Take the torch forward. Charlie Kirk’s assassination resonates with a kind of timeless horror, not just as a brutal, ideological killing of a “good and faithful servant” – devoted to Christ and lifting hearts – but for other reasons.
Those reasons dog us, refuse to quiet themselves. They lie just below the surface, just out of sight, but are swirling still. We know Charlie’s killing was an attempt to suppress his message, to block free speech in America, to suppress core freedoms.
Days later, I look out my window at trees alive with fluttering green leaves, soon to go bright, mesmerizing us with God’s grandeur, later to carpet the forest floor.
Making sense of what makes no sense, reconciling the horror of a leader’s loss – a moral leader’s loss – is not easy. It has happened before, but it is never easy.
Beyond the Bible, there is no manual for understanding how to bring closure, some positive outcome, from an assassination rooted not in madness but hate.
Many verses in the Bible console. Words from those who have suffered a similar event do that too. They remind us we are not alone. These things happen, evil like a viper strikes, but it also galvanizes generations to fight it.
When Lincoln was assassinated in 1865, hundreds of sermons put fresh conviction in the hearts of Americans. One noted: “The only consolation we have is, in some mysterious way, the death of Abraham Lincoln will work a greater result than his life…The best result we can foresee is the merciless extinguishment of the sentiment” behind the assassination.
This same resolution is heard in Charlie Kirk’s wife, Ericka: “The evildoers responsible for my husband’s assassination have no idea what they have done…If you thought that my husband’s mission was powerful before, you have no idea. You have no idea what you have just unleashed across this entire country.”
Likewise, the night Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968, Robert F. Kennedy spoke to hundreds from a flatbed truck: “We can move in that direction as a country, greater polarization…filled with hatred toward one another. Or we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand…to comprehend, and replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand…compassion, and love.”
Referencing his own brother’s assassination, he quoted Aeschylus…
“Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget
falls drop by drop upon the heart,
until, in our own despair,
against our will,
comes wisdom
through the awful grace of God.“
“What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence and lawlessness, but is love, and wisdom, and compassion toward one another…”
He asked for prayers. He was assassinated two months later. But those deaths, JFK, MLK, and RFK, created revulsion for political violence until the 2020s.
What is different now, and what demands elevated commitment to what Charlie Kirk was doing, is the political left’s willingness – in large numbers – to celebrate violence. They have pushed it, boldly reverted to it, and tried to justify it.
Celebrating the death of a good man – is pure evil. Why does this event linger? Because it represents an epiphany: Forces are at work in America that reveal truth, that disdain Christianity, and that hate those who practice both, like us.
What worries me is not the long term. God prevails in the long term. What worries me now is the dehumanization that is being met only by a few. The left pushes violence, coldness of heart, and silence. Like Charlie, we must speak out.
They misunderstand history. They are acting like the Brownshirts in 1930s Germany and the Bolsheviks in early 1900s Russia, trying to impose fear. When a nation loses its compass, the rest follow – security, prosperity, humanity.
The people who celebrate Kirk’s death, the ideological left, are evil. They aim to undermine the Bill of Rights, Christianity, Judaism, and Western Civilization. That is why Charlie Kirk was killed – and why we must stand now. We cannot let those forces silence us. Knowing we must do this is an epiphany for some. But let us gather our strength on Charlie’s example, and take the torch forward.
Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, Maine attorney, ten-year naval intelligence officer (USNR), and 25-year businessman. He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (North Country Press, 2018), and “Cherish America: Stories of Courage, Character, and Kindness” (Tower Publishing, 2024). He is the National Spokesman for AMAC. Today, he is running to be Maine’s next Governor (please visit BobbyforMaine.com to learn more)!
Great article.
Charlie wasn’t killed because of his political stance.
He was killed because of his belief in God and because he wanted evey young person to share those beliefs.
The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy.
RBC, GREAT ANALOGY with your article today. God is in control of everything whether good or evil and all is used to advance the agenda that He has for His Creation. We, as His Creation, do not fully understand what happens, we do know the final outcome through his Word. Lord Jesus stated the End Time would as it was in the days of Noah. We see many people turning to man’s way rather than following God. Time is definitely getting short before the Great Tribulation begins to finish Daniel’s 70 weeks (of years). Turn back to God and Jesus before it’s too late.
Words matter. What caused this assassin to want to do his evil deed was he was reading words that misdefined Charlie Kirk. Words like homophobe, racist, and fascist. Charlie was none of those as anyone who has listened to him knows. He was full of love and cheer and wanted dialogue.
Many young people with, as Rush described them, minds full of mush, are believing those ugly words about Kirk. I don’t know how we get through to them. They have no interest in dialogue the way Charlie did.
Did you ever try to argue with a young brainwashed kid or with a mature liberal? Impossible. As soon as you say anything that does not fit a mantra of their brainwashed minds, they say, “I don’t want to talk about it.” Then if you tell them something any informed person knows that does not fit their prejudice, they say, “I never heard that. Where did you hear that?” And it never occurs to them to wonder why they never heard of something that has been common knowledge for a while. And, worse, they NEVER bother to look it up to check to see if what you said is correct.
Mostly I worry about those kids who are brainwashed and closed minded. Will we ever get them back?
WE ARE CHARLIE!
The LEFT cannot defend any of its positions with truth or common sense. Therefore, they must snuff out [literally] the opposition. They are demonic in their positions and behavior. We have all sinned but we don’t all glory in it!
Half of this country is in deep mourning. The other half is dancing in the street. Over the same tragedy, the assassination of Charlie Kirk. We who mourn our hearts are heavy. For his wife and his two small children who will never know their daddy. What are those dancing in the streets feel. Euphoria over the death of a human being. Are they happy? Do they feel warmth from their fellow dancers? I think not. Most of those dancing were dancing alone. They have no friends. There is no love on the left, no friends. Only on their cell phones. But those are not the friends that will cry with you or celebrate with you. They are only there when hatred needs to discussed. Like the killer of Charlie said hate cannot be discussed. He thought he was going to get away with it. Because he used Grandpa’s rifle. Did he really think the FBI wouldn’t connect it back to him? Grandpa wasn’t jumping off that roof. And this huge divide is what is wrong here in America. Can it be bridged. Not today or tomorrow. The left accuses the right of what they are doing themselves. They are the tyrants of the 21st century. Bent on destroying America and its people. By lies, brainwashing, manipulation and grooming vulnerable young men to become radical. From Obama and Biden on down with the MSM abetting. It has to stop. How? Maybe a huge rally like in London this past weekend. Maybe Charlie’s sacrifice will empower more younger generations to turn back to religion, love and common sense. I pray for this to happen, it has to or America and its people are destroyed forever.
My heart goes out to Ericka Kirk and the now-fatherless children. It’s heartbreaking and nothing short of tragic. May God place His comforting hands upon them and bring closure/justice. It’s time these evildoers who attempt (and at times succeed) to violently silence conservatives “to save democracy” take a punch in the gut and a trip to the execution chamber. It’s the only way to get the message across.
Great bit of writing you did here Robert, in ” Take the Torch Forward ” – this article is the spirit to look to. Thought that the paragraph from John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address , with the term
“… the Torch has been passed …” would be in order
From. 20 January 1961 – ” We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution. Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans – born in this century,tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this Nation has always been committed and to which we are committed today at home and around the world .”
For the Next Generation ahead ALL
What the radical Marxist left-wing did was create a martyr! And another 10,000 Charlie kirks. They cannot kill all of us. There is no question that their message is the message of Satan. When you can’t win the argument you kill the person you’re arguing with. Anyone that belongs to the Democrat party after that is as guilty as a guy that pulled the trigger. There is no such thing as a good Democrat if you identify with the party you agree with their violence. Otherwise you walk away from the party. If you don’t agree with Republicans and be an independent but abandon the Democrat party they are the epitome of evil and they just proved it
I appreciate the article and all the comments, but my comment is this— When is the action against all this Bad Rhetoric going to take place? I hope that after Charlie’s service we see a whirlwind of action all over this Great country. That people will show up in unequaled numbers backing up all the sorrow we have seen this last week.
Very well said.
Let your light so shine …that men may see your good works and glorify your Father in Heaven. Charlie Kirk believed there was something better. We are all better off for his having lived.
O Lord. Thy Ways are full of mystery.
Last week, I was thinking about my life without my husband of 48 years and confronting the frailties of my body. Hubby and I have always leaned upon the Lord for guidance. Last Monday, as I read over the Amac Newsline articles and comments, an idea formed in my mind. I wanted to write responces to articles everyday. I wanted to stop being silent. I wanted to call out the politicians’ tricks. Two days later, Charlie Kirk was shot. And everything crystalized.
The First Amendment has been a shining beacon to me since I could make my own decisions. It was obvious that Charlie Kirk was also passionate about the First Amendment. With Charlie no longer here, I felt the need to step up. And that is what I plan to do. Charlie left a rich collection of examples. I can use those.
Brave shoulders go into battle with a gun. Charlie with love went into battle with words. Cowards with hate combat words with a gun.
Charlie cannot be replaced, as each of us is unique, but another will come forward to carry his message, maybe one of those he has influenced.
He could have been assassinated for what appeared to be him changing his views of Israel.
Ironic, the left wants to do away with the very tool they use to silence the right, maybe we should oblige them and the killing will stop, but I doubt it.