A hero for the faith and a happy warrior for American principles, Charlie Kirk, was assassinated yesterday, and the staggering act of evil has unleashed the tensions barely contained beneath a tenuous veneer of civility stretched taut across American culture. These tensions are the result of over fifty years of cultural domination by leftists who secured monopolistic—systemic—control over our culture-making institutions.
Our public school system, including teachers unions; colleges and universities; arts and entertainment industries; the unelected, ossified bureaucratic deep state; and publishing companies and the American Library Association that engage in de facto censorship behind the curtain became a buzzing hive of indoctrination and destruction.
Leftist policies shaped by leftist beliefs and values have leavened American culture, achieving exactly what they were intended to do: destroy the republic by inculcating hatred and rejection of marriage, the nuclear family, sexual ethics, Judeo-Christian faith, the Constitution, the rule of law, and America’s history.
As Douglas Farrow wrote in Touchstone Magazine ten months ago,
The modern “secular” state is neither the bearer of an authority deriving from God nor society’s modest servant in matters that require coordinated action. It is no longer a democratic enterprise, or properly republican. It disregards the constitution and does not tend its own borders. It has devolved into a constellation of bureaucratic agencies and public-private partnerships, organized by a permanent managerial elite as a means of manipulating society to predetermined ends, many of them inimical to the welfare of the people and the interests of the nation. Increasingly, it is devoted to coercion and censorship in order to achieve its ends.
This state still speaks of freedom, but in its refusal to acknowledge God or the law of God it has been carrying forward the Marxist project of eradicating freedom. It wishes to strip the citizen of every competing loyalty, especially to church and family. The resulting “liberty” accomplishes two things of interest to the state. It puts the individual in the state’s debt, teaching him to be dependent on the state. Moreover, it deprives him of the protection offered by those pre-political, buffering institutions.
The liberated individual stands naked and alone before the regime, vulnerable to its every whim. The “chains” of family and church broken, he finds himself chained to the state itself, which makes unprecedented claims upon him—not only on his means, by multiple levels of taxation, but also on his thoughts, words, and actions. He is not more free, but less, for the state now presses its claims unrestrained by any authority but its own.
This is what Charlie fought tenaciously—and effectively—against. He fought bravely and perseveringly for God, family, and freedom, and for that, leftists wanted him dead.
It wasn’t just the shooter who wanted him dead. Leftists all across the country have posted on social media how glad they are that the shooter succeeded.
Charlie who strode bravely into our purported bastions of freedom and critical thinking to debate ideas civilly, cheerfully, and compassionately was too much for our disturbingly vengeful “snowflakes” who will not tolerate hearing ideas they hate.
Here are some of the ideas Charlie affirmed:
~ that Jesus Christ is his savior and provides the only way to eternal life
~ that all humans are created in the image and likeness of God and have a right to live
~ that sex is a gift from God for marriage
~ that marriage is the union of one man and one woman until death parts them
~ that bearing and raising children are ineffable blessings
~ that physical embodiment as male or female is good and immutable
~ that girls and women should be free of the presence of men in restrooms, locker rooms, and sports
~ that the Constitution is the “single greatest framework for any government in civil society”
~ that small government fosters human flourishing
~ that speech should be free, and civil discourse should be defended and engaged in
~ that border security is essential for the safety and well-being of any sovereign nation
~ that justice demands consequences for law-breaking
~ that people should be judged by the content of their character
For those beliefs—beliefs held by most Americans for two hundred years and still today—a man shot Charlie through the neck, and leftists celebrated.
As leftists claim impassioned commitment to tolerance, inclusion, and diversity, they hurl the ugliest invectives at anyone who dares to disagree publicly with cherished leftist assumptions on race, sex, gender, marriage, or feticide.
If words carry power, as leftists claim they do, then what are the effects of decades of calling those with conservative beliefs on the aforementioned topics ignorant, bigoted, hateful, fascistic Nazis who are determined to exterminate the “LGBTQ” community and people of color? Does all that epithet-hurling foster tolerance, inclusion, and respect for multicultural diversity?
Or does it foster virulent hatred and a self-righteous sense of entitlement to silencing alleged fascists?
While Charlie was known for and distinguished by his astounding willingness to engage in civil public debate with all comers, the shooter was committed to robbing Charlie of all rights permanently, thereby intimidating other conservatives from exercising their speech rights. But that will not happen.
The shooter and his celebrants have only magnified Charlie’s voice. Ben Shapiro made clear the effects of Charlie’s murder:
We’re not going to be deterred. Charlie’s voice is not silent. We’re going to pick up that bloodstained microphone where Charlie left it. And to those who would intimidate, who would seek to stop us, who would seek to end free discussion, who believe that they have ownership over public spaces and can violently threaten and kill people who speak freely, we are not going to stop.
We cannot sustain the intensity of emotion we’re feeling right now, nor would it be healthy or wise to do so. The questions before us are: How long can we sustain the commitment to God, truth, and courage that Charlie demonstrated and encouraged. How deeply will we allow his words and selfless acts of courage penetrate our hearts, and how thoroughly shape our will?
When our children are young, we teach them about martyrs of the faith and heroes like Corrie ten Boom and St. Maximillian Kolbe. And then when we become adults, too many of us live as cowards. We teach our children in words to stand for truth, while showing them through our silence that we are phonies. Let’s not allow Charlie’s courage to become just an inspiring tale of heroism to read to our little ones and then pack away with forgotten toys.