A (21:25)
Charlie said on that podcast there's something alarmingly dramatic happening. And he shared on that podcast that he wanted people to know the joy that he felt as a husband, as a, you know, a father, as a follower of Jesus Christ. And ultimately that's why they killed him. If Charlie had stuck to his econ nerdy speeches, I think he would still be here with us today. He'd be helping people, no doubt, but he wouldn't have been the huge threat to the evil in this world that wants people to be miserable, that doesn't want them to starve families and takes absolute delight in a culture of death. The Enemy took Charlie out when his voice for Jesus and family got too loud, when young people started following his example. There's tons of stories on the Internet of young men who said they quit porn because Charlie called them to living a higher standard. There's Internet filled with young women who said they've abandoned destructive feminist lies and decided that they too wanted to get married and have children because of Charlie and his witness. The Internet is filled with stories of young people who've veered off the path to hell and now have given their lives to Jesus Christ because of Charlie. I mean, churches were packed across the country last week with young people. So what did the Enemy do? They took him out. And for one dark moment, they laughed. They laughed. I don't know if you saw a video of me. I was actually on a campus. Charlie and I had texted the day before about Amfest and things like that. And I attempt some pictures of students who are excited to meet him on a college campus. But I was actually at the University of Montana doing the exact same thing as Charlie when he was shot. And there's footage. And we were filming this as we normally do. And for two hours, I've had students surrounding me. The Montana schools don't fail to disappoint with the angry people. I think this is why we need to build a wall around California. I think I've said it before, but they're ruining Montana. I had so many people upset that I said this to the University of Montana because Montanans are pissed to see this happening to their state. But anyway, for two hours, I had students debating with me that human life didn't matter. That fine, even if it was a human, it's life doesn't matter because of the convenience of the mother, how the mother feels or perceives the baby. I had one adult man who. I don't know if he was a TA or whatever. He was definitely not, like, living in the dorms, student on a bike, like, f them babies, kill them all. And that was just like when we were setting up, right? So for two hours, I had been having this open debate with over 100 students about abortion and why human life is valuable, innately valuable, that everyone's viable. And when I told them, my phone went off. I saw that Charlie had been shot. I didn't know how bad it was. No idea. I stayed on campus for about 45 minutes afterwards until it got too emotionally painful and my husband found out what happened and demanded I got off. But as soon as I told the students what happened, their first initial gut filmed reaction was to laugh and cheer. Charlie Kirk was just shot at his campus in Utah. Why are you laughing? I can't think of a better example that we are living in a culture of death than what happened at the University of Montana. Know you're laughing. So today when we were setting up, someone said, those babies, kill them all. That's what. And you laughed again. The devil, evil sh. Shrieked that day with victory when Charlie was shot 100%. And the culture of death cheered. Now, I would say if, you know, in the days I've had to think about. About what happened after Charlie was shot and I. I put the video up right online. I told my team even before we knew Charlie had passed away, get this video up. I want the world to see what people did and how they react. I want to show that evil right. Thinking back to why they did it, because certainly there wasn't peer pressure. They. I mean, they. I mean, maybe some of them, once they saw their friends laughing, they laughed or they cheered, but that was their initial reaction. Like the cameras were on their faces. Why did they do it? And I think at the end of the day, politics has become the God of this generation. For many of this generation, this generation, those in Gen Z who are not Christian, who do not believe in a point to this life or a point to suffering or a point to our existence. And it kind of all started with Barack Obama. I will tell you this, and many of you are listening were like, wait, what? I was a toddler when President Obama was president. So President Obama is a follower of a man named Saul Linsky. Saul Linsky was a radical community organizer in Chicago back in the day, I think like 50s, 60s, maybe. He actually dedicated his book to Lucifer, the first radical. Just FYI, Hillary Clinton did one of our college dissertations on Saulinsky. But Saul Alinsky has these principles for how do you change culture? How do you mobilize people? How do you produce transformative change when you're outnumbered? The book's called Rules for Radicals. You should get it. I have a copy of it up here. Then in the book, one of the biggest principles that President Obama, I mean, he used all the principles you could see all the time when he was president, was pitting haves against have nots. You can't. The principle in Saulinski and rules radicals is you're Never going to actually achieve change until you pit neighbor against neighbor. You find something that somebody has that somebody else wants. And President Obama did that. And we had this. Our first black American president. We were also to be excited about that. And what did that do to race relations in our country? Made them substantially worse. You want to know why the 2016 election was so mean and nasty? You can thank President Obama. It all started during this and this generation. If you reject God, you're going. You're going to make a God of something. We all know that. That's. The human brain is wired to make a God of something. If you don't serve the God who spoke the universe into existence, you're going to serve something. And they serve politics. And all they've ever seen, all many of you have ever seen, is an America of a very divided America. And so I think I'm trying to give the best intentions to what I saw, this evil right of, you know, because I. I know all these students aren't evil. But the evil that I saw come out of them, I think was really because Charlie was the enemy of their God. Their God being liberal democratic progressive politics. Charlie was an enemy of that. And the enemy of their God was. Was killed, was defeated. And so they cheered completely, not thinking about his humanity. I'm sure many of those students in that video probably regret what they did. I hope they do by now. Hopefully they don't get jobs one day, but I think that, I think that's part of it. And that's why, you know, our fall campus tour, Students for Life America that we're going to 160 campuses is the Every Life is Valuable tour is so appropriate. Right? This is something that, I mean, it's a prophetic title that every human life is valuable. Charlie Kirk's life was valuable. The child in the womb's life is valuable. I think that's why he was why they laughed. And I certainly know why Satan wanted him dead. But here's the deal. Satan is really bad at math. He didn't calculate the risk of what he was going to do when he whispered in that sniper's ear and told him to take the shot. He was calculating with this lady's math. The best part of this whole goddamn thing is that he is not martyr material. So his death will mean nothing. It will activate no one. It will impact few. It's just great. If you'd like me to make a little commercial, once again, why TikTok is the worst of humanity, I'd be happy to do that that's the math that Satan was doing. But, oh, he was wrong again. If you haven't been paying attention in the last week and a half since Charlie died, the impact Charlie was having during his life has been multiplied by orders of magnitude, multiplied. Tens of thousands of young people have been inspired by Charlie's example, and they're giving their life to Jesus. They're rejecting Satan. Churches are packed, as I said earlier. Nonprofits are recommitting in their fight to life. We had, you know, Turning Point saying over like 30,000 students have want to start a chapter. We've had dozens of new chapter leads at Students for Life, and no one's talking about Students for Life in the news, but people are saying, I, I've been following you forever. I know you're right. And I have to be like Charlie Kirk. I have to live like Kirk. Death had its moment, for sure. Many of us saw it. But life will always have the last word. And so I promise you today, every part of our work will become greater. I am tremendously honored to be the new CEO of Turning Point usa. So where do we go from here? We know Charlie left this incredible legacy and he's passed the baton, right? But where do each of us go from here? I think first thing, we have to grieve. I think this is important. You can't skip this part. Anyone who talks about grieving knows it's important to grieve when you've experienced a loss. Grieve and mourn and pray and process. I personally knew Charlie, and I'm grieving the loss of a friend. I'm grieving the loss of my friend's husband. I think there's many people far and wide, though, who are sharing in the grief. Even though they've never met Charlie and they're reporting, this feels like the death of the close friend. I don't understand. This feels different. I never met him. My husband's one of those people. I think it's because Charlie was us. Charlie would say things that we were thinking in our heads. And even though we never met Charlie, many of us, right, even though you might not have met him, he was one of us. He was one of you. The invisible world around us is just as real as our physical world. We know this as Christian and the invisible world, spiritual world. We are one body in Christ. In the invisible world, evil is fighting a war for our souls at every moment of every day. I think why so many feel this loss so personally is because even though they didn't fight shoulder to shoulder with Charlie in a physical way. They've been fighting along with him. Spiritually, they were fighting. You have been fighting with him, looking to him for leadership, for guidance in this battle for the soul of our country, to make America great again. Even those who were not yet believers but have been searching for truth found a kindred spirit in Charlie because they saw Charlie as a truth seeker, Catholic apologist and our friend at student's wife, Trent Horn. Shared quote When I found out Charlie had been shot and then he died, I felt like a lieutenant colonel had just found out that the general had been killed in battle. But Charlie didn't believe in battling or vilifying people. He believed, as the Bible says, in battling ideas. If you're feeling Charlie's loss in a deeply personal way, I want you to know you're not alone. And there's a reason for that. It's because you're supposed to carry on his legacy. Hey Pro Life Jen, are you ready to boldly stand for life in 2026? It's all on the line. And now courage is needed more than ever before. I want to see you at the 2026 National Pro Life Summit on Saturday, January 24th at the Grand Hyatt in Washington, DC. That's just the day after the National Pro Life March. Right now you can lock in an early bird discount, $20 off a ticket when you use the code EB20 at checkout. But don't wait because the special is going to end on Halloween. So. So it's EB20 at checkout. You'll save $20 off your student ticket to the 2026 National Pro Life Summit. We're going to be announcing more speakers in the coming months, but we're already thrilled to say that Brett Cooper of the Brett Cooper Show, Nick Friedis, Shane Winnings will be joining us amongst other leaders. This is the top pro life training event of the year in the entire world. So make sure you reserve your spot at Pro Life. Be a part of the pro Life Generation in 2026 and join us for what will be a sold out 2026 National Pro Life Summit. So I'm gonna give you three tangible things you can do. Next steps 1. Get your life in order. Clean house. You cannot give what you do not have. If you want to bring truth and love to the world like Charlie did, you have to possess truth and love. So you have to get your relationship with God right. That means overcoming addictions, reconciling broken relationships, forgiving people who've hurt you in your past. Get into a regular routine of prayer and church attendance. Give up the people or the things that lead you into sin. That's number one. Get your house clean. I think, you know, it's very clear. And as many of us will never face what Charlie faced, the death threats, I mean, I get some interesting ones, but you won't. Won't get these ones right. You're not at risk for being assassinated with a rifle bullet, but you're not promised tomorrow. None of us are. I think that's why a lot of young people are dealing with this, and for the first time, this loss and this grief, because many young people have never lost somebody in this such tragic way. A young person in a tragic way, somebody who's their age or maybe a little older. And it hurts. It hurts different than the loss of a grandparent or a great grandparent who's lived a long, prosperous, happy life. It hurts. It hurts different. Second, love the people in your own home. You love God as much as the person you love the least. For most of us, the people that we have the hardest time loving sometimes are those in our own families, our inner circle. You will not be able to love the stranger on the street unless you love those in your family. Well, we saw this in Charlie's life. How much love and genuine care and compassion he had for broken or hateful people who came up to debate him on campus always asked their names. He always told the crowd not to mock those who are clearly wounded. If you want to love strangers like Charlie did, love your family first. Something Erica said in her public address that was heartbreaking is that Charlie asked his wife every day, how can I be a better husband to you? The Kirk family kept the Sabbath. They put away devices, giving each other the full attention for the day. He loved fiercely his wife and his family. If you love fiercely in your home and your family, you will love fiercely the least of these, those whom you meet on the street. And I think the third thing you can do is not be afraid. If you've cleaned your spiritual house and you love your household, now you are ready to get out there and evangelize. And your hero who did this was just assassinated. So it's time to practice some courage, guys. Charlie was asked in an interview just this past June how he wanted to be remembered if he died. And he said, quote, for courage, for.