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Three reasons Charlie Kirk’s murder is relevant to us all · The Daily Article

• 0:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: Good morning.
• 0:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: And welcome to Denison Forms Daily Article Podcast.
• 0:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's Monday, September 15th, 2025.
• 0:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm Connor Jones, co-host of the Culture Brief Podcast here at Denison Form, filling in for Chris Elkins, and narrating today's Daily Article, authored by our co-founder and CEO, Dr. Jim Denison.
• 0:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: Turning point USA has announced that a memorial service for Charlie Kirk has been scheduled for Sunday, September 21st in Glendale, Arizona.
• 0:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: As an indication of their founders' cultural significance, the service will take place at State Farm Stadium, the home of the NFL's Cardinals, which can seat 73,000 people.
• 0:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: If last week's assassination of the 31-year-old conservative activists had been an isolated event, it would be tragic, but of little relevance to the rest of us, like an earthquake in California or a wildfire in Texas.
• 1:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: More than 22,000 Americans are murdered each year, roughly 63 a day.
• 1:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: Unless one of them is a family member or friend, that's statistic he boaks little visceral reaction from us.
• 1:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: but this is not that.
• 1:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: The assassination of Charlie Kirk is a tragedy that affects every American, and especially every American evangelical, in ways that may not be obvious, but are deeply significant.
• 1:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I witnessed a Kirk's murder at Utah Valley University.
• 1:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: Last Wednesday said when he was shot, there were cheers from the balcony behind him.
• 1:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: She added that it was horrific to be a part of and that there was just no human empathy.
• 1:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: At a visual Wednesday night, a person said, quote, I would have killed him myself.
• 1:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: He claimed the assassin, quote, did us a favor.
• 1:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: In the hours after Kurt's death, young people flooded the internet with rhetoric, justifying is killing.
• 1:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: Numerous others have been fired or placed on leave for their hateful responses to the murder.
• 1:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: Presumably none of them knew Charlie Kurt personally, so far as we know, the alleged shooter did not either.
• 2:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: Why then did they feel justified in causing and celebrating his death?
• 2:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: According to Utah Governor Spencer Cox, the accused gunman had recently become quote
• 2:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: The Governor referenced the family conversation in which the alleged shooter said Charlie Carke was quote full of hate and spreading hate.
• 2:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: According to authorities, inscriptions on unfired gun casings recovered by investigators contained overt references to political and cultural issues.
• 2:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: So, from what we know, this man disagreed with Charlie Carke's ideas, so he killed him.
• 2:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: Those who are celebrating Carke's death are doing so for the same reason.
• 2:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: Here are three reasons, this is so dangerous for our nation and especially for evangelicals.
• 2:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut responded to Kirk's murder saying, the beating heart of a free society is the ability for citizens to engage in political life with no fear of violence.
• 2:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: New York Times columnist Ezra Klein agreed in a post on x, writing, the foundation of a free society is the ability to participate in it without fear of violence.
• 3:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: Political violence is always an attack against us all.
• 3:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: his colleague David French added, the assassin didn't just take aim at a precious human being created in the image of God.
• 3:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: He took aim at the American experiment itself.
• 3:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: The free press editors noted Charlie Kirk was murdered while practicing the very act that gave birth to this nation in the only thing that will ensure it's survival.
• 3:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: A commentator in the British press wrote that Kirk was killed doing what he lived for,
• 3:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: Andrew Sullivan agreed that Kirk did the hard work of democracy talking to those who disagree with him.
• 3:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: If our nation loses its first amendment right to free speech via the veto of violence, our democratic process is imperiled.
• 3:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: As Wall Street Journal columnist Kimberly Strassell warned, political violence has politicians as its primary target.
• 3:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: With the result that soon, none will be safe.
• 3:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: Cultural commentators are facing rising threats as well.
• 4:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: Presidential Biographer John Meacham noted, if this is an open season on everybody who expresses an opinion, and the American Covenant is broken.
• 4:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: This threat is amplified by the claim that words are violence.
• 4:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: As Jonathan Hight and Greg Leukea enough right in the Atlantic, this quote unquote dangerous idea has been percolating on college campuses these days.
• 4:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: The argument is that if words can cause stress and pro-long stress can cause physical harm, certain types of speech can be a form of violence.
• 4:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: This psychological claim has been extrapolated into the belief that it is fair to respond violently to words with which we disagree.
• 4:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: In a new survey, a record one in three college students now consider violence to be justifiable against a speaker uttering hate.
• 4:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's therefore unsurprising that so many are plotting the violence against Charlie Kirk as an appropriate response to his, quote, violence, message.
• 4:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: Taking to his logical conclusion, this thinking robs our democracy of free speech protections and imperils the political process itself.
• 5:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: A third cultural factor behind Charlie Kirk's murder is the critical theory claim that all relationships are based on power struggles between oppressors and the oppressed.
• 5:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: According to critical theory, the appropriate response by the oppressed is therefore to oppress the oppressors.
• 5:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: For example, if a speaker such as Charlie Kirk defends biblical morality with regard to homosexuality and abortion, they are oppressing homosexuals and women.
• 5:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: You can see why this belief is threatening to all Americans, but especially to evangelicals.
• 5:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: How should we respond?
• 5:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: As my wife often says, lost people act like lost people, so did we before we met Jesus.
• 5:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: We need to remember 2 Corinthians 4.4 that declares that God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.
• 5:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: The verse serves as a reminder that the more they reject our words in our faith, the more they need them.
• 6:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: But this is nothing new for us.
• 6:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: In Acts 20 verses 23 and 24, Paul was warned by the Holy Spirit that imprisonment and afflictions awaited him in Rome, but he went anyway to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.
• 6:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: In Romans 116 he told the Romans, I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.
• 6:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: Even when imprisoned in Rome and awaiting execution, he testified in 2 Timothy 17 that God gave us a spirit, not a fear, but a power, and love, and self-control.
• 6:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: Unashamed and unaffraid are commitments, God's people, especially need in these days.
• 6:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: Will you pray for the courage to be both today?