It feels like the world changed yesterday. The shooting of Charlie Kirk rocked me in a really weird way. I don’t watch his stuff all the time, but I was familiar enough and admired his willingness to talk to ideological opponents. When I heard of his brutally senseless public murder it hit me in a place I didn’t expect.

‘Microwavable Hearts’ 2015.
This represents how I feel today. My heart is soft, and it hurts for a father, a husband, a person my age who was shot for having politically unpopular things to say.

It hit my spirit. It hit deeply. I have some thoughts for people who love free speech, are dismayed at the death of a person who championed SPEAKING and DIALOGUE to resolve differences, and people who share the Christian faith in the weeks and months to follow. This is one of those times where I’m like “Gee, someone needs to say something” and usually, when I have that thought, I’m challenged: why don’t you say something?

PS. This post will have nothing to comment on Charlie’s very USA-specific views around guns or other political topics that don’t translate so simply into other cultural contexts. I really don’t care where anyone stands on politics. I am more interested in the faith, courage and commitment to free speech and open dialogue that he embodied in a very hostile cultural landscape. Those are the things I truly admire and wish I was brave enough to emulate. This post really isn’t about politics, because not everything is about that. He was a political figure, of course, but underneath that, the driver of that, was a sincere and bold faith that I am way more interested in.

Charlie said recently when he was asked in an interview what he’d want to be remembered for: “I wanna be remembered for courage for my faith that would be the most important thing. The most important thing is my faith in my life.”

Here are my thoughts:

1. Don’t Be Surprised

We are surprised in the face of senseless depravity. We shouldn’t be. We’ve been sleepwalking for a couple of generations now in a cultural context of peace, freedom, and the ability to engage as faith people in the public square. This cultural context isn’t normal, this isn’t the way the world has always been, and this freedom of expression and religion is more fragile than we realise it is. We should not be surprised in the face of senseless violence for speaking one’s mind (and then the secondary evil of people cheering it on) but we should allow this to wake us up, and to remain awake now, and realise we actually need to fight a little harder for the principle of being able to speak, and for our enemies to speak, without the threat of death.

Jesus addressed opposition directly. We should expect challenge and hatred. If the world hated and crucified a man as perfect as Jesus….I mean, in Jesus’ own words:

John 15:18-25: 18 “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. 20 Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’[a] If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. 21 They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me. 22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. 24 If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. 25 But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’[b]

2. Whatever Dismays You? Do The Opposite

Whenever depraved events happen, it exposes the hearts of people who cheer depravity. It also exposes that they are ultimately not powerful and will not win. Image from my book No Matter What, 2019.

I had a boss several year ago who said the single most helpful piece of advice that I’ve held onto.

We were discussing something that bothered me, and she said the advice that worked for her was this:

She was once bothered by someone’s behaviour and someone in her life said to her, “well, don’t you do that”

So, when people delight in violence, I say to myself, and to you: Don’t you do that.

Don’t you be gleeful when someone you dislike is killed

Don’t you be quick to justify violence

Don’t you approach debates in bad faith or be too close minded to learn from others

Don’t you stifle speech with violence

Don’t you be dishonest (“When you deliberately distort and selectively present the truth, you lie” in the words of Charlie Kirk)

Don’t you be cruel or malicious to others

3. Build Virtue

…Even when that is a quiet pursuit that you can’t demonstrate to applause on social media. Do it when no-ones watching. Do it especially when no one is watching.

We are so unfamiliar with the concept of virtues in a landscape that celebrates quick takes, the appearance of things and cares NOTHING for a person’s character. Why waste effort becoming virtuous? Where will that get me, career wise? That won’t lead to more content. That won’t allow me to be the loudest voice on a popular topic that I can get clapped for. Why bother with virtue?

…Because it is what will save us and restore our humanity. We need a world of more careful, virtuous people.

It doesn’t matter what the ‘world’ throws at you or accuses you of (I was personally accused of being a ‘rancid little freak’ recently on social media..lol. I appreciated the creativity of the wording) if you quietly know you are doing the best to conform your character to Christ. (by the way, even he isn’t compassionate enough for woke people or hateful people).

I had another Christian ( who I actually know, and could have chosen to talk to me via message lol) rebutt me and police a comment I made on a social media post and correct me for my lack of speaking about what they perceived as appropriate to speak about, calling my perspective into question on a pretty public forum. That approach is not helpful. Not virtuous. The tone of: ‘I’m more virtuous than you, so let me publicly correct you, so everyone here knows I’m one of the good ones, and you’re a bigot’ is not it. Less public virtue signalling. More building of real personal virtue.

And if you’re not a Christian? Cool. A good place to start is developing and prioritising these: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, a list from Galatians 5:22-23 that describes the ‘fruits’ of lives that are influenced by the Holy Spirit. But be warned you might find yourself accidentally behaving in a new way and your life might improve when you pursue and desire these qualities.

4. THINK CRITICALLY

Don’t just accept slogans and chanting and pat yourself on the back for being morally superior.

Weigh ideas up properly. It is not a sin to prioritise logic. Logic and rationality is a gift we have been given as a species. We can know some things via our emotions, our intuitions, or gut instincts- for absolutely sure. But we cannot leave our minds behind and forget how important it is to weigh ideas, test the ones that challenge us, put everything under a microscope to see if it holds up under scrutiny.

Our emotional responses can lead us to places that cloud our judgement- that isn’t good

Our rational thinking can lead us to places that are unnecessarily harsh and devoid of gentleness.

We need both to move forward. Some prefer to chant about empathy (a good when partnered with thinking properly) but it CANNOT be divorced from engaging our minds.

5. EXTEND YOUR HEART, AND THE MIC TO YOUR OPPONENTS

Do what Charlie did. Show kindness to your opponents by bothering to take the time to engage and hear them out and have a dialogue.

I’ve seen people accuse him, in the 24 hrs after his death, of being like the antichrist, or of being hateful. To that I say: Jesus bothered to engage with people. Jesus dialogued all day. He cared enough about people to hear them out. This is one of the most Christlike behaviours we can extend to others. If we give up on the idea of engagement we’ve descended into a dark place. I don’t want to go any further into that place than we’ve already gone. It can be easy to want to retreat into our comfortable silos at times of chaos and even danger. But being prepared to have a debate and discuss ideas (ideas should ALWAYS be on the table to discuss, examine and challenge) will restore us to finding a tiny centimetre of common ground.

My friend asked me yesterday “Can we even hope to win hearts with dialogue anymore?”

My response was this:

We’ve won already.

When we stay committed to dialogue instead of violence, we’ve won already

When we don’t let ugly culture wars warp us into hatred, we’ve won already.

When we don’t let moral confusion get in the way of denouncing senseless murder and political violence, we’ve won already.

When we remember the saviour who is our literal only eternal hope in the darkenss of this world, we remember that He’s won already, and therefore we’ve won already.

1 Corinthians 16:13 and here’s some relevant (though ancient) advice originally given to the church in Corinth:

“Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong”

It’s easy to feel a little despairing.

But take courage, you’ve already won.