Charles James Kirk, Martyr
This last week I’ve seen dozens of posts online saying, in effect, “If your pastor didn’t talk about Charlie Kirk in his sermon, find a new church.” This is wrong. Christians (or non-Christians, for that matter) have no business demanding that the ministers of Jesus speak about any man other than Jesus. If your pastor did not mention Charlie, yet he preached Christ crucified last Sunday (it was Holy Cross Day—how could he have done otherwise?), then he was faithful to his calling. Do not fall prey to the tactics of godless pagans and misguided Christians by making Charlie Kirk’s name a shibboleth and tool of division within the church. Charlie is not the sign appointed for the rise and fall of many in Israel; his Savior is.
On the other hand, pastors, if you did not talk about Charlie Kirk last Sunday, you missed a once-in-a-generation opportunity to teach your people what it means to confess Christ crucified in this fallen world. Charlie was a martyr. He was murdered because he spoke of Jesus with eloquence and boldness. Your people are hurting and confused by the events of last week. They are looking to you to teach them how to think about these things. And if you don’t teach them, someone else will.
Some would say that we don’t know the shooters’ motives. That’s irrelevant. We know Satan’s motives. He is a liar and a murderer from the beginning. He murdered Christ. He murders Christians. He murdered Charlie Kirk. And not content with murder, the devil now slanders Charlie’s memory and life precisely because he spoke so clearly of Christ. The satanic rejoicing that followed Charlie’s murder is proof that he was murdered by demons, not by men. Our warfare is not against flesh and blood.
Others would counter that though Charlie was a Christian, he was killed for political reasons, not for the sake of Christ. Thus, he is not a martyr. It is no surprise that his Wikipedia page lists him as “American right-wing political activist, entrepreneur, and media personality”—never mentioning what was most important to Charlie, that he was a Christian. The devil wants to silence the witness of faithful Christians both before and after they die. But one might say the same of John the Baptist, that he too was killed for political reasons, and is therefore not a martyr. Had he stuck to preaching about the coming Messiah and not dabbled in political issues, such as King Herod’s illicit marriage, John would not have been beheaded.
If you cannot look at the sum of Charlie’s confession and life and recognize a man hated for the sake of Christ and His gospel, then it seems apparent that you have been conditioned by Satan to believe that Christians must live out their faith in the privacy of their own hearts and homes, never applying the Word of God to life in this world. Christianity must stay in its lane, content to let Satan rule and govern in all cultural and political matters. And what is a political matter? Anything to do with conception, birth, men and women, marriage, sex, abortion, education, government, life, and death—in other words, just about everything is political and out of bounds for Christians.
Charlie was an example of a man who lived out his faith in Christ in the public sphere. The church needs such examples. That is precisely why we remember and seek to emulate the faith and boldness of the martyrs who stood before kings and emperors. This Christ-hating world would have you remember Charlie only as a political activist, but I will honor his witness by remembering him as a Christian martyr.