millions of dollars and then kill someone.
Justice makes things right.
Obviously, with murder, only God can make things fully right at the end of days, but what might the earthly portion of heaven’s eternal justice look like in this case?
Likely life in prison, with no chance of parole, working full-time to pay his own way, earning enough excess to support the Kirk family, and paying for regular visits with a Christian counsellor.
Remember, Tyler Robinson is only 22 years old.
Think about how unfathomably stupid you were at 22 years old.
Now throw in video game addiction, an unbridled sexuality, social media propaganda, radicalizing antifa ideologies, probably sleep deprivation, poor nutrition, an obvious lack of sunlight and exercise, and probably a huge helping of mental illness.
Now throw in a highly inflammatory demagogue and easy access to murder weapons.
A life of work in prison exemplifies 1.) the unmerited grace of God, 2.) fulfills the mandate of societal justice, and 3.) opens the door to the hope of salvation and restoration of even a soul as broken as Tyler Robinson’s.
Anything less isn’t Christlike.
Anything less is evil.
We have all done great evil.
More evil isn’t the cure.
Well said. The hypocrisy of people labeling themselves Christian while calling for the death of another human being is staggering. I’m glad you focused us back on that underlying issue.