Grieving the Charlie Kirk We'll Never Know

by

Charlie Kirk was cruelly cut down by an assassin’s bullet, leaving his loving wife and two kids traumatized and forsaken. He was among the roughly 18,000 people who are killed by gun violence in America every year.

 We rightly grieve the death of the Charlie Kirk who was: the Charlie Kirk we knew. But we also ought to grieve the Charlie Kirk who wasn’t yet: the Charlie Kirk we’ll never know.

 Charlie Kirk was a new Christian when he died. He was a secular humanist until about 2020. We’ll never know where his Christian journey might have taken him. He might well have come to embrace a much deeper love in Jesus, and grown out of the narrow fundamentalism in which his faith began. He was caring and kind toward his family and friends and followers. Following the Christ further, he might well have become compassionate and respectful toward immigrants, sexual and ethnic and religious minorities, and political liberals.

In the future that was horribly denied him, he might well have had encounters with people who could have broken him free from his prejudices and inspired him to ask for forgiveness for the cruel insults and divisive rhetoric of his past. He might have met the Christ in people he once demonized. He might have made amends and put his remarkable communication skills and personal charisma into the service of bringing Americans together. His conversion was just beginning, and we’ll never know how it would have unfolded.

The assassin stole Charlie Kirk’s present life. And with it he stole his future, which could very well have been much different than his past.

Let us lay aside judging him for who he was, and instead open our hearts to grieve the loss of the person he could have become.