His memorial filled a stadium, and it filled our phones, our computers, and our televisions around the world.
We stood together, as mourners and witnesses.
Then came the moment I will never forget. Erika Kirk, speaking of the young man who assassinated her husband, “I forgive him.”
Many were shocked, wondering how she had the strength and audacity to say such a thing. That is the essence of her faith.
Courage plus forgiveness is how we must move forward.
We move forward because every one of us has numbered days and hours. Time is short. Charlie did not know his last cup of tea was his last, or that his last kiss to Erika and last hug to his children were final. None of us knows.
So we will spend what we have on what matters most: family, life, and freedom.
We will speak plainly as Charlie did about the current plight of the family: “According to current projections, one-third of today’s young Americans will never get married.”
We will embrace the truth that Charlie proclaimed, “Happy countries have children. Broken countries have addiction, depression, and suffering.”
We will share Charlie’s sound defense of life: “Let’s just say I have two ultrasounds here. One is a baby conceived in rape. The other is from a loving marriage. Do we know which is which? They are both human beings, and they both deserve human rights.”
We will stand where Charlie once stood and proclaim: “Free speech is a birthright. Regardless of who is in power, you have a moral obligation to make sure your leaders advocate for a value-neutral free speech policy so you can challenge and speak openly.”
From the stadium to our streets, from the broadcast to our homes, we carry forward. Courage with forgiveness. Truth with grace. Resolve in public.
Make a commitment to speak truth out loud this week. Share at a table, in a class, in a small group, or with a friend who is searching.
Be counted in public with the hundreds of thousands who are standing as Charlie stood: light in a dark world..
Now is the time for your commitment to be bold, because now it is your turn.
Some news stops you in your tracks. The brutal murder of Charlie Kirk has done just that.
Thirty-one. You shouldn’t have to speak of someone that young in the past tense. He had so much still ahead of him. A husband to Erika, a father to two beautiful young children — a three-year-old girl and an eighteen-month-old boy. A man of courage, conviction, and hope. A man who could have gone on to even greater things, perhaps even to the very top of political life.
For those who don’t know, Charlie spent more than a decade visiting university campuses around the world, standing before young people and inviting them into open debate. He challenged prevailing orthodoxies with courage, often beginning with the words “prove me wrong,” not to provoke, but to persuade.
But what struck so many was not only his boldness, but his winsome spirit — he could disagree firmly while still engaging with warmth, conviction, and even humour. Charlie was more than just a man with a microphone. He was a watchman of our culture — keeping alert, calling out danger, pointing us back to the truth rooted in God’s Word, which alone gives life and light in dark times. He stood as a courageous voice in an age when so many feel the pressure to self-censor and remain silent.
For that courage, he paid the ultimate price.
Like Martin Luther King in his time, Charlie Kirk became a target precisely because he stood boldly, peacefully, and persuasively against the spirit of the age. And as with King, his death is a warning — that when words are misbranded as violence, violence becomes the answer. If bullets settle arguments, democracy dissolves into raw power.
The grief is sharp. His widow now faces the impossible task of explaining to two toddlers why their father isn’t coming home. But the even greater horror is seeing some celebrate his death online. That is not politics — it is dehumanization, and it poisons every corner of public life.
Charlie Kirk’s values are CitizenGO’s values: the sanctity of life, the centrality of the family, the defense of free speech, and the conviction that faith and moral truth are the foundation of real freedom. That is why silence is not an option.
Erika tweeted Psalm 46:1: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”
A reminder that even when the nations rage and the mountains tremble, God has not abandoned us. Charlie lived by that truth. He knew that speaking God’s Word in a hostile world would invite hostility, but he trusted that the Lord would be his refuge. That same promise now holds Erika and their children in grief - and it must hold us too.
But grief alone is not enough. Silence will only embolden those who believe bullets can bury truth. Charlie’s death unmasks a society where debate is replaced by intimidation, and where even campuses — meant to be bastions of inquiry — are ruled by mobs and fear. Cancel culture has mutated from hashtags to homicide.
If violence is allowed to replace argument, no viewpoint is safe. Political violence harms everyone: left, right, and center. Tomorrow, it could be a progressive professor - or you.
Charlie Kirk’s values are CitizenGO’s values: free speech, life, family, and faith. If his killers thought they could silence those values, they were wrong. The only way to honor Charlie’s sacrifice is to multiply his courage - to declare that Christian and pro-family voices will not be driven from the public square.
Charlie’s death leaves us with a choice. We can shrink back, let fear rule us, and allow violence to dictate who may speak. Or we can take up the mantle Charlie carried — to stand unarmed but unafraid, speaking truth in love, no matter the cost.
Charlie believed with all his heart that truth does not stay buried. It can be crucified, but it rises again. Darkness strikes, but light returns. As he often said, “Jesus defeated death so that you might live.” That hope is stronger than bullets, stronger than hatred, stronger than fear.
And hope is contagious. Every signature on this pledge tells Erika and her children they are not alone. Every name rebukes those celebrating his murder. Every voice strengthens believers, students, and families tempted to fall silent.
This is how we turn mourning into mission. As the old saying goes: “They tried to bury us, but they didn’t know we were seeds.”
Charlie’s death must not be an ending, it must be the seed of a greater revival of courage.
