In the Book of Acts, the pagans of Athens gathered to hear the gospel preached by Paul. He engaged in spirited debate “in the market-place, with all the men” (Acts 17:17) and though some mocked him, others were persuaded to the truth by his conviction and eloquence.
In 21st century America, the students of our public universities—a few literally pagan, vastly more metaphorically so—gathered to hear Charlie Kirk share about the values sustaining our civilization, about basic biology, about liberty, and ultimately, about the source of all those truths—Christ. Like Paul, Charlie did not use his incredible intellect to lord it over his interlocutors. Rather, he encouraged them to freely engage with his beliefs in the marketplace of ideas, where he met all who disagreed with him with genuine respect.
Countless young people were persuaded by him, others cruelly mocked him, and on September 10, one man assassinated him.
The death of Charlie Kirk is a profound tragedy, first and foremost for his lovely wife Erika and the two beloved children he leaves behind. They feel it more keenly than any of us can, and our first duty is to pray, both for his soul, and for their peace.
I have known Charlie for more than a decade—since he was 18. The heartbreak is mine too. His friendship and courageous toil for the soul of America always spurred me to do more—for our nation and for the kingdom.
But I want to make clear that this is not just a personal or private sorrow. The death of Charlie Kirk is a fundamental and existential issue for the United States of America. It happened and was directly caused by a context and culture of violence and eliminationism that emanates almost entirely from one corner of our public life.
As President Donald Trump proclaimed on that Wednesday, radical-left political violence has hurt far too many innocent people.
Recall the shooting of Representative Steve Scalise in 2017, the BLM insurrection of 2020, the attempted assassination of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in 2022, the two assassination attempts on President Trump while he was running for office, and just recently, the transgender terrorist who murdered Catholic schoolchildren in Minneapolis.
The threat we face today is unprecedented. Poison indoctrinates our youth in the classroom and is reinforced by the divisive rhetoric constantly spewed forth in so much of the media.
Although one man pulled the trigger on Charlie, this was not an isolated incident.
Anyone who has derided Christians and patriotic Americans like Charlie as “Nazis” or “fascists,” as The New Republic did to President Trump a month before he was shot in Butler, Pennsylvania, and as they repeated just a few weeks ago, shares responsibility for the violence rising in our midst. On Friday, The Nation shamelessly piled onto the hate, posthumously defaming Charlie as “bigoted” and misquoting him to prove their point.
This revolting behavior is not limited to the media. Judges who have let violent criminals loose because of their skin color, politicians who have encouraged supporters to harass their opponents, teachers who have taught their students to hate—they all share responsibility for the darkness that has descended upon our nation.
Their contempt for freedom and social order trades the politics of reason and persuasion—Charlie’s life’s work—for the false politics of violence and murder. In doing so, they betray America herself and escalate the crisis to an existential threat.
It’s no longer just a matter of Democrat versus Republican or left versus right. It’s a matter of the very soul of our country: truly—dark versus the light.
Each one of us, whatever our party, our politics, our faith, our convictions, or our origins, must choose between these two sides.
Shrinking back from the political arena is no longer an option. We must stop this madness before it’s too late.
As Vice President JD Vance announced on Monday, when he hosted The Charlie Kirk Show, the Trump administration will use every legal avenue at our disposal to find and punish all those responsible for this wave of political violence. Appearing on that same podcast, White House Senior Adviser Stephen Miller promised that we will uproot and permanently dismantle the vast domestic terrorist networks that incite violence against everyday Americans. These agents of chaos must be exorcized from our nation without apology and without compromise.
At the end of the day, Charlie wasn’t killed because he was speaking to America’s youth—he was killed because they were listening. Now that he’s been taken from us, we must not forget what he said.
Charlie enjoined us to courageously defend the most vulnerable, to revive the American family, and above all else, to exercise Christian charity in truth—regardless of how hard it may be to hear.
Charlie’s murder is proof that the radical left won’t allow Americans to make our country great again without a fight. Now is the time to wage war, not through aimless violence, but with a legal and rational crackdown on the forces that are desperately trying to annihilate our nation.
We can and should feel anger at this murder. But let it be overwhelmed and shaped by the force that animated Charlie: love. Love for country, love for family, and love for God. In service to them, we now must act.
Brooke L. Rollins is the 33rd United States secretary of Agriculture.
The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.