Dear Friends,

I’ve sensed a pivotal moment in our country. I bet you can sense it as well—everyone holding a collective breath, wondering the consequence of the assassination, the violent and disgusting murder of Charlie Kirk on a college campus in broad daylight. Immediately people reacted with grief, fear, shock, and anger posting their videos and thoughts to express and make sense of their feelings. I did too.

I didn’t follow much of Charlie Kirk’s vocation, mainly because debates easily dissolve into dehumanizing rhetoric where there’s a winner and a loser. But I’ve observed him as a powerful, straight white Christian man, where his personhood was rarely on the line so he was able to debate without seeming to take anything personally–even the hatred thrown towards him. This was a privilege and advantage he had compared to many young college students directly and negatively impacted by his political and religious views. Gender, religious, racial, and sexual minorities bore the brunt of his opinions and they felt it acutely.

While Charlie may not have noticed his own level of privilege, I still deeply respected his willingness to engage with people who thought very differently from him. He chose to practice free speech in public settings while giving others the opportunity to do likewise. Many young people in our country have felt emboldened by his example—either continuing forth with his ideas or against his ideas. He lived our country’s legacy of democracy through public debates and free speech in the public square.

But there is a loud movement attempting to stop this legacy and end democracy. We’re told to hate our neighbors and be against our countrymen, furthering the distance from each other. Instead of empowering people toward free speech, we’re pitted against each other, suspicious of the other. This widening tear has existed for generations, where people keep gluing, sewing, repairing, fastening that tear, attempting to hold it together, praying this or that leader will have better bonding power. The beautiful idea of our nation is altruistic but divided by how those ideas should manifest.

We horrifically witnessed a public execution of a public figure. We can continue forth, protecting and respecting free speech or be torn apart by saying it’s “their” fault: It was the radical left’s fault because they looked down on and hated everyone who doesn’t think like them. It was Charlie Kirk’s fault because he said horrible things about people and believed in guns. It was to stop people from talking about the Epstein Files. It was the liberal college campuses that produced violent rhetoric. It was MAGA who hated immigrants, trans-people, and women.

We point fingers while calling on others to rise up and take his place—emboldened by divisive blaming rhetoric seeming bent on creating a wider tear where repair seems hopeless. I’ve heard of celebrations over his death and pictures of his cartoon face with blood spurting from his neck. I’ve read how it’s time to start a civil war against those liberals who caused his murder. I’ve heard pastors say it’s time to double down and get more aggressive against the left.

After listing out recent political attacks on both Democrats and Republicans, journalist Ezra Klein wrote, “Political violence is contagious. It is spreading. It is not confined to one side or belief system. It should terrify us all.” We must see our shared need for each other instead of our desire to make enemies and blame.

You know whose voices have been loudest? The collective grief and desperate prayers for his wife and children—both those on the left and the right who have purposefully and publicly condemned this act of violence, voices shaking with deep sadness and anger over his death and the loss his family will forever feel.

Repairing the tear means we must see each other rightly. Charlie Kirk was a villain to some and a saint to others, but he was neither fully villain nor fully saint. He existed somewhere in the middle, as we all do. The temptation is to air his dirty laundry or whitewash his legacy but no one is all good or all bad. When we attempt to paint him in such a light, we begin to fight each other, creating a wider tear. The Apostle Paul once wrote our fight isn’t against each other—against human beings. Our fight is against the powers and principalities, against evil and demonic forces that dehumanize and objectify people by stealing their personhood, killing their body, and destroying their influence–as Jesus once said in John 10:10. When we participate in these behaviors, we are aligning ourselves with the Adversary of lies and against the God of truth.

My prayer for our nation within the legacy of Charlie Kirk is we will uplift and support free speech in various forms, becoming more educated and grounded debaters bent on love and understanding. That we don’t fall prey to the divisive rhetoric from politicians or pulpits or perpetuate political violence. That we will respect each other’s personhood even if we can’t respect their ideology. And we will work together, in the midst of our differences, to repair the tear.

With Christ’s love,
Pastor Bethany