Saturday Good Reads: In Memoriam Charlie Kirk

I had a whole set of links planned and ready for this edition of Saturday Good Reads, and then Wednesday happened. 

I didn’t know Charlie Kirk personally. I followed him on Instagram, in news reports, and on other social media. I was amazed at his steel-trap mind; he could talk with anyone, anywhere, on an any issue. He could be firm, but he never went in for ad hominem attacks; he attacked the argument, not the person making it. 

 

He also made no secret of his faith in Christ. So many of us wondered why we felt his death so deeply and personally. It’s because Charlie Kirk was a member of the Body of Christ.

 

As the news reports of his shooting poured in, and then the news of his death, where should my thoughts go but to Facebook.

 

I try to avoid politics as much as I can on Facebook and other social media. I post book reviews, faith-based poems, and photographs, usually of the flowers in my garden and the sky. Or historical things we’ve seen in England. Or the Missouri Botanical Gardens and Shaw’s Nature Reserve. 

 

I have a number of friends, Christian friends, who do not avoid politics. They rage about politics. Or, more precisely, they rage about Donald Trump. The rage is outsized, vicious, and all-consuming. I’m somewhat amazed that people who say they hate the man don’t see how much he’s come to dominate their thinking. Perhaps I should say they don’t see how much the image they’ve created of Donald Trump has come to dominate their thinking.

 

Lately, the rage has been extended to the people who support Donald Trump. It’s classic objectification – separating these “MAGA people” from the rest of humanity and ascribing to them various negative characteristics. President Biden did this when he was in the White House. Objectification is how Europe ended up with a Holocaust. 

 

And this is how we end up with the murder of people like Charlie Kirk. 

 

Language matters. Words matter. Before you repost something vicious and exaggerated from Occupy Democrats, some ignorant thread on Reddit or Blue Sky, and similar sources on Facebook, consider that you’re contributing to the normalization, and embrace, of violence. 

 

And this is far more widespread on the left than on the right. 

 

You need to keep it out of my news feeds. I’m done with tolerating it. Simply done.

 

American Stuff

 

Charlie Kirk believed in free speech. He died for it – Jacob Heilbrun at The Spectator.

 

The Charlie Kirk I Knew – Adam Rubenstein at The Free Press.

 

Charlie Kirk is dead. And I and sad (sad and angry) – Stephen McAlpine. 

 

The Assassination of Charlie Kirk – Rod Dreher. 

 

The Assassination of Charlie Kirk and the Fight for America’s Soul – Ben Shapiro at The Free Press.

 

Charlie Kirk saw himself as holding back revolution – Ben Domenech at The Spectator.

 

A La Carte: Charlie Kirk Special Edition – Tim Challies (links to various statements by theologians and religious figures)

 

Charlie Kirk Wasn’t Just Assassinated; He Was Martyred – Kylee Griswold at The Federalist.

 

‘Ugliest Moment I Ever Witnessed’: House Dems Object to Prayer for Charlie Kirk – Leif Le Mahieu at Daily Wire.

 

This Will Turn Us into Radicals – Melissa Edgington at Your Mom Has a Blog.

 

How Great the Chasm That Lay Between Us – Samuel D. James at Digital Liturgies.

 

Twitter Files: The Muzzling of Charlie Kirk – Matt Taibbi at Racket News.

 

Statement by the Vice President – J.D. Vance on X.

 

Je Suis Charlie – editorial by The Free Press.

 

Photograph: Charlie Kirk at the 2025 Student Action Summit in Tampa, Florida. Photo by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and Wikipedia.