I didn't know Charlie Kirk. I knew of him, but I didn't know a lot about him. That is my loss, my egregious loss. Charlie was a Christian advocate, someone who went on to college campuses to teach students that marriage and family are more important than business, that God is the source of joy and salvation, and that God's ways are the best ways.
He was shot because he debated these principles against any and all comers. He left behind a wonderful wife and two beautiful children. But: "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church." I was in tears when I listened to Charlie's widow, Erika, speak to the Nation. This phrase stands out for me:
The evildoers responsible for my husband's assassination have no idea what they have done. They killed Charlie because he preached a message of patriotism, faith, and of God's merciful love. They should all know this: If you thought that my husband's mission was powerful before, you have no idea. You have no idea what you just have unleashed across this entire country, in this world. You have no idea.
You have no idea the fire that you have ignited within this wife. The cries of this widow will echo around the world like a battle cry. To everyone listening tonight across America, the movement my husband built will not die. It won't. I refuse to let that happen. It will not die. All of us will refuse to let that happen. No one will ever forget my husband's name, and I will make sure of it.
Charlie was an incredible man; and boy, he had an incredible wife!
Now consider this excerpt from a Free Press editorial:
But all of that was built on a very simple value that he practiced every day: free expression. It’s the same thing our work as journalists is built on. And that this country is built on.
That’s why, as Utah governor Spencer Cox put it today, the murder of Kirk is “much bigger than an attack on an individual. It is an attack on all of us. It is an attack on the American experiment. It is an attack on our ideals.”
Kirk was assassinated for those ideals. He was at that college campus in Utah—the very institution meant to be a bastion of freedom of conscience and speech—because he wanted to promote debate. This is the very act that gave birth to this nation, and the only thing that will ensure its survival.
We fear his assassination represents a watershed moment for free expression in this country. We worry that his murder will have a profound chilling effect—that people will shy away from open discussion, that they will avoid honest debate, and that they will turn away from sticking their neck out for fear that engaging with their fellow citizens might mean an engraved bullet will be meant for them.
We must not let that happen.
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