Paul Random

Has your pastor mentioned the Charlie Kirk assassination? If not, did you ask why not?

Those in the church who have ignored the horrific, culture-shaping event are reportedly citing a variety of reasons but one more than most – not wanting to bring politics into the pulpit.

Only such a rationale reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of not only who the late Turning Point USA founder was, but also what motivated his effort, and how Christians are called to engage culture.

Charlie Kirk, who accepted Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Savior at the age of five, often talked about how we needed to care and advocate for good government. He believed this because our personal welfare is tied to the welfare of the nation. Kirk would cite the Old Testament prophets Daniel, Elijah, Jeremiah, and Moses praying and advocating for their nations.   

“In fact, Moses was so political that he wrote an entire book of the Torah all about how to set up a government,” reflected Kirk. “It’s the book of Deuteronomy. The Bible is an explicitly political text amongst many other things.”

Pastors who ignore events they fear are framed by politics might be conflating partisanship with policy itself. It’s one thing to champion a person and a whole other to advocate for specific issues in the light of our Christian faith and convictions.

When a high-profile Christian is literally gunned down on a college campus for advocating for biblically sound doctrine, it’s the heavy responsibility of pastors to help congregants understand the difficult circumstances and how to process it all as believers.

It was Jesus who said, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:10). He also warned, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you” (John 15:18). The apostle Paul likewise cautioned, “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Timothy 3:12).

Persecution and hatred can take on many forms in the year 2025. Charlie Kirk suffered the ultimate offense, but evilness and wickedness manifest in other ways ranging from criticism to censorship to alienation.

But silence on what happened in Utah threatens to communicate either an indifference or a dangerous disconnect between what we believe and how we implement what we believe in the public square.

“Christ called us to be salt and light,” urged Kirk. “We as Christians should change the environment that we come in contact with by changing the government to be more Christ-like.”

Is that political? Yes. Is it partisan? No.

Charlie Kirk had the temerity to bring his faith into his politics. We should possess and demonstrate that same degree of courage.

Image from Shutterstock.

Wednesday’s New York Times includes a curious but telling headline: “Jimmy Kimmel, Somber but Defiant, Defends Free Speech in Return to ABC.”

The previously suspended late-night comic had been taken off the air for suggesting the “MAGA gang” was “desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.”

Kimmel had also accused President Trump and his supporters of “working very hard to capitalize on the murder.”

Days of additional controversy ensued with various people coming to the host’s defense, if not agreeing with him outright, at least suggesting he had a right to say it.

One major problem: Jimmy Kimmel certainly has his First Amendment rights, but that doesn’t mean his employer, ABC, must provide him with a platform to say whatever he wants to say.

Nevertheless, network executives relented and welcomed him back to the airwaves on Tuesday night. Kimmel’s first show included a pseudo-apology along with additional commentary on free speech.

The New York native said his previous comments were “ill-timed, or unclear, or maybe both.” He also stated, “It was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man.”

Kimmel then pivoted and observed, “This show is not important. What’s important is that we get to live in a country that allows us to have a show like this.”

He’s certainly right on the first point, but many might quibble with the second.

But the politicization and weaponization of late-night television overall begs the question:

Aren’t comedians supposed to be funny?

Late-night television comedy might only date to the beginnings of the medium itself, but the art of making people laugh for a living goes back well beyond the 1940s. Ancient Greece had its satirical plays, and ancients Romans were known for their slapstick. There were medieval court jesters and then later on, Shakespearian comedies. Mark Twain, though best known as a writer, was also something of a stand-up comic. Then came vaudeville, radio comedies and movies.

Steve Allen is credited with being the first modern-day late-night comedian. He was followed by Jack Parr and then Johnny Carson. Hosting the Tonight Show for nearly 30 years, Carson, the former magician-turned-comic, has long been considered the gold-standard for the genre.

Comedy is subjective, of course, and Christians are wise to navigate it thoughtfully and carefully. It was the apostle Paul who warned believers, “Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving” (Eph. 5:4). He also said we’re to be extremely discerning with what we consume. Writing to the church at Philippi, he cautioned, “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (4:8).

Instead of being so focused on free speech, maybe today’s comedians should be focused on what’s funny. Rather than trying to tear people down with a humorless harangue, about trying lift people with wholesome humor?

Christians looking to laugh might want to check out such comics as Jeff Allen, Ken Davis, Chonda Pierce, Nate Bargatze, John Crist, Tim Hawkins, Jonnie W., Mike Goodwin and Michael Jr.

You can be sure those nine comedians won’t spend a good portion of their show in a “somber and defiant” posture but instead making you laugh as comedians are supposed to do.

Image from Getty.

It was the Irish author and playwright Oscar Wilde who famously wrote, “Life imitates art far more than art imitates life” – a prescient observation considering new details that emerged last week regarding the thwarted assassination attempt of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in 2022.

You’ll remember that it was back on June 8 of that year when Nicholas Roske showed up on the justice’s home street in Chevy Chase, Maryland. Carrying a gun, a knife, and a backpack full of gear, the Californian came intending to kill Justice Kavanaugh.

His motive?

Roske was incensed with the leaked news that a majority of the Supreme Court was planning to overturn Roe v. Wade.

In a court filing released Friday in which prosecutors are seeking a 30 year sentence for the would-be assassin, we read:

“The defendant’s objective — to target and kill judges to seek to alter a court’s ruling — is an abhorrent form of terrorism and strikes at the core of the United States Constitution and our prescribed system of government.”

In the filing, we also read of Roske’s plans to kill other justices. The details are chilling:

In the spring of 2022, the defendant meticulously researched, planned, and attempted to assassinate at least one — but had a stated target of three — sitting judges of the United States Supreme Court. The defendant’s explicit objective was to single-handedly alter the Constitutional order for ideological ends. . . . The defendant’s own words show that the defendant was “shooting for 3” assassinations. Roske researched the Associate Justice [Kavanaugh] extensively, searching approximately 27 times, including by name and the Associate Justice’s home address.

While prosecutors didn’t name the other justices being targeted for assassination, it’s clear that Roske had done his homework:

Roske researched Justice 2 extensively, approximately 16 times, including Justice 2’s home address . . . Roske researched Justice 3 extensively, approximately 10 times, including Justice 3’s home address. . . . On May 28, 2022, Roske searched “justice home.” . . . On June 1, 2022, Roske searched Justice 4 extensively, approximately 9 times, including Justice 4’s home address…On that same day, June 1, 2022, Roske searched, “mark locations on google maps.” . . . Roske also searched, “has a supreme court justice ever been assassinated.” . . . Roske’s Google accounts also contained a saved map with a “modified date” of June 4, 2022, plotting the locations of the four justices’ homes that Roske had researched on a map.

If the horror of an assassin targeting Supreme Court justices in order to swing the ideological makeup sounds all too familiar, you might have read a version of this in John Grisham’s 1992 legal thriller, The Pelican Brief.

In that novel, which was eventually turned into a movie starring Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington, two Supreme Court justices are killed on the same night. It’s all intended to move the court away from its environmental majority in order to help an oil tycoon drill in a protected area populated by pelicans.

Thankfully for Justice Kavanaugh and other justices, any similarity with the fictional movie didn’t go any farther than the initial plot line. The would-be Justice Kavanaugh assassin confessed his plans and was taken into custody. The unevenness and sickness of the individual was further revealed last week when it was announced Roske is now claiming to be a woman.

But the emerging assassin culture that’s been developing in recent years is a haunting reflection of a sickening culture. In this evilness, differences aren’t settled – dissenters are silenced. Whether hatred for Justice Kavanaugh’s legal reasoning, President Trump’s “Make America Great Again” agenda, or Charlie Kirk’s temerity of bringing his faith into the public square and public policy, these radicals justify their violence.

Tragically, radicals are trying to normalize violence in exchange for advancing political objectives. The Pelican Brief ends with the conspiracy being exposed. It’s our ongoing prayer that any and all evil and evildoers lurking in society’s shadows will be likewise exposed and thwarted.