How dark are the hearts that celebrate his murder? Where can we show light? Everywhere, every chance we get.
‘Y ou need to study your heart.”
Less than 24 hours before the 24th anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the United States, Kristan Hawkins was on the campus of Montana State University. She was speaking. She noticed her phone blowing up with activity. She looked. She paused. She announced the breaking news that Charlie Kirk had been shot on another college campus. You didn’t have to know anything to realize this wasn’t a random news story to Hawkins — she was in shock. Her friend had been shot. Her friend had been shot doing exactly what she was doing. And students laughed. You don’t have to read too much into their expressions to realize that “He got what he deserved” seemed to be the instinct.
It’s almost as if that’s what social media trains us to do, in reflexively responding to news involving people in politics. They are names. Names that embody ideology. We don’t see them as people.
Kristan Hawkins is the president of the Students for Life of America, and she had a setup on campus in Montana, inviting people to tell her why she is wrong on abortion. It was part of a tour she’s on.
A week ago, I would have described Kristan as fearless. It takes courage, frankly, to invite confrontation. And especially in our troubled, obsessed-with-politics, angry, confused, sick culture. And there’s something especially so about youth culture. For many, their teenage years and early twenties are filled with natural biological challenges, and the world seems to be endlessly filled with new ways to make it a harder time of life — more confusing and even torturous.
The students thought it was funny that Charlie was shot. I imagine because they don’t think of Charlie Kirk as a human being, but representative of so much that they disagree with. In our hyper-politicized culture, where ideology is a religion, dehumanization is almost necessary to make engagement satisfying — self-medication for all things we are unhappy about.
I unfortunately accidentally clicked on a video of Charlie being shot. He didn’t have a chance. Just like that, he was shot, and no sooner did we hear the news that he was shot, we learned he was dead. Charlie Kirk is dead because he was at a college campus challenging students to an actual debate. He was helping them mature — intellectually and emotionally, even spiritually.
It’s not enough to use politics to make you feel better about yourself. “Virtue-signaling” is how the socially mandated rainbow flag, or any other sign of your sophistication and tolerance of all things, communicates that you’re acceptable, free from cancellation. Charlie Kirk helped give kids the confidence to gather as an alternative to that. Not merely by wearing MAGA hats, which they would tend to. But by making a case. By being unafraid to challenge and be challenged. And to even have the humility to admit that you don’t have all the answers but want to be the vessel of God and His truth, as Kirk expressed during his life.
Hawkins was standing by a sign that said “Abortion: Change My Mind.” It’s frankly more meaningful than all the “All are welcome” signs complete with litanies of accepted identity groups. Kristan’s sign indicated: I respect you enough to listen to what you have to say. About 150 students gathered, but the respect wasn’t quite reciprocated.
“If you think shooting Charlie Kirk is justified because you disagree with him on politics, you need to examine your heart,” Hawkins said in response to the students’ laughter. “This is what abortion culture has done in our country. Our abortion culture . . . has said that the most vulnerable humans in our world don’t deserve the right to live and we get to choose whether or not they live or die. Abortion culture has led to a desensitizing of our nation where we think we can shoot our political enemies — and we think is it justified.”
She asked the crowd if they thought it was funny that Trump was shot in Butler. In the video of the incident, you hear students in the crowd yell, “Oh, yeah!” and one says, “He didn’t get shot, you f***ing fascist.”
When Hawkins shared that Charlie had been shot in the neck, there was cheering. When she promised to share their callous reaction with the world on YouTube, “F*** yeah” is the most audible reaction.
That sounds an awful a lot like pride. Pride is a deadly sin. Which we celebrate. And now Charlie Kirk is dead.
Do you want this, or do you want to be more like Charlie — willing to believe things and voice them and challenge and be challenged? One of them is the American way, the other is the road to hell, paved with virtue-signaling and cheering violence, unless it’s not violence but your unwillingness to listen to simple speech you disagree with. Be free to be wrong and defend someone else’s right to do the same. And may we change one another’s minds on things now and again. Or at least try. With human encounter, not intimidation and murder.
This column is based on one available through Andrews McMeel Universal’s Newspaper Enterprise Association.