The Charlie Kirk Effect

“The Charlie Kirk effect”. I’ve begun to see this term thrown around in the last week after Charlie Kirk, a very outspoken Christian and a young conservative leader in the US, was assassinated during an event in Utah last Wednesday. Already over the last few years, there has been a significant movement, especially among young men, towards conservatism. Along with that has come a greater openness among some to Christian faith. Charlie Kirk (along with others) was instrumental in that movement. However, it seems that his killing might be accelerating the shift. Apparently, the organization that Kirk founded, Turning Point USA, has had close to 40,000 requests for new chapters on high school and college campuses in the past week. Previous to Kirk’s death, they had a presence on about 3,500 campuses. There were also numerous stories from this past weekend about churches that were packed to the brim and anecdotal evidence of people announcing that because of last week’s tragedy, they were going to church for the first time in their life. Personally, I had numerous conversations on Sunday with people who had decided to make significant steps towards Christian faith since the news.

What’s going on here? What is it about Charlie Kirk’s assassination that would drive some people to church? What is it about our cultural moment that is turning some young people towards Christian faith? There will be entire books written about these questions, but here’s one very short, simple answer: it is as the darkness grows darker that the source of light becomes clearer. Over the last number of years, as our culture has increasingly divorced itself from any transcendent foundations, its emptiness and hypocrisy has become more and more evident. The lies and deception have been exposed. I know that in our church that there are new Christians who considered Christian faith for the first time because they became aware of the darkness around them. Following that, they came to see that there was light in the world, and that it was coming from Christ. The distinction between darkness and light has become more significant in our day, resulting in some people tiring of the darkness and coming to Jesus. The assassination of Charlie Kirk and the celebratory reaction in some corners of culture is just one more example of that darkness that is driving some to the light. You don’t have to agree with all of Charlie Kirk’s policy positions to see that.

How do we respond to this, as the church? We’ve got to shine the light! As we said on Sunday, let’s ensure that we’re not conforming to the patterns of the world, but that we’re being transformed by the renewing of our minds. Let us respond to events like this not by growing angry and militant, nor by shrinking back out of fear. Let us resolve to continue sharing the Gospel and confidently pointing people to the life that comes through Jesus. In situations like this, I’m always reminded of the Jerusalem church’s response to persecution in Acts 4. They gather for prayer and ask that the Lord would give them boldness to speak His word, and that He would stretch out His hand to do signs and wonders through the name of Jesus. They’re not asking for God to strike their opponents down, and they’re not asking for the opposition to stop. They’re asking for boldness and for the power of the Spirit to continue making Jesus known through the church. That’s my prayer now too.

The Lord’s doing something right now. I feel that. I hear it in people’s stories. Even though the darkness is increasingly dark, the light of the world is shining as brightly as ever. It’s exciting to be a part of this. Let’s be praying that we really would be living sacrifices and that the Gospel would be made known through our counter-cultural, transformed life together.