Courageous faith

Editor's note: The following text is a transcript of a podcast story. To listen to the story, click on the arrow beneath the headline above.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: It’s Wednesday, December 31st. Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Lindsay Mast.

NICK EICHER, HOST:And I’m Nick Eicher. Washington Wednesday is coming in just a moment! But first, we’ve been remembering this week those who died in 2025 whose lives shaped the world we live in.

Today, though, we begin with someone whose death arguably is shaping the future.

Charlie Kirk was one of the most consequential political organizers of his generation. His assassination this fall did not just end a life. It altered the very landscape of conservative politics. Here’s WORLD’s Mary Reichard with a remembrance.

MARY REICHARD: Charlie Kirk influenced an entire generation of young conservatives in his nearly 32 years of life. His major achievement was in founding Turning Point USA to identify, educate, train, and organize students to promote the principles of faith, freedom, free markets, and limited government.

KIRK: Marxism combining with Islamism to go after what we call the American way of life. Everybody if you are Christian, and Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior, these two threats are combining forces to come after us, and it's time that the church stands and rises up against it.

Through his campus tours with Turning Point USA, Kirk demonstrated how to respectfully debate in public with facts and context, using the Socratic method:

KIRK: So do you love America?

KIRK: Yes, I do.

STUDENT: I hate America. (booing) Every state in the USA should be an independent country. What do you think of this?

KIRK: Well, I just first have to ask, since you hate the country, do you plan to go live in another country?

STUDENT: No, I do not.

KIRK: Let me tell you something. America is the only country where even those who hate it refuse to leave. That's how you know you live in a great country.

Charles James Kirk was born October 14, 1993 in Arlington Heights, Illinois to Robert and Kathryn Kirk; his father, an architect, and his mother, a mental health counselor. They raised him and his younger sister in nearby Prospect Heights. For part of that time, he attended a private Christian school, where he gave his life to Christ as a fifth grader.

He told the George Janko podcast:

KIRK: I heard a hot Gospel. And so I realized the stakes in fifth grade. I was like, oh my goodness, I’m a sinner. I’m selfish, I’m broken—and only thanks to Jesus’ perfect sacrifice coming and living a perfect life that I get something I do not earn, but has been given to me this free gift of eternal life.

That fifth grade teacher, Cindy Weber, told WORLD that Kirk’s leadership qualities were evident from the start:

WEBER: He was very much a leader as a little fifth grade boy. He was very focused, and he was, he was very bright and very respectful, with raising his hand and not talking out of turns and things. And then every recess, he would organize a football game, and everybody was invited and included.

As an adult, Kirk welcomed everyone on his campus debate tours, inviting opponents to come to the front of the line. One idea college students often brought up was that most wars are started because of religion:

KIRK: What religion did Mao Tse Tung believe in, the great murderer of China who killed 50 million people?

MAN: I don’t know.

KIRK: He was an atheist. What religion did Josef Stalin believe in, who killed more than 30 million people of the Soviet Union?
MAN: Atheist.

KIRK: He was an atheist. So that’s 80 million people murdered in two countries in just the 20th century that did not believe in any religion.

Kirk saw civil discourse as a way to clarify differences, not necessarily to achieve agreement:

WOMAN: It’s not a baby.

KIRK: OK, let’s play this out. What is it, then?

WOMAN: It is an embryo. Which is not a baby.

KIRK: Well, ok, it’s a fertilized embryo, right?

WOMAN: Correct. Which is not a baby.

KIRK: So at what point does it become a baby?

WOMAN: When it is born.

KIRK: Oh! (crowd erupts)

Oftentimes, the attacks got personal. This student accused him of being a fascist:

STUDENT: You created a company that’s, like, close to being a fascist and then like…

KIRK: Alright. Let’s go through this. How am I a fascist?

STUDENT: Dude, like you…

KIRK: Can you name one thing I believe that’s fascist?

STUDENT: Uh, you believe that like, you ought, (Expletive) (crowd reacts)

KIRK: I’m such a bad fascist I let the people who disagree to open mic to talk for two hours uninterrupted. I’m an awful fascist.

Kirk traveled around the country debating people, and in May debated students from Oxford and Cambridge, developing an international audience.

Kirk attended college for a short time but dropped out to found Turning Point at age 19 along with businessman and mentor, the late Bill Montgomery.

He taught himself by studying history, theology, and political thought to prepare for these campus encounters. Oftentimes, students immersed in “woke” ideology accused him of being a Christian nationalist:

KIRK: So I'm a Christian and a nationalist, so I've never used those two.

STUDENT: And then right there, that and nationalist, where in the Scriptures does a Christian (inaudible)

KIRK: Thank you. Jeremiah 29:7, “demand the welfare of the nation that you are in, because your welfare is tied to your nation's welfare.” Let me continue. Daniel fasted and prayed for his nation. In fact, Moses was so political that he wrote an entire book of the Torah, all about how to set up a government. It's the book of Deuteronomy. We, as Christians, should change the environment that we come in contact with. That's what salt and light do. So why should we then not care about changing government to be more Christ-like?

In his earlier years, Kirk came across as more of a firebrand. Later, he matured and learned to listen and be kind in the face of hostility. Critics accused Kirk of promoting controversial interpretations of history, such as his critique of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. He said the law’s shortcomings could be seen by analyzing its negative cultural outcomes on black families. And his support for Israel was unwavering, although he saw the Israeli government as separate from its people and its Biblical importance.

In 2020, Kirk started his eponymous daily podcast which reached millions. He authored several books, including his last one published post-humously. Titled Stop in the Name of God, he wrote of the great value of taking time every week to rest in honor of the Sabbath.

One of Kirk’s main pieces of advice—particularly for young Christian men—was on the blessing of marriage and children.

KIRK: And enough of this dating thing. Get married and have a bunch of kids, okay? Seriously. (Applause)

In 2021, Kirk married Erika Frantzve, a faith-based entrepreneur and real estate agent. They had two children together, and wanted to have more.

Podcast host Jack Selby asked Kirk how he wanted to be remembered just three months before an assassin took his life on September 10th at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.

KIRK: I want to be remembered for courage for my faith. That would be the most important thing. Most important thing is my faith.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Mary Reichard.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.