The fall of a titan is never silent. It is a seismic shock, a void where a clarion voice once rallied millions. Charlie Kirk’s assassination is such a moment, leaving a deafening silence that will echo for a generation. We are not merely mourning a man; we are confronting the violent execution of a voice that spoke for the American heartland.
Charlie championed the foundational truths spoken in kitchens and living rooms across the nation, commonplace ideas that a hostile establishment nonetheless deemed revolutionary.
God bless Charlie Kirk for having the courage to speak those simple truths so powerfully.
As we grapple with this loss, tributes pour in from every corner of the conservative movement. From the president of the United States to the thousands of grassroots activists, all remember Charlie the same way: a brilliant, audacious upstart who became a figure larger than life. His rise was more than impressive; it was stratospheric, and it only goes to show the power of his message and the force of his conviction.
But the shock of his loss is not abstract; for so many of us, it is deeply, gut-wrenchingly personal.
I had just finished a meeting when I saw the texts on my phone. I opened X and saw the horrific video. My immediate instinct was to pray.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
I came to know Charlie personally in 2021 through a fellowship program at the Claremont Institute. I was skeptical of him at first, but over the ten days of that fellowship, he absolutely blew me away. Back then, my organization, the American Principles Project, was still finding its footing. During introductions, I said I was the president of a group building “The NRA for Families.” Charlie’s eyes lit up. The moment the session ended, he made a beeline for me, telling me he loved the concept and wanted to help.
And he did, just as he did for everyone he came across working in this movement. That was the essence of Charlie Kirk.
He was not just a broadcaster, not just a writer, and not just a thinker; he was a builder of people and movements. He gave my organization a free booth at TPUSA’s America Fest when we had no money. He was fearless, and gave us a platform to talk about issues like transgenderism on his show when few others would. He incubated and championed countless people, never asking for anything in return. He was brilliant, honest, and good.
When my own father passed away, my only prayer was, “Thank you God, for Bobby!”
Today, it’s the same prayer. Thank you God, for Charlie Kirk.
He is a martyr now. His death is a horrific message sent by the enemies of freedom, of common sense. We all woke up in a world today where the stakes are higher than ever—a world where you may be killed for standing up for what you believe in.
But what is most important, and what will define Charlie’s legacy, is what he did for the young men and women of this country. Fifteen years ago, we were truly on the brink of losing an entire generation to the suffocating orthodoxy of the woke Left. Kids who grew up in an era of unchallenged progressive dogma would have been arriving at college campuses without ever hearing a robust counter-argument.
They had no voice, no champion, and no safe harbor for traditional values. Until Charlie. That is precisely why he was so dangerous to the leftist establishment, and why he draws the disgusting ire of the liberal groupthink horde.
He built Turning Point USA into a grassroots army that gave conservative students the vocabulary and the courage to defend their beliefs.
Imagine a world without him. We would be facing a rampant, totally indoctrinated generation of Americans.
Instead, we see a different reality taking shape. Polls now show that the very same young men who voted for President Donald Trump in increasing numbers value starting a family and embracing responsibility as their highest priorities. People are openly and rightly debating transgenderism, as they should.
These are not accidental demographic shifts. They are the direct result of the cultural battle Charlie waged and won. In many ways, President Trump’s path to victory was paved by the work Charlie did with Turning Point.
As I reflect on Charlie’s role in the broader conservative movement, I hear the cynical whispers from his detractors: “He lived by the sword, he died by the sword.” This is a grotesque lie. He did not live by the sword. He lived by the word. He fought with ideas, persuasion, and debate. His assassin resorted to violence because he could not defeat Charlie’s ideas with better ones. The principles he lived and ultimately died for—faith, family, freedom, and common sense—are not extreme.
They are the shared inheritance of the American people.
An assassin’s bullet may have taken Charlie Kirk from us, but no one can kill the movement he created. We owe it to him to pick up the torch. His voice may be gone, but his ideas are immortal. His work is not over; it has just begun.
In the face of this evil, our first response must be to turn to God. We must pray for the soul of a man who was larger than life. We must pray for the movement he built and the countless patriots he inspired who now feel a target on their backs. Please, join me in prayer. Pray for Charlie’s family, for his beautiful wife Erika, and their two young children. Pray for the entire Turning Point team who lost their leader. Pray, pray, pray.
But more than anything… thank God for Charlie Kirk.
Terry Schilling is the executive director at American Principles Project. Follow him on Twitter: @Schilling1776.
The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.
About the Author
