How should Christians respond to Charlie Kirk's death?
- Dave Thornton
- 2 days ago
- 7 min read
Charlie Kirk, a well-known political activist and influencer has been shot dead. I'm very aware there was a school shooting in Jefferson County, Colorado on Wednesday. That too was an absolute tragedy. There will have also been appalling deaths happening well outside the media spotlight. But Charlie Kirk's death seems to be hitting young people particularly hard, because many of them have seen him in their feeds, and graphic close up videos of his death are already circulating widely on social media. I've talked before more generally about how we respond to the news in my blog here.
How do we deal with disagreement?
"Jesus wept". It's the shortest verse in the Bible. It comes in John 11.35, just after Lazarus dies. So? Jesus cries for his friend. But there's another place that Jesus weeps and it's this that comes to mind as I think how to respond to Charlie Kirk's shooting.
As Jesus approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it, and said, "If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace-but now it is hidden from your eyes." Luke 19.41-42
Jesus weeps over Jerusalem. Elsewhere, in Matthew 23.37, Jesus says:
"“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings..."
Jesus is weeping over Jerusalem, He wants to mother Jerusalem like a hen with her chicks. And yet, Jerusalem is not a friend of his. Jerusalem is the headquarters of the religious leaders who are trying to kill him (John 11.53). It's the headquarters of the 'whitewashed tombs' he talked about just a few verses earlier in Matthew 23.27:
"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean."
And still Jesus weeps over Jerusalem. Jesus is full of mercy.
If we disagree with Charlie Kirk's or anyone else's politics, our heart as Christians towards them should be full of mercy. This doesn't mean that we should never disagree. 'Woe to you' is fairly forthright, but our hearts should be merciful.
The way of Jesus
Don't we need to see more of the way of Jesus today - shown beautifully in Luke 6.35-37?
"But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven."
There's nothing here that speaks of attacking someone we disagree with. Nor rejoicing over the demise of an opponent. Nor even wanting revenge on the people who have attacked or rejoiced. Mercy and forgiveness and kindness are the way of Jesus. In our youth group, we call it cherishing - practical, gritty, sacrificial love, not just empty words.
"He was only 31 and he's left behind a wife and children..."
This is true, but be cautious about saying this. How does a single person take this? Or an older person? Are they expendable?
The reality is that Charlie Kirk is someone, like every child and every old person, made in the image of God, 'fearfully and wonderfully made' (Psalm 139.14). He had God-given dignity. James writes in James 3.9-10:
"With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God's likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be."
Notice how we should not curse those 'who have been made in God's likeness'. Charlie Kirk's dignity wasn't because of his family situation or his age or because we agreed with his politics. It was God-given. Each death is a tragedy, even the ones of people who are 100 with no surviving relatives who die in their sleep. Jesus wept over the death of Lazarus. Let us be compassionate enough to do the same for Charlie Kirk, but not necessarily because of anything he was or had done, but because he was made in the image of God. And let's pray for Charlie's family and his friends, and all who mourn today.
How do we talk about people?
As Christians, let's not use shorthand labels for people, instead, let's be specific. Phrases like 'She's a racist' or 'He's a misogynist' increase conflict. Instead, let's say why we're saying that. What do we mean? What have they said? What have they done? What's our evidence? Then other people can make their own decisions. Otherwise, Auntie Gladys might get mixed up with Adolf Hitler. I tend to avoid even the phrase 'non-Christian' in talks. I say, 'someone who doesn't follow Jesus'. I'm clear what I mean.
But we need to check our evidence. I got caught out by this even last night. I looked up what Charlie Kirk had said about various issues. First one that caught my eye was in an opinion piece with the accompanying video for proof. I told a young person what he'd said. She looked bemused and said, 'Where did you hear that?' I looked back at the page. It was there in black and white! But... I hadn't actually watched the video. Before I presented it as a fait accompli, I watched it. And Charlie never said it. What he said was close, but not what the opinion piece said. Now, that's not to say, I'd agree with everything Charlie Kirk said nor the way he said it, but we owe it to real people to check out what they have really said, even if they're politicians, or influencers, or on the other side of an argument.
What can we do next?
I've sent out a message to our young people's parents, warning them that the videos are out there, and probably in their child's feed. A year group social media chat from one of our local schools in the UK already had a close up video of the killing on it within three hours of it happening. Here's what I wrote:
Dear Pathfinder and Download parents,
I wanted to make you aware that graphic photos and videos of Charlie Kirk's shooting are circulating very widely in people's feeds already. I've heard it's on Twitter and Instagram. One of our younger youth leaders said, 'You do not want to see that video, even if you think you do.'
You might want to take precautions if you don't want your child to see these videos, although it will be hard to avoid if they are on social media. It will certainly be worth asking if they have seen it before and after school/college tomorrow.
If there's anything we can do to help, please let me know.
Dave Thornton
Of course, you can improve it, but you get the idea. I wanted to make sure parents were aware, and that they opened up ways for their children to talk about anything they'd seen. One of the best things adults can do in this situation is allow young people to unpack what they have seen.
We're also making the killing the focus of our talk in our youth group tonight. I'm not going to talk about his political views, nor even about whether he's in heaven or not, instead, I'm going to talk about how we use social media, how we can make a positive difference in all our interactions, but also about the hope that Christians have in Jesus Christ.
A thought about social media
Many young people will not have been able to avoid seeing photos or videos of Charlie Kirk's shooting. The photos will appear unsolicited. The videos seem enticing. That's the way social media is. If ever there was a day to start a social media or mobile fast, it's probably today. Yesterday would have been better. Some of our young people will have seen things already that they wish they could unsee and those images will stick in some of our young people's minds, potentially, till the end of their lives.
Now is a good time to talk to young people about how social media works. Algorithms can be a young person's friend. But even algorithms get trumped by 'A huge number of 17-year-old boys are now watching this content.' If you often watched Charlie Kirk alive, the internet is just waiting to inundate you with content related to Charlie Kirk's death. Again, that's just the way it is.
You can work against the algorithms. Today's a good day to watch, like and share things that are not about Charlie Kirk's death. If enough people do that, videos of his death will fade away.
Can we change social media? Yes we can, but we don't have the will as adults to change it to protect our young people. We don't, or we would have. Let's not lose heart, though. We can help. Today, we can put positive messages on social media. Here's the story I put up last night.
Could you do better? Of course you could. But it's a positive message that's already been seen by 81 young people. Let's get some more out there.
Some final thoughts:
Jesus has died and has risen again so there is hope. Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 4.13:
"Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope."
We do not need to fear. Young people need to know that today. We created this video for a youth event we were running. God's message in scripture is clear, DO NOT FEAR!
And we, and the young people we know and love, can start to change things. By avoiding labelling people, posting postively on social media and showing love and mercy, just like Jesus did in his life and supremely on the cross.
 If you want to think more about how we respond to what we see in the news, read this post.
Do please get in touch if you have more ideas.
If you want to think more about this, read the Introduction to my book, 'Raising the Bar: Nearly Everything You Need to Know about Christian Youth Ministry' which you can buy here. You'll be reminded there of God's incredible grace towards us. The book's nearly 400 pages! In it, you'll find other ideas about finding, training and growing leaders in your groups. You can find out here what other youth leaders think about the book.
