The Kootenai Journal • Charlie Kirk: A Different Kind of School Shooting

The Liberated Learner — Column by Suzanne Kearney

Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth?”
Galatians 4:16, NIV

There was yet another school shooting last week, but this one was different. It wasn’t a student or teacher who was killed. It was an outsider, a “volunteer” of sorts, a rare soul who had the courage to step onto a campus that hated him, because he cared about youth. His message was one of hope for our nation, good-faith dialogue, and belief in God. For many of those students, Charlie Kirk may have been the only voice of opposition they would ever hear. Unlike many, he cared enough about America and its next generation to remind them that there was more than one way to think. It is no mistake that his target audience was students and that he went into schools.

His assassination is a testimony to how deeply our education system has descended into one-sided rhetoric and groupthink. Universities used to be places where dissenting views were intentionally introduced, scrutinized, and debated, so that their value could be assessed and truth discerned. Scholars assumed that good ideas could withstand attack, in fact, that testing them was necessary to prove their worthiness (or lack thereof). Now, our higher education institutions have become mere indoctrination centers, dispensing a steady stream of “woke” ideas which students are not allowed to question. In fact, it has gotten to the point that those who dare to challenge the narrative can be murdered for it, while students, teachers, and others celebrate.

So, what exactly did Charlie Kirk say that made him worthy of death? If you believe social media, he is a racist, xenophobic, transphobic, sexist, white-Christian-nationalist-Nazi fascist. Let’s examine some of the values he articulated against these accusations—ideals that he backed up with scientific data, statistics, reason, and natural law.

Truth is fixed, eternal, and knowable.
Sex is determined by genetics and unchangeable.
Children who struggle with sexual identity should be affirmed in their biological sex.
Men should not be allowed to compete against women in sports.
An unborn child in the womb has value and a right to life.
Nations should have borders and immigration laws should be enforced.
People should work to support themselves.
Peaceful protests are justified and moral. Riots are violent and lawless.
Political violence is unacceptable.
Fatherlessness is a huge contributing factor to problems in the black community.
Anti-white racism exists.
Young people should seek first to get married, have children, and raise a family.
Women are most fulfilled in the context of being a wife and mother.
Marriage is an institution created by God for one man and one woman.
Children should not be sexualized by adults.
Convicted criminals should be imprisoned in the interest of public safety.
Police should be funded.
People are responsible for their own choices.
The 2^nd Amendment is necessary for personal protection and prevention of tyranny.
Faith in God is important and the foundation of a moral and ethical society.
Calling sin “sin” is loving because it leads people away from harm and toward God.
Free speech should be valued even when the ideas are different from your own.
America, while flawed, is founded on lofty ideals and is worth preserving.

To contrast, let’s list some of the values of those who oppose him:

Truth is relative and unknowable.
Sex is determined by feelings and malleable.
Children who feel that they are “born in the wrong body” should be given “gender affirming care” (puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, surgery).
Men who declare themselves to be women are in fact women and should be able to compete with females in sports.
An unborn child in the womb has no value or rights if the mother deems it unwanted.
Open borders are compassionate. Immigration laws are racist. No person is “illegal.”
People who were never slaves are owed reparations by those who never enslaved them.
Riots based on race are justified and moral. Peaceful protests based on civil rights are violent and lawless (if they are for conservative causes).
Political violence is acceptable.
“Systemic racism” is the cause of all problems in the black community.
Only white people are racist, and they are racist by default.
The nuclear family is oppressive and sexist.
Women who seek first to be wives and mothers are oppressed by the patriarchy.
Children are “sexual from birth” and need to be exposed to sexual content from an early age.
Marriage is whatever man defines it to be.
Criminals are “victims” and should be released out of “compassion.”
Police should be defunded.
Capitalism, “Christian nationalism,” white supremacy, and systemic racism are responsible for people’s bad choices/circumstances.
The 2^nd Amendment should be heavily restricted or abolished.
Faith in God is foolish, unscientific, and the cause of endless social ills.
Accepting any and all behavior and perversion is love; promoting a Christian moral framework is hate. Calling sin “sin” is judgmental and hateful.
“Hate speech” is not free speech and should be silenced.
America is fundamentally evil and must be destroyed.

While not complete, these lists characterize the moral divide in our country. Which values are “extreme,” “fascist,” or Nazi-esque? What kind of fruit, individually and nationally, has each set borne? Those who oppose Charlie Kirk call themselves “progressives,” but to where have they progressed? Is it rational that thousands of years of social norms, ethical frameworks, and spiritual values have all been in error, and only in the past few decades has mankind achieved true enlightenment? If so, what kind of awakening have we had? Where have we come in our humanity, when we celebrate the calculated murder of a husband, father of two young children, and man possessing the kind of courage that rarely surfaces once in a generation?

At the deepest level, though, this is not fundamentally about politics, or education, or the future of America. It is not a left/right, liberal/conservative, Democrat/Republican, Communist/Capitalist, or even Populist/Globalist battle. This is good versus evil, God versus Satan, a spiritual war that has been waging since the Serpent first tempted Eve in the garden. Charlie Kirk did not just stand for America, or “right-wing” ideas. In his own words, his most important identity was as a believer in Christ, and he spoke boldly of Him and Biblical truth. This is what they hate; this is why they wanted him dead; this is why they rejoice, just as those who rejected God in the first century rejoiced at the death of Jesus. They don’t hate Charlie – they hate the Jesus in him.

Charlie Kirk died in a shirt bearing one word, “Freedom.” He gave his life because he wanted the next generation to be free – not just politically, but spiritually as well. If you hate him for his words, at least respect him for his willingness to stand. For that reason alone, he deserves to be heard.