On September 10, 2025, conservative activist Charlie Kirk was assassinated while engaging in one of

his popular open debate events at Utah Valley University. He survived by his wife, his two young

children, and a praiseworthy legacy of communicating the Christian worldview to a secular culture.

Today I want to honor Charlie's legacy and offer some thoughts that I think will be helpful for many of us who are mourning this tragedy.

First, I want to say that Charlie Kirk was a good man.

He was someone who embodied the idea of acting in good faith and was willing to charitably dialogue with those on the left who disagreed with him.

I met Charlie in January of this year when we were both

speaking at the Pro Life Summit in Washington, D.C. during the March for Life. We were hanging out in the speaker's room and Charlie said to me, I've seen your videos about me, I think they're great. And these included a video where I affirmed Charlie's defense of the pro-life view on Jubilee and a video where I was critical of his objections to Catholicism.

He told me, look, I think it's great when people defend and a defense of the pro-life view on Jubilee, and a video where I was critical of his objections

of Catholicism. He told me, look, I think it's great when people defend what they believe,

and he did not take any of my criticisms personally. We had a really good chat, and one of his friends

was in the process of setting up a longer dialogue between the two of us. I appreciated that while

Charlie did not agree with Catholicism

as a whole, he loved Catholics, and he valued many aspects of the Catholic faith. His wife is

Catholic, and he had recently been attending Mass with her. In a previous episode of Charlie Kirk's

podcast, he said that Protestants undervalue the Blessed Virgin Mary, and he saw her as an

antidote to the modern world's toxic feminism. But let me first say, I think we as Protestant

evangelicals under venerate Mary. She was very important. She was a vessel for our Lord and

Savior. I think that we as evangelicals and Protestants, we've overcorrected. We don't

talk about Mary enough. We don't venerate her enough. Mary was clearly important to early

Christians. There's something there. In fact, I believe one of the ways that we fix toxic

feminism in America is Mary is the solution. Have more young ladies be pious, be reverent,

...