A most tragic turning point

Every generation has its own formative moments. In just a few generations, the prominent memories shifted from “Remember the Alamo” to “Remember Pearl Harbor.” For adults of a certain age, the assassinations of the 1960s were the experiences seared into memory. First, President John F. Kennedy, then Martin Luther King, Jr., then, so suddenly, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. I was in elementary school as the 1960s came to an end, but I was old enough to wonder: Is this who we are? Is this how arguments are won and lost? Is this normal in America?

That same generation saw riots break out in American cities and on college campuses and the National Guard sent into the chaos to restore order. Those memories fade very slowly, if at all.

Then came Sept. 11, 2001, exactly 24 years ago today. No one who experienced that day can forget it. It is seared into our collective memory. Towers and bodies fell after airliners were deliberately crashed into skyscrapers and the Pentagon. Who could forget that? Among those who watched the images unfold, who could possibly just forget and move on?

Yesterday is now one of those days, and for today’s young adults, and especially for young Christians, and even more specifically for Christian and conservative young men, it is a day that will also be seared into generational memory. The assassination of Charlie Kirk, right at the heart of a major American university, even as he sat under the banner, “Prove Me Wrong,” is a generation shaping event.

I can see liberal eyerolling even now. Most would have the sense not to say out loud what a few on the left have rushed to say. MSNBC had to issue a statement apologizing for statements by one of its own, Matthew Dowd, acknowledging that the words he spoke were “inappropriate, insensitive, and unacceptable.” The network later announced that he had been fired.

Charlie Kirk was not an American president, nor was he running for office. Instead, he was a remarkable young man who set out to rally a generation of American young people to conservative ideas and policies. He co-founded Turning Point USA when he was only 18 years old. In political terms, he was unquestionably a prodigy. He was also a natural provocateur and debater. He would have been a great courtroom lawyer, but he had aspirations to change history by changing minds—and to do so on a civilizational scale. He had prodigious gifts and seemingly boundless energy.

Kirk and his organization deserve tremendous credit for winning the hearts and minds of so many young people to conservative beliefs and conservative politics. He was astoundingly successful in reaching and invigorating teenage boys and young men and making them care about something massively bigger than video games and fantasy football. He saw civilization at stake and he gladly entered the arena of action. Throngs of young people followed him, inspired to action by his arguments and example.

I first met Charlie Kirk several years ago when we were both addressing a major conference of conservatives. Backstage, I was impressed by his gifts but turned off by his demeanor. That was during Charlie’s years of bare-fisted libertarianism and personal assertion. Back then, he saw Christianity as a huge drag on conservative progress. He was pretty clear in calling for a new young conservatism of liberty and resistance. At the time, he didn’t have a lot of use for conservative Christians, and he wasn’t subtle.

Not long thereafter, Charlie embraced two things that had been missing from his earlier approach. He openly and boldly claimed the gospel of Christ and courageously identified himself as a Christian believer. He also began to argue with consistency that a recovery of Christian truth was essential for a lasting conservatism. He was right.

Furthermore, his private sphere changed along with his public arguments. He got married to Erika and they were blessed with two children, still very young. As we all know, and as God intended, that brings maturity and deeper meaning to a man’s life, and all that was evident in Charlie’s life.

All that was cut short with the horrifying violence that unfolded on the campus of Utah Valley University. The violence shocked the entire nation. As with Cain’s murder of Abel, Charlie Kirk’s blood cries out from the ground.

He was a man who knew he had enemies and a man who loved confrontation. But he was animated by ideas and driven by passion. He was doing what he did so well, arguing for his beliefs, when the assassin aimed his weapon. He was still so young. No one knows what he might have done over decades ahead. But the political loss disappears into the mist in comparison to the unspeakable loss that is now experienced by his widow and young children, now fatherless.

Now is the time for us to pray for Erika Kirk and her precious children. That comes first. But this is also a time for justice and a renewed determination to hold to honored convictions, even in the face of unspeakable violence. This generation of Christian young adults, and especially young men, is about to grow up a bit faster than they thought. The assassination of Charlie Kirk is not going to be forgotten, and the cries for justice are righteous and right.