When the World Hates Good Men
Reflections after a Murder
It is a haunting thing to rise back to life in the morning only to discover that another has entered their eternal rest.
To tell you the truth, the fact that I am writing these words comes as a surprise to me. I was never a regular listener nor a subscriber to anything Turning Point USA; never kept tabs on Charlie Kirk, not even as a bell-weather with regards to the feelings of young Conservatives. I had no idea we were the same age or both fathers of two young children, details that add to the unexpected and weighty shadow that hangs overhead.
Although not a devote of TPUSA or Kirk, I don’t want to leave the impression that I was unfamiliar with him. Like most, perhaps, I first heard of and saw Kirk sometime between the years 2016-17, and I didn’t care for him. I was young, lacking patience, and confused as to why many God-fearing men and women I knew didn’t bat an eye at Donald Trump. Fatigued by all of the clanging rhetoric from both sides, I lumped him into the pile of Trumpian shills and tuned out of the discussions surrounding party politics. It was a needed time of sanctification for me, that arena dominated the life of my mind and heart for some time. But I was also burdened with the kind of rashness you often find in men between the ages of twenty to twenty-five. My foolishness caused me to want and never consider Kirk again, blinding me to qualities that others saw he possessed. The qualities that make good men.
Seven to eight years later, Kirk was somehow back on my radar. I suppose the combination of another heightened presidential election and being a Conservative and Christian whose YouTube algorithm is thus tuned made that inevitable. Mildly intrigued by a video of his popping up, I clicked on it expecting the old feelings to rise up. But this time, things were different. I pray that some of that has to do with a difference in me, but much more noticeable was the difference in Charlie. He was stalwart and unflinching, that I expected. And, maybe I had missed it before, but he was strikingly gracious, even kind, to those whose ideological temperature ranged from disagreement to pure vitriol. Slightly enraptured, I clicked on a couple more videos. A week or so later, just a few more. Shockingly, these qualities were present, together, throughout it all. Also, so was the answer. The greatest change in Charlie’s life was Jesus Christ.
By now, after his murder, we’ve all seen his tweet from five days ago or heard him discuss how he’d like to be remembered. We’ve heard the outpouring of grief and admiration from those who knew and loved him. There have been testimonies making much of his faith, his joy, and his courage. Even with my limited and very distant experience of Kirk, these are wholly warranted. He is a brother in the Lord Jesus Christ. He was a good man.
Sadly the world, not to mention his young and beautiful family, are deprived of his goodness. Why? Because the world hates good men. The bullet proves that. The merciless internet reactions prove that. Even here, in the corner of Scotland where I live, I overheard my boy’s swim teacher say, concerning the news, “I don’t want anyone to die, but if there’s anyone I don’t feel sorry for it is him.” It is a chilling thing to know that you also fit into that same category.
What do you do when the world hates you? You can turn towards rashness and thrash against the world with eyes and a heart full of rage. You can turn towards cowardice and, like how whiskey becomes mouthwash after too much water, you drown your convictions in timidity until you have none. Or, you can have courage, the golden mean between the two. You can keep your feet moving, resist evil, keep doing what is good, speaking what is true, and loving and preserving what is beautiful.
Remember, courage has a foundation. Otherwise it would yield to rashness. Early on for Charlie that was Conservatism, plain and simple. Later, all that he previously believed and held to found its foundation, Christ the Lord. That is what made his efforts compelling and his boldness beautiful. We would have certainly disagreed on the application of our shared beliefs (regarding politics), but if that were to keep me from admiring and mourning a man of courage and brother in Christ and damning the evil that has befallen him and his family, then perhaps Christ is not as much in me as I thought.
Death is not something I shy away from thinking about, but today it grows closer in its reality. I think of Paul’s words to Timothy where he writes:
“For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.”1
Some of us see that end approaching, like Paul. Others never see it coming. I’m sure Charlie Kirk never thought that a stop at Utah Valley University would be his last. But he died in the midst of the good fight.
I pray you and I do too.2
2 Timothy 4:6-8
