Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 1393 | A Year Without Charlie: What Christians Need to Remember

Starting point is 00:00:00 Demons right now and over the past year, they've been rejoicing. Satan has been glad that he took an effective soldier out of the fight, and everyone who follows Satan feels the same way. What an incredible honor. May we all, when we die, make the demons rejoice. May we all be so courageous and so bold and so effective and so faithful and so obedient to the Lord and so relentless in the pursuit of His glory, that when we die, all of God's enemies cheer. If the enemy's goal was to scare people and to silence, I think he failed. And that's what happens when you make a martyr. You emboldened everyone who believes like they do. This episode is brought to by Worldwatch. Go to worldwatch. News slash Alley or use code Alley to start

Starting point is 00:00:43 your 30-day free trial today. Hey, y'all, welcome to Relatable. Happy Wednesday. Hope everyone is having a wonderful day, a wonderful week so far. Well, this is a special episode. It's a somber episode because tomorrow marks the one year mark since Charlie Kirk was murdered on the campus. of Utah Valley University. And it's hard to believe that it's been a year in some ways I look back and I think this has gone by so quickly and in other ways it feels like a completely different lifetime. He was doing this American comeback tour. And I know from talking to those who were very close to Charlie how excited he was about this and how much he had been studying scripture and studying theology this Friday. We're going to have his very good friend and mentor,

Starting point is 00:01:39 Frank Turrick on the show to talk a little bit more about that. Talk about a lot of things. But of course, Frank Turich was there in the car with Charlie trying to resuscitate him after he had been shot. So getting his perspective again, his thoughts on everything that have happened that has happened over the past year is going to be extremely insightful. And I think edifying too. But today I want to not only kind of relive that day a little bit. And I know that may sound morbid, but just to bring us back, to how it felt losing such a towering figure and to remember the encouragement that really is only possible through the Lord because he seems to work kind of paradoxically when you least expect it, how you least expect it, where you least expect it.

Starting point is 00:02:28 And just bring ourselves back to that moment of yes, feeling so sad, but also being strengthened by the reality that God's eternal plan of redemption really is going off without a hitch. We're going to look at some dark things, but I'm not going to leave us there. I'm not just going to lead us into the darkness, into the evil that went on then and what is going on now when it comes to opposition to Charlie and everything that he believed in. But I'm going to use it actually as a way to remind us of the spiritual battle that we're facing and the strength that we have through the Holy Spirit, the encouragement that we have even as we look to the darkness of the world. And first, I just, for those of you who haven't been following me maybe for very long, and you didn't see the memorial episode that we did about Charlie the day after he died. And so you haven't heard me kind of tell this story. But maybe just for my own sake, maybe it's kind of cathartic, but maybe it is for you. I just kind of want to take us back to what it was like for me in that moment when I got a text that Charlie Kirk had been shot on a college campus. I was driving to the, uh, doctor's appointment and I got a text from my publicist saying I just heard that Charlie Kirk has been shot. And at first, of course, you hear something that crazy and the first instinct that you have, the first feeling is just denial that that's probably not true. You know, you see something

Starting point is 00:03:54 on X. Things are said on X. Things are announced just to kind of stir up stripe or stir up paranoia. People want to be the first one to announce something crazy. So they probably exaggerate. And a situation, and that's at first what I thought was happening. And then my mind wouldn't even allow me to go to the possibility that this had been a fatal wound. The first thing I thought was, wow, he's been shot in the leg or shot in the arm or that's so crazy that someone actually went to that link to try to hurt Charlie. But of course, he's going to be okay. But then I continued to get tax saying, you know, actually, this seems pretty bad. I'm seeing some reports that it was in the head or neck. Okay. I still didn't want to believe that this was true. So I

Starting point is 00:04:35 I immediately called him in the car. I immediately called our mutual friend. And when our mutual friend picked up, he was just sobbing. And that's when I knew, okay, like, he's not just getting this information from X because he was closer to Charlie and to Andrew Colvat. And so he was actually hearing on the ground updates. Andrew Colvette wasn't there in person, but hearing from those closest to Charlie, what is actually happening.

Starting point is 00:05:04 And so it was confirmed through his reaction that this was real. And I still didn't know. We didn't know at that point. I mean, this was like right when it happened that I was getting these texts. We didn't know what the outcome would be. I still, my mind would not accept the fact that he was dead or that he could be dead. And I, but I immediately, I had to pull over into like a shopping center, into a parking spot. And I just started sobbing. Called my husband. told him what was going on and he was like, you need to just like, you need to turn around and you need to come home for a lot of reasons. One, something like this happens. It's kind of like when 9-11 happened and everyone who was in a major city thought, okay, I need to go home. Maybe I need to

Starting point is 00:05:48 get out of the major. You just don't know. When something shocking and tragic happens, you're like, is this the first of many? Is this some plot? You have no clue what's going on. Not only that, not only do you feel immediately vulnerable, especially those of us who are in the conservative commentator space and the Christian media space saying the things that are very controversial and that make you a target for these kind of people, you just immediately feel like, okay, I need to not be out in public. I need to be protected. That and I was extremely emotional.

Starting point is 00:06:21 I mean, this is the, I don't even know how to describe it. the strangest, like, experience of the death of a person I've ever had, the only person, thank the Lord in my life, who has died, has been my grandmother, my grandfather, and of course, I mourned over those that was very sad, but it wasn't shocking. It wasn't something that was grotesque. It wasn't something that was like, oh, my goodness, what does this mean for the world? It was something that is natural and that is expected when you're in old age that your life on earth eventually expires. This was untimely. This was in an evil way. It was in a violent way. It was in a public way. Immediately you're thinking about his wife and kids. What in the world is going on. So

Starting point is 00:07:06 overwhelmed with emotion, called my husband. Then I called my dad. And my dad, they were out of the country at this point. And so I remember we didn't have very good service. And I'm crying. And he's like, Ali, calm down, calm down. What's going on? You guys who watch my dad every other Saturday, you know that that's his demeanor. He is the person who is going to try to bring down the emotion and get to the point as quickly as possible. And I just told him, I said, Charlie, Charlie Kirk has been shot. We had just been talking about Charlie the day before. We had been talking about some decision that we were making in political media. And, you know, he was like, you should ask Charlie about that. And that's something that my dad did often. Whenever we were talking about something,

Starting point is 00:07:47 especially when it involved in politics, we all, you know, my husband, my dad and I all said, you know, we should text Charlie. We should see what Charlie thinks about this. He was that kind of person who so generously gave his wisdom and his help and his mentorship to so many people across the board. And so it was a surreal moment for him too. And he also encouraged me. You just, you need to go home. You need to go home. And so we went home. I remember I texted Andrew Colvette just saying like praying and texted our mutual friend just to give me up. because he was getting regular updates on what was going on. At one point, it was thought that he was going to make it for like a very brief point. I am, my husband and I, we were in the closet. We're just

Starting point is 00:08:33 sitting on the floor sobbing, praying our hearts out, praying not only for Charlie, but praying for this unimaginable shock and grief that Erica must be going through in this moment. There's been a lot of misinformation and back and forth about whether or not Erica and the kids were there. And if you're still confused about that. They were not there. They did not witness this happening. But of course, still, that doesn't change the absolute just devastation that she had to have been carrying in those moments when she got that call. And so thinking about all of these things, there was a small blip of hope that, oh, his heart is beating. Oh, he's breathing. He was able to be resuscitated. He's going to make it. But he was shot in the neck. And then it wasn't, I don't know.

Starting point is 00:09:18 I want to say it was maybe 10, 15 minutes later that I got a text from her mutual friend saying he's gone. I could not. Some days, I still cannot believe it. That's the thing that feels so surreal. It is all of the different things. It's not just that he died. People do die. It's very sad, but that's a result of living in our fallen world. People die in car accidents. People die in plane crashes, people die from cancer, people die from freak accidents and all kinds of things every single day. It was not just that. It was how he died. How in the world could this be possible? And that it wasn't just anyone, but it really was this huge figure in the world of Christian and conservative media, someone that I had talked to many times, someone who had sent me

Starting point is 00:10:08 encouragement, as he did to hundreds of people on a weekly basis, someone that I had done. I had just talked to recently about the state of the world and the woke church and all of these things that he, his life was snuffed out in such a wicked way. And the days and the weeks after that were so incredibly blurry and just overwhelming. I mean, and that's for someone who was like just knew him as like a professional friend and, you know, who appreciated. him. I can't imagine when his friends and his family are looking back over the past year, how all of that feels for them. And then, of course, there was the memorial, which was filled with just amazing Holy Spirit-filled moments. There were these really incredible moments of revival,

Starting point is 00:11:03 it seems, that we'll get into a little bit today. And I've shared this before, and I'll share it again. It's so like my dad, but my dad said, you know, when the emotions all clear from this and when things are able to kind of get back into order and die down, you need to ask yourself, like, what would Charlie say to you in this moment? Because I had a lot of fear after Charlie was killed. Because, I mean, rightfully so, as we'll get into, the people who cheered on Charlie's death, they're the same people that hate you and me, the same people that hate what I have to say, what you and I believe. And so I remember I had to speak at a pregnancy center just a few days later. And I

Starting point is 00:11:49 really thought I was like, I'm going to cancel this. I had that Jubilee debate scheduled for just a couple weeks later the day before Charlie's Memorial, like I'm canceling that. The last place I want to be right now is surrounded by a bunch of liberals, the last place I want to be. And so I just thought about canceling everything. And then when my dad was like, you know, what do you think like Charlie would tell someone in this situation to do. And I'm like, okay, I know. And of course, that's not the primary question that anyone, and certainly not I, like I'm asking when I'm making a decision, you have to follow the conviction of the Holy Spirit, the word of God. If you're a woman, a wife, the leadership of your husband, all of that comes first. But it is a clarifying question because

Starting point is 00:12:33 Charlie lived and died through courage. And that's what he was always trying to fill everyone with, was clarity and courage. And I'm so glad that my husband and I made the decision for us to go to those responsibilities, those obligations that we had. One, because people that I talked to, like when I went to Reno, Nevada, that first speaking engagement after Charlie died to speak at a pregnancy center fundraiser, those people needed encouragement. Like I'm not, I wasn't even connected to him. And yet when I walked in the room, everyone was crying. It just felt so heavy. And we needed to be reminded that God's eternal plan of redemption is going off without a hitch. That was healing for me. Gosh, I'm so thankful that I did the Jubilee debate. The first thing that one of my opponents

Starting point is 00:13:17 said when he sat down was, I'm so sorry about your friend, Charlie. And that changed everything. And that debate, thankfully, by the grace of God, has been able to give people courage and clarity. And so sometimes you really, really the only thing you can do is the next right thing in faith with excellence and for the glory of God. And yeah, that tragic moment that we all went through last year, I think was clarifying not only for those of us who knew him and certainly for those closest to him, but also for everyone who admired him. Now, I want to get into some evil things, some darkness when it comes to those who are currently, not just last year, but currently celebrating the brutal moment.

Starting point is 00:14:07 murder, the assassination, what I believe is the martyrdom of Charlie Kirk. Now, why do I want to talk about this? Because I know it's disturbing. It's not just because I want to wallow in it. It's not just because I want to point fingers and say, they're bad, we're good, but I just want to remind you that an enemy exists. Yes, it's ultimately spiritual. Yes, Ephesion 6 says we don't fight against flesh and blood, but there are worldly manifestations of that spiritual battle that we as Christians have to realize and face. Because there's been a lot of talk over the past few months that the left and the right have been brought together after Charlie Kirk died because they're all like they really want to see what really happened. We really want to investigate and, you know, our questions about

Starting point is 00:14:54 Israel and their responsibility and Charlie's death, that's bringing the left and the right together. We're done with the left and right paradigm. Dream on. That is so far from reality. That is a load, I can't even say what it is. I can't even say what it is appropriately. It's a lie. It's deception. I will say that. It's absolutely not true. So let me show you some of that and why I actually think you should be encouraged by the darkness and the evil that we see in those who are opposing Charlie in just a second. I got to pause. I want to remind you that if you want clarity and you want courage, like that is why also share the arrows exist. It is a women's conference that happens every year, Dallas, Texas, October 10th. And I am so excited about this year and just to be

Starting point is 00:15:45 together with you guys every year. It's like, gosh, I need that. I want to be around like-minded women. I want to be poured into with solid teaching with the word of God. And I want to worship alongside you. How often do you get to worship alongside six to seven thousand like-minded Christian women just like crying out to God and being willing to be challenged by his word. That's what Share the Eros is all about. We've got Rosario Butterfield. We've got Kosti Hinn. We've got Elisa Childers and Natasha Crane. We've got Grace and Castleberry. We've got Audrey Brogie. We've got Shane and Shane leading worship. Of course, yours truly will be there. I will be 37 weeks pregnant. And so I'll be very pregnant. I don't think I'm going to give birth on stage, but that could also just be a

Starting point is 00:16:28 fun component of the whole day. And so if you have not bought your tickets yet, go to share the aero's com. You can use code Alley 20. You'll get 20% off your ticket. Share the arrows.com. So excited to see you there. It's brought to you by our friends at Range Leather this year. Share the arrows.

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Starting point is 00:17:37 pro-life Christian, they're amazing. Go to Adele Natural Cosmetics.com. Use code Alley for 25% off your first purchase. Adele Natural Cosmetics.com code All right. So let's get into some of this darkness. We unfortunately, very sadly, evilly, we have people who are on the left. I think it's completely fair to categorize them as that progressives. maybe there are some haters in the middle and on the right too, but these people seem to be on the radical left

Starting point is 00:18:12 celebrating Charlie Kirk's murder on TikTok using the term Kirkaversory, Sot 1. As we get closer and closer to the Kirkiversary, I just want to remind some of you that like, if you were not laughing along with us the day, the hour, the minute that it happened, you don't get to join in the festivities. Like me personally, I'll be throwing a barbecue and I can get you a plate, but I have to see your repost from that day first. If you were reposting like, damn, he accidentally went to a PVP lobby with big head mode enabled, then I will get you some food.

Starting point is 00:18:43 But if you were reposting like, it's such a tragedy, like something like this can happen in our great nation, you have to leave. You have to go home. I'm sorry, you are not invited. Okay. I wish I could say, oh, that was just one person. It was really hard to dig around. No, there are thousands of these videos.

Starting point is 00:18:59 And we can't play all of them because it's really depressing. But that is just one example of this trend that is. going on and the thing about social media, you're always trying to one up and dig deeper than the person before you. You want to be even more shocking than the last person who posted and you have to have a lot of darkness and callousness in your heart for that. I mean, we're all going to stand before God and give an account for every word that we said. And I think that's really the big problem, is that there is so little fear of God. That's just, I guess, a random TikToker, although it did have a lot of engagement. But then we have a very prominent commentator on the left. His name is

Starting point is 00:19:37 Hassan Piker. And he was recently at an event where he started leading the crowd singing the song, which was actually written in Memorial for Charlie after he was murdered. He was leading people in a mocking version of this song. We are Charlie Kirk. Sot too. All right. So Hassan Piker is very mainstream. Like there are some people on the left who want to tell you that he's not mainstream. He is a very mainstream. He has been positively profiled by almost every major outlet on the left. He has been positively interviewed by many mainstream liberal commentators, journalists. He regularly stumps for politicians, Democrat politicians. And so he does have radical views, but the Democrat party is radical. Okay. He's not like an aberration. He is just a part of the Democrats. And there he is

Starting point is 00:21:03 mocking this person who had been his sparring partner on several occasions. There's a lot of videos on social media of Charlie and him going back and forth. And Charlie was always respectful. Not worked up. Of course, he gets worked up about the subject matter because Charlie was genuinely passionate about socialism versus capitalism, freedom versus tyranny. But he was always nice. And actually, there's one clip and I only now thought of it. And so we don't have it in front of us. But they look to be at, gosh, it was probably, is it Politicon where you have people from the left and the right, you go on stage and you have these debates and panels and things like that. And it looked like it was that kind of event.

Starting point is 00:21:44 And Hassan is standing there. He's being interviewed on camera. Charlie Kirk kind of comes up to him, like bumps his shoulder and was like, hey, I need all the proceeds from the videos that you make about me and kind of laughed and then gave them like a really friendly handshake and went on. And by the way, that's called magging. Like, you just confidence mugged him because Hassan Piker would just stood there, like dumbfounded, not knowing how to handle someone who is confident and respectful.

Starting point is 00:22:13 And that's just like who Charlie was. He was just unafraid, but he also treated his opponents, even those who hated him with so much humanity, even all of these people that we see mocking him, like he would have treated them with respect when debating them and when talking to them. And Husson Piker just doesn't have, he doesn't contain that compassion or humanity because Charlie had Christ. And Husson Piker is very lost. You'll remember last year, there were indeed a lot of people mocking this and mocking his death. Sot three. I'm not saying she deserved it, but I'm saying God's timing is always right. So we had, we also had a no king's protest October 2025.

Starting point is 00:23:13 You had several people protesting there. I mean, just awful stuff with signs and T-shirts saying that he had it coming, that it was justified, mocking it, laughing about it. Now, where does the encouragement come in here? Let me back up a little bit and just tell you about who Charlie was in light of all of this evil. A couple years ago, the Atlantic wrote a profile about me. And you'll remember me talking about this if you watched the Memorial episode from last year. And I've talked about it a couple of times in speeches. But the Atlantic wrote this article about me after interviewing me. And it had some positive descriptions, some neutral descriptions, but it also took some jabs. It is the Atlantic.

Starting point is 00:23:58 And the reception from the Atlantic's audience wasn't kind. And so I remember we were like on vacation. at this point. And I was just nervous about it. I was feeling anxious about it because what should have felt like this big accomplishment, this mainstream profile actually just kind of made me feel like, it made me feel worried. I was fearful at the time. I didn't like having all of this negative attention on me at once. And then out of nowhere, I got this text from Charlie with a link to the article. And it said, huge honor. Well done. Keep slugging. And, you know, there's been so many times. times over the past year where you guys have seen me or we've met in person and you've said that and you've just said keep slugging and I just want you to know it's meant a lot to me when you

Starting point is 00:24:47 give me that specific encouragement because I think about that a lot and I think about just like what an encourager he was to so many people, people who didn't have anything to give him in exchange. He had all the power. He had all the connections in the world and yet he would send to hundreds of people. I'm certainly not special. Encouragement, Bible versus links, ask questions to them, getting their insight on different things, even though he was such a smart guy and probably didn't need any of our insight.

Starting point is 00:25:20 And so when I think about that question that my dad asked right after Charlie died, like what would Charlie say to do in this situation, like I know what he would say not just to me, but to all of us. Keep slugging. Keep going. He would say, don't stop. Don't allow the evil in this world to make you slow down or to back down even for a second. Our last exchange was him giving me advice for Jubilee for that debate.

Starting point is 00:25:48 He was so excited. He was like, let's all get on a phone call and let's talk about this. Let's go through some of your claims and let's try to do a mock debate. I'm so excited for you. I'm praying for you. that's just who he was. That's just who he was. So knowing that that was the last back and forth that we had, that was also another reason why I knew that I couldn't cancel that Jubilee debate. And I really felt the Holy Spirit, but a spirit of like courage with me that day to be able to speak

Starting point is 00:26:23 with as much clarity as I could. So no matter what people say, especially his enemies say about Charlie, like that's actually who he was. He was not only a compassionate person to those who hated him, but to his friends, to professional friends, to acquaintances, he was an encourager. He gave a lot of himself to people. And I don't want to further highlight the vitriol that he receives, but I just want to remind you of this, that Charlie would not care one bit about what those people think. He wouldn't care at all.

Starting point is 00:27:00 He was extremely aware of the existence of evil and of spiritual warfare. Demons right now and over the past year, they've been rejoicing. Satan has been glad that he took an effective soldier out of the fight and everyone who follows Satan feels the same way. And what I would say to that is what an incredible honor. What an honor. Like may we all, when we die, make the demons rejoice. May we all be so courageous and so bold and so effective and so faithful and so obedient

Starting point is 00:27:30 it to the Lord and so relentless in the pursuit of his glory that when we die all of God's enemy's cheer. May they lament every breath we take. May they be enraged every morning that our feet hit the floor. May they wince at every word we say. We've seen God use Charlie's life and that tragic moment to unite people and to bring them to truth. And so if the enemy's goal was to scare people into silence, I think he failed. And that's what happens. And that's what happens. when you make a martyr, you emboldened everyone who believes like they do. And so Charlie and the truth that he represented, I believe, even through the division that we'll talk about in a second, it will spread further and wider than it ever has before, not just because of Charlie,

Starting point is 00:28:15 but because why God's eternal plan of redemption is going off without a hitch. I think that even in the midst of so much of what we're going through right now, that so many of Charlie's ideas have been immortalized and that there have been people who have been raised who are even bolder and more relentless than him. And I just don't want you to forget that Charlie Kirk was murdered for believing the same things that you do. He was not a radical in any way. He was not hateful. He was not a flamethrower. He believed in and leveraged to the free exchange of ideas to try to persuade people of biblical truth. That's it. And there's this quote that says, the further a society drifts from truth, the more they hate the people who say it, which is

Starting point is 00:28:58 kind of a reiteration of John 1518 when Jesus says this, if the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. Not saying that those two quotes are exactly the same thing, but we also get a warning specifically from Jesus to Christians that, hey, I am truth, I am the word, I am life, and as people hate me, they will also hate you because you represent me. Now, Charlie, now, I just want to remind you of this because it's so easy to get so down about this, that he is with his greatest love and passion, which is Jesus. He is with the fellow saints and the martyrs and the persecuted by which the church has been advanced for millennia. And I am so happy for him. But I'm so sad for us. I am so sad for Erica. I am so

Starting point is 00:29:46 sad for his two little children who are going to grow up without a dad. We know that having gained an incredible, courageous person, but we have lost. His family has lost a huge presence here on earth that I don't think can ever really be replaced. And so especially this week, as you're thinking about all of this, I want your prayers to be occupied by pleas for Erica, that she continues to feel the weight and the freshness of his death in ways that we cannot possibly imagine. Pray for his children as they're going through this in a different way and also a way that we can't understand, but just pray for their courage as the trial starts to kick up or as they are continuing the process. We'll get into the updates on that in

Starting point is 00:30:40 just a second as they're having to relive this in so many ways. There is reason to have hope, not just in the Lord, of course, but also for our nation and for justice to be done here. And we'll get into that in just a second. Let me pause. Let me tell you about our next sponsor. that is good ranchers. You might not know, but actually in an effort to lower beef prices, 300,000 metric tons of foreign ground beef are about to flood the U.S. market without the normal tariff. And when that beef reaches grocery store levels, you will have no way of knowing that it came from another country. So you might think that you're buying this healthy grass-fed meat, but you don't know what the standards are and the place that it's coming from. And so I encourage

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Starting point is 00:32:03 The ground beef is what we use the most. So highly recommend good ranchers.com slash alley. So we weren't able to fully cover this last week because this happened after we recorded last Wednesday's episode. But on Tuesday, September 1st, Judge Tony Graff ruled that prosecutors had presented enough evidence for Tyler Robinson to stand trial. on all of the seven charges against him, including aggravated murder. So meaning that the death penalty remains a possibility. And that is a very good thing. That means we still have the possibility of justice. This has been a pre-trial procedure. You'll remember a few months ago, they went through the pretrial where the defense and the prosecution, they kind of presented their case, presented their

Starting point is 00:32:51 evidence. And the prosecution did a good enough job to present, there is a good reason to believe that this guy did it. so we need to go forward with the trial. We don't actually know exactly when the real trial is going to take place. Obviously, I think that I would assume that Erica and her family wanted to happen as quickly as possible to have this dragged out. I mean, justice delayed feels like justice denied. And so you want swift justice. Also, I think that's the precedent that is set for us in scripture by the God who created justice. Anyone, by the way, who has issues with the death penalty. I've talked about the death penalty many times. are people, Christian, non-Christian alike, conservative, liberal who are against the death penalty. You can be, of course, of any position that you want to be. You have the freedom to think and feel and say the way that you do, but you being against the death penalty per se, so the death penalty

Starting point is 00:33:46 in principle is to say that you know better than God. I don't know about you. I'm not willing to do that. Genesis 9.6. Okay. So this is pre-Israel. It's not discounted just because it's the Old Testament. say goodbye to the Old Testament just because all of that happened before the incarnation of Christ. This was not just a specific dictate to Israel. This was not the Mosaic covenant. This was the Noahic covenant. So this happened before the establishment of the nation of Israel when he said to Noah that you, I'm paraphrasing here, execution is the only just punishment for murder. And what is the reason that God gives in Genesis 9-6, because man is made in God's image. So we've talked about this before. Whenever there is a reason, older New Testament that goes all the way back to creation, that

Starting point is 00:34:37 tells me that that reasoning still exists today because that doesn't change. He doesn't say because this thing is happening in culture, because the people are like this right now, because of this world event that's going on right now, this has to be the punishment for a murder. He goes all the way back to something that is still true today that man is made in God's image. And it is because of his incredible love for people, the incredible innate dignity that people have being specially made in God's image, that execution is the only proportionate punishment for intentionally killing someone, for murdering an innocent person. That's how grievous that crime is to the Lord.

Starting point is 00:35:15 And so, no, I don't buy into all of this. Well, no, they should just rot in prison. That's an even better punishment. I don't care about what we think is better or what we think is, whereas I care about the God who created justice and who created us as his image bearers thinks about what is right and what is wrong. You could actually argue that it is merciful in a way that God is a God of mercy by saying, okay, we're just going to snuff your life out. That it's not even that God is dictating that you have to kill the person in the same way that that person executed or

Starting point is 00:35:46 murdered their victim. It's just your life is going to be snuffed out. I do absolutely think that that is, if he is proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, that that is the just punishment for Tyler Robinson, just like I think that that is the just punishment for any person, Lindsey Clancy, whoever, that it is proved in a court of law that they murdered an innocent person beyond a reasonable doubt. The death penalty should not only be on the table, but it should happen very quickly. There's no reason for taxpayers to fund their life in three meals a day, in prison for years and years and years. Okay, they should be executed very quickly after proven guilty. Now, after Graff ordered Robinson to stand trial on all seven counts, Robinson pleaded

Starting point is 00:36:35 not guilty to all of them. Prosecutors have said that they will seek the death penalty. Robinson's attorney asked Judge Graff to throw out the aggravated murder charge, arguing that the evidence did not show that Robinson knowingly created a great risk of death to other people when he allegedly shot Charlie. So as we explained several months ago now or a few months ago now, that is what that aggravated murder charge means that you also were knowingly endangering all of these other people. Okay, he shot Charlie from a roof over a crowd. Like, you did knowingly create a great risk of death to other people. Of course. Prosecutors argued that firing into a crowd was like ballistic roulette. Of course, that's true. And gambling with innocent lives when he made that shot.

Starting point is 00:37:21 Of course he did. Of course he did. And so the defense didn't really have a good case to make there. And Judge Graff, to his credit, knew that. Now, just a little bit on the prosecution versus defense on whether Charlie was politically targeted, because that's also something that's on the table here, prosecutors argue that Charlie's beliefs about traditional family values and I would say biblical family values and stance against same-sex marriage, so-called marriage. And transgenderism and public life made him a political target for Robinson. He supported that argument, the prosecution with the text that Robinson allegedly sent to his a trans-identifying boyfriend. He said he's had enough of Charlie's hatred. Now, the defense says, yeah, you know, it is true that Charlie did believe these things and it was hateful. It is true that Mr. Kirk spoke hatefully of certain groups of people. He spoke hatefully of people who don't have traditional norm-conforming gender identities. He spoke hatefully of people who are not strictly heterosexual. We don't know there's a gap between what it is that Mr. Kirk said and stood for,

Starting point is 00:38:44 the phrase in the statute is political expression, and what it is that Mr. Robinson felt. about him. Okay. See, that to me is just basically just, it's almost a justification of what his client did. I'm sure that that's not what he's intending to do necessarily. But that's what it sounds like. It's not even that you're defending your client's innocence. It sounds like you're defending his guilt and saying that it was okay because he did speak

Starting point is 00:39:11 hatefully. I know he didn't say the words he brought this on himself, but it sounds like it. And look, like I know that we can say, we try. wasn't hateful. He wasn't hateful. Let's just move past that. The world is going to call truth hate. Okay. Remember the story of Stephen. How was he described? He was described as full of grace and power, full of grace and power. Any of us would want to be described as full of grace, right? And what did he do? He shared the gospel to the Jewish audience in front of him. He went through, okay, this Jesus is the Messiah. He fulfilled these prophecies. This is the truth about him.

Starting point is 00:39:47 You have to believe him for salvation. Of course, paraphrasing here, he was much more eloquent than that. And he was stoned to death. They were so angry. They were so incensed by this man who was full of grace and full of power in what he was articulating, articulating something out of a place of love that brothers, the Messiah has come for your salvation. He loves you so much.

Starting point is 00:40:07 He died for you. laid out the gospel. Did they say, well, that's something to consider? That's interesting. Wow, thank you so much for sharing this good news. with us. They were so angry by what he was saying now. He didn't personally attack them. Like he didn't, you know, make fun of them. He didn't mock them. He didn't say anything hateful at all. But the truth made them so angry that they picked up stones and they stoned him to death.

Starting point is 00:40:35 Of course, Jesus, full of grace and truth. That's how he's described. Full of grace and truth. He healed the sick. He fed the hungry. He helped the poor. He helped the poor. He even tried to help out by reasoning with by telling the truth to the religious leaders at the time. And how was he treated? Give us Brabis. The mob wanted the authorities to hand over this brutal thief. And they wanted to sacrifice this healer, this good news teller. So I don't even want to argue.

Starting point is 00:41:14 No, it's not hate. It's not hate. it is hate to the world. And that's not going to change. Okay. When we read Romans 1, when we read in Ephesians that their foolish hearts were darkened, and we all once were in that, by the way, we were all once deluded by sin, there's no, there's no point in saying, no, that wasn't hate. All you have to do is to continue to relentlessly, but compassionately, and without compromise, tell the truth, and pray for the Holy spirit to do his work. There's no reason to even argue about that because the truth of God is hateful to the world and that's not going to change. Now, the prosecution did try to counter this

Starting point is 00:42:01 argument and to say, no, that's an inaccurate characterization of Charlie. Here is how Charlie actually spoke toward people that he disagreed with, especially when it came to transgenderism SOT six. I just want to say I'm a transgender male. What at age should kick? be able to get things like hormone therapy because I don't know what's true, what's not. Tell me, are you comfortable telling me your story? I've known that since like third grade and I'm currently 19, almost 20. I have known basically since then I didn't start going by like a different name until 7th and 8th grade.

Starting point is 00:42:37 I just don't know like with the met like the whole medical stuff like what's true, what's not, what's helpful because I've heard so many different opinions. First of all, thank you so much for that. And so I'm going to have an opinion that very few people will ever tell you, which is I want you to be very cautious putting drugs into your system in the pursuit of changing your body. I instead encourage you to work on what's going on in your brain first. I think what you need first and foremost is just a diagnosis, just someone that is going to listen to what you've gone through, listen to what else is going on. My prayer for you, and again, very few people will say this, I actually want to see you because, you're going to. comfortable in how you were born. I know that you might not feel that way, but I think that

Starting point is 00:43:21 is something that you can achieve. I think that with the right team and the right people, you don't have to wage war on your body. You can learn to love your body. So I actually hadn't seen that clip before. And I said earlier that the prosecution played that. The prosecution didn't play that. That was Blake Knaff. He shared that on X as an example of, no, this is how Charlie treated people who disagreed with him. And there's so many other examples of Charlie doing exactly that being totally uncompromising in the truth, but with compassion. And you'll hear me say that a lot when I talk about debates and I talked about that Jubilee debate, people always ask me like, what are your debate tips? And not that I was anywhere the level of Charlie, but within my realm,

Starting point is 00:44:05 I do like to, you know, spar on theology and things like that. And what I say is you have to love the person across from you. You have to love them because if you love them, then you'll be gentle with them, but you won't compromise because you care about who is in front of you, but you also care about who they could be. You care about their soul. You care about their heart. You don't want them to be deceived. Do you have to love them more than you care about not feeling awkward and being liked by

Starting point is 00:44:30 other people? And you saw that over and over again with Charlie. That's the truth. After an hour long recess, Judge Graff came back with his ruling that the case would move forward to trial, set a pretrial conference for October 23rd. And here is what Erica shared later that evening statement on behalf of the Kirk family. Today's decision, which comes nearly a year since Charlie was taken from us, marks an important step in our family's pursuit of justice for him.

Starting point is 00:44:57 Every step in this process carries the weight of all that Charlie's murder has taken from his family, especially his children who will grow up without their father. We are grateful to all who have continued to pray for us, support us, and stand with us through a year of unimaginable grief. As the next phase of the judicial process begins, our family remains united in our love for Charlie, our commitment to the pursuit of justice and our prayer for a transparent and timely process. And we should all be praying for that too. All right. Let me pause, tell you about our next sponsor. And that is crowd health. Chief of Leda, bro, and I use crowd

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Starting point is 00:46:28 This is how we win. Join crowdhealth.com code alley. After Charlie was killed, there was this surge, it seemed like, in interest. And not just religion in general, in faith. That's how the media covered it. but specifically in Christianity and in reading the Bible. And there were all these incredible tributes to Charlie right after he died on college campuses. I just want to play you that to remind you of what that was like, Sought 7.

Starting point is 00:47:14 Pilot paid his own, fall to him my own. Pilot paid his own tribute to Kirk this morning around 6.30 a.m. A flight tracking software shows the pilot flew in this pattern near Phoenix, creating a cross with a C and a K. ...sent it love anywhere you want to send it in the world. There are so many places that might need it today. So here it comes from London. You can send this to your brother or your sister.

Starting point is 00:47:35 You can send it to the families of people who've been going through terrible stuff. You can send it to Charlie Kirk's family. You can send it to anybody's family. Those last two things, one of them was a Coldplay concert. And Coldplay said that you consider to Charlie Kirk's family, which I just thought was really sweet and really meaningful, not something that you typically see. And then the last one, I think, was at a Cubs game.

Starting point is 00:48:04 Or it was definitely at an MLB game where they played, gosh, gets me choked up. That video, you guys have probably seen it where, I can hardly talk about it when Charlie is on a set for Fox and Friends and his daughter runs up and gives him a hug. Yeah. So there were a lot of tributes that were played and people heard about Charlie, saw his videos and heard about the message that he conveyed. People that probably would have never heard about it. People all over the world. There were some statistics too that were so exciting at the time. You'll remember that sales surged during September of 2025, 2.4 million. copy sold. That's a 36% increase from the same month of the previous year, Wall Street Journal. I mean, that's not just coincidence. That is clearly because of the impact that Charlie had.

Starting point is 00:48:53 And if he had not been unashamed in sharing the gospel so publicly, that wouldn't have happened. People who think, oh, he just talked about politics. He was just a controversial flamethrower. The reason why Bible sales went up is because Charlie talked about the Bible all the time. My husband and I went to the memorial and we can play a voiceover of that. Frank Turrick spoke there. J.D. Vance, Marco Rubio. Lots of people spoke and just the gospel was laid out so clearly by so many speakers, just so many incredible moments. I'll never be able to listen to the song, Hard fought, Hallelujah, without thinking of the memorial. My husband and I both tear up when we hear that song because it reminds us of that. And just this moment that was completely unscripted by the

Starting point is 00:49:41 praise band as they were singing. And you turn around. It was just like a musical break. And none of the artists were singing. They were just playing music. And they just kept going. And you turned around and everyone raised up their signs of Charlie that said, here I am, send me. And it was just such an incredible like Holy Spirit empowered moment. It really was. Like, There were, you know, there were rumors at the time that that was AI or no, it wasn't. I was there. It was real. It was palpable. It was an incredible moment. And now, unfortunately, that unity that we felt that day and right after, it really dissipated. Like, this has been the most fractured year for the conservative movement in my adult life. I can't say ever because I haven't been around

Starting point is 00:50:32 that long. And there has been some very real, what I believe, demonic opposition to that. There has been, I think, some of the cruelest mockery of a widow publicly that I've ever seen. Erica has been a target of slander innuendos for a year now, for months. People criticized the way she grieved, what she wore, the way she laughed, the way that she smiled, the way that she presented herself in public and I don't think any of us really know what it is like to be in the position that she is in, that, okay, you just lost your husband in a very public and gruesome way. You are inevitably seeing these horrifically giddy reactions online, which you expected because your husband fought progressives, his entire adult life.

Starting point is 00:51:21 But then you are met with this task, this responsibility of leading this gargantuan movement and or the organization on college campuses because that was your husband's life work. You're not just going to let it drop. And you know more than anybody, the goals that he had, what he wanted out of it, what he was trying to accomplish. And so you feel responsible for that. You're publicly grieving while you're privately grieving. You're trying to project strength and confidence as you continue to move forward.

Starting point is 00:51:54 But you are also at the same time wanting to show people, yes, but I'm sad. I'm mourning this, this is difficult. I don't think there are very many people in the world who can balance all of those different roles and emotions and responsibilities publicly. Most people can't do that privately, but to have the platform that she was kind of thrust into and to be able to navigate all of that gracefully and also give glory to God and also try to honor like what Charlie wanted. Like he loved the like the big events with all of the.

Starting point is 00:52:29 like fireworks and all of the lights and everything, but also wanting it to be somber. Like, I don't think any of us understand the complexity of the weight that she has been carrying and the responsibilities that she has had. And it seems like so few people are willing to give her the benefit of the doubt or willing to say, yeah, you know what, that's a really hard leadership position. And she's also a grieving widow and a mother. There have been people who have suggested that she is at least in part responsible, that there have been conspiracy theories about her involvement with zero evidence, only vibes, and all of the theories that have been pursued about Erica's involvement have completely failed. And yet she is being dragged through

Starting point is 00:53:16 this, the subject of all kinds of threats and stalking because of this. I just find that to be really sad. And also just the way that Satan works. Like, it's just how he works. He is the accuser. He steals, he kills, he destroys. And so, of course, do you think that he was going to allow a revival to go unchecked? No. Now, is Satan more powerful than God? Absolutely not. God's eternal plan of redemption. It's going off without a hitch. But it is also true that there is spiritual warfare. And it's called warfare for a reason. And Ephesians 2 described Satan as the prince of the power of the air. So it doesn't surprise me that there's a lot of ugliness that's going on in the wake of Charlie's death. And we've also, we've also seen a lot of disagreements that I think he kept at bay.

Starting point is 00:54:01 You know, we can talk about how that strategy actually eventually worked out, keeping the crazies at bay by trying to keep the right together. It's like, well, maybe some of those voices should have just been like, no. But now we see, for example, like the soft pedaling of Islam by people like Tucker Carlson, what I just don't believe that those prominent voices who were friends with Charlie would have been soft peddling Islam while he was alive because Charlie was so incredibly clear that Islam was, I'm paraphrasing, I think this might be the exact quote, was the knife that the left uses to slit the throat of the West. Like that, that was Charlie's, that was Charlie's belief. And that's what he put forth. And yet, now you have a lot of people saying, oh, you know,

Starting point is 00:54:46 I don't know, maybe Christians and Muslims, maybe we have some more in common. And then speaking of that like you have people when I think about Erica and everything she's been through, Tucker Carlson, again, like he says that he's good friends with Erica, that he loves Erica, that he supports. And then he has someone like this on his show. And he doesn't say anything, Sat 10. You're set up and you're not allowed to ask questions about it. And if you are, you're, you are attacking a grieving widow. And that's, again, when did Jackie O ever say quit looking in? Stop. Quit looking into who killed my husband. Never. That's not what happens. And that's not how you grieve, by the way. I remember when my dad died, my mom immediately bought a gold sequent pants outfit, started carrying sparklers around and selling t-shirts. And my friends are like, Jimmy, what's with your mom? I'm like, she's grieving. So I'll just leave that there.

Starting point is 00:55:37 Okay. I'm just saying, like, if that's my friend, I'm going to be like, I'm not even going to let you finish that sentence. Like, that's completely inappropriate. Don't talk about her like that. Don't like mock the way that she dressed, et cetera. And so there's a little. there's a lot of that. There's just a lot of chaos and fracturing on the right. Thank goodness we are

Starting point is 00:55:59 not saved by politics and by the unity of conservatives. However, it does matter because it affects policy and policy affects people and people matter. And we understand that. And so it does matter to an extent, but we also know that that's not where all of our hope comes from. We do have some encouraging statistics. And let me do another ad. I got to tell you about every Life before we get into that, a hopeful segment. Let me pause and tell you about the pro-life diaper company that I rely on. We are about to get into the diapers and wipe stage again. We've been out of it for a little bit, but now I'm about to have a newborn. And so we will be using every life diapers and wipes because we used them with the last baby and they worked well. They

Starting point is 00:56:46 are super sturdy and their clean ingredients and they're really soft and flexible. I love their wipes too. And I love that it's pro-life. I love that they help moms and need, especially through pregnancy centers. They help they're pregnant and adopting employees making sure that they're feeling supported. And unlike so many diaper companies all around America that donate to Planned Parenthood and these pro-abortion politicians, they're doing the opposite. They're actually helping babies live. And that's what we want. Go to everylife.com. Use promo code alley 10. Get 10% off your first order today. That's everylife.com promo code al-a-com. E-10. Now, it's not that the revival has been completely curtailed. First of all, what do we

Starting point is 00:57:34 always say that God's plan doesn't always make headlines, that God's work doesn't always make headlines. It doesn't always go viral. It's not always front and center. It's not always obvious. He is seeking and saving the lost. He is calling his sheep to himself. He is doing everything that he wants to do. Job 42 says that nothing is too hard for him. Nothing can thwart his will. And so we are reminded of that, that, yeah, gosh, we look at all these things going on and we're like, what happened? Did Satan win? But there is still hope. There's hope beyond these statistics that I'm about to read just because we know how the book ends. Like, we know how history ends. We read that in the Bible that Jesus is coming back and he's going to make all things right.

Starting point is 00:58:17 And he's going to avenge his people and live and we're going to live in perfect peace because he's going to rule in perfect peace forever and ever. So that's where I hope. But then we can also look at things like this. The American Bible Society's 2026 poll found growth specifically in a population that it calls the movable middle. That's much nicer than what I call them, which is the mushy middle. Moveable middle is good. There was an increase of 9 million people who are open to the message of the Bible even though they're not yet deeply engaged with it. Okay, a movement, an increase of 9 million people. Wow, that's fascinating. I don't know if it's all because of Charlie's murder, But again, the effect that he had, all of the videos that he had that went viral and just a ripple effect of people knowing more about him and the mission that he was on, I do think sparked an interest. Okay. Like, what is he talking about? Where does this come from? People in America who have never heard the gospel, people in America who called themselves Christians who have never really read the Bible for themselves. Wow. A 2026 scallop poll found that young men's religious attendance is up by seven points since 2024. The percentage of young men who said that religion was very important.

Starting point is 00:59:24 increase from 28% to 42%. And again, I don't know if that's all Charlie Kirk, but I do know that that was his mission field, was young men, and that he had a recalibrated interest in talking about the Bible and talking about theology. And I do think that he had a huge effect. And I just want to play you an example of Charlie sharing the gospel. And I hope it's an encouragement and an instruction to all of us, Sop 13. Are you a Christian? Very much so. And I want to ask Like, why is that exactly? Oh, Jesus saved my life. I'm a sinner.

Starting point is 00:59:58 Fall short of the glory of God. Gave my life to Christ, most important decision I ever made. So you believe the Bible is real? Yes, I believe the Bible is true and real. Why is that? We have the most accurate and transparent, the most historically robust account, I should say, that one can have of the most important figure ever to live in the history of the world, Jesus of Nazareth.

Starting point is 01:00:17 And Jesus of Nazareth, who was born a virgin birth, what we believe is the incarnation, perform miracles all throughout Judean Samaria, eventually, you know, confronted Pharisees led to a death that he did not deserve, was in the grave for three days, and then rose from the dead. And the resurrection is the pinpoint of my belief that Jesus did rise from the grave so that we may live. And if you reject that, then you will go where you want to go, which is in absence, the furthest distance one can be from the divine. And he did that a lot. I heard a lot of people who were fans of Charlie or who liked Charlie or maybe he didn't know that much about Charlie, but we're fine with him after he died saying, you know, I had no idea. I had no idea that he talked about the Bible that much. I had no idea that he was

Starting point is 01:00:59 that Christian. I think a lot of people saw him as a political operator, which he totally was a political operator. And that's really one thing that set him apart from everyone else is that he was this really, really sophisticated political operator who was able to get things done, who was in Mar-a-Lago in the weeks after Trump was elected, making sure that the Trump administration was ready to go day one to accomplish things, who helped get Trump elected, had played a huge, huge role in that, and who had the ability to affect all kinds of world leaders through his powers of persuasion. He was an incredible debater. He was an extremely good speaker. He was also a good broadcaster. Not most people. Actually, I don't know anyone who is all of those things. I don't know anyone else who is all of those things, who is also being a theologian, an apologist. It was really incredible.

Starting point is 01:01:59 And a lot of people after Charlie was murdered ask who's going to replace Charlie? No one's going to replace Charlie. No one's going to replace Charlie. It's going to take like 50 people to do what one person was doing. He's not replaceable. At least I don't think in this generation, it's going to take a lot of people. to try to fill in the gaps. And so far, that just hasn't happened. Now, I think everyone just has to do what they were called to do and let the Lord take care of the of the rest of it and not worry about who

Starting point is 01:02:28 is going to fill this role. But just let Charlie stand alone because God created him uniquely to do what he was called to do in that moment. And I just have thought a lot about like, I wonder if the reason why he was so busy and did so much, was on a plane probably five times a week, some weeks, going from college campus to college campus, traveling the world, sharing the gospel to South Korea and all of these places. The reason he was doing so much is because the Lord knew that his life was going to be a sprint. Like the Lord knew that he wasn't going to have 50 years. He wasn't going to become president. He wasn't going to do all these things that he could have done to accomplish his entire agenda. He was only going to have 32 years. And so he had to run his race as fast as possible

Starting point is 01:03:12 and get it all in so that he could accomplish what he was going to accomplish. by 32. And most people like Charlie, the other unique thing is that they just don't give time to people who can't do something in return for them. That's politics, that's media, that's a lot of different spheres. Most people will not give you the time of day unless you can do something for them. Well, no one could do anything for Charlie who was in the political or the Christian commentator's sphere. There was no connection that we had, no amount of money that someone had, no amount of power that someone had that would be tempting to Charlie because like he had it. He had proximity to power. And yet how did he use that? Not just for like self inflation, but constantly trying to help other people.

Starting point is 01:03:58 I remember he asked me in 2017 to speak at the Young Women's Leadership Summit. I mean, I was barely started. I barely had any presence. I was just like a blogger. I think I had just started working at the blaze. And he asked me to come speak. And I spoke, have spoken every single year at the Young Women's Leadership Summit since 2017. I think I might be the only one who has spoken every single year since 2017. And that's just because Charlie saw me and he believed in me for no reason except for that's just like who he was. And then the next year, 2019, he asked me to help plan YWLS with him. And that was just like a real privilege to be able to do that. And that's who Charlie was. He saw people. And he saw people for not only who they were, but also what they could be. And he was very

Starting point is 01:04:45 charitable in that way. All right. I know it's kind of close together, but I got to give you one more ad before we close out for the day. And that is Concerned Women for America. So if you're listening to this and you're like, I want to be on the ground. I want to be involved. I want to help shape the trajectory of our country for my kids and for our grandkids. Then you need to check out Concerned Women for America. They're the largest Christian women's organization. And they work to equip women and families to pray, educate and advocate for biblical values in our culture and public policy. One of the most important issues we can be equipped that we can be equipped to speak about is the sanctity of human life. And that is why they recently rewrote an addition of a sanctity of life

Starting point is 01:05:25 booklet to equip young women for conversations we are facing today. So good. It's so good to have the tools to be able to engage in those kind of conversations and debates. Go to concernedwomen.org slash alley. Concernwomen.common.org slash alley. Now, a question that I want to end with that has been debated many times. Was Charlie a martyr? Does it matter? Well, it matters and it doesn't. Regardless of whether you think Charlie fit the definition of a martyr, he died speaking the truth that was not only cultural truth, but biblical truth, specifically about gender that we read in Genesis 127. He regularly shared the gospel.

Starting point is 01:06:10 He made the biggest impact that he possibly could. And he was murdered for speaking the truth. Now, I believe because he was murdered speaking biblical truth, that he was a martyr. People don't question whether or not John the Baptist was a martyr. People call John the Baptist a martyr. Now, why was John the Baptist killed? John the Baptist was not killed or imprisoned because he was sharing the news of Jesus and the coming Messiah. Herodus, Herodian, Herod began John primarily because John openly called out Herod's marriage, the sin of marrying his brother Philip's wife, Herodius, while his brother was still alive. And Herodius said, get me, John the Baptist's head on a platter. And he did. And so it was calling out the violation of the sanctity of marriage. That is why John the Baptist was killed. And so you can quibble about this, about whether or not he was a martyr. I think that he was. Now, here is Jackie Hill Perry's attempt at saying he wasn't really a martyr,

Starting point is 01:07:07 Sot 14. I don't want to reword your language, but I also want to add to your language. Help me. Be my helper. No, to say not only grieving in a way that's distinct, but also grieving. or they misunderstand why don't you think he's a martyr? And it's like because I heard what he said. Yeah. And so it's not that I don't appreciate his stances on abortion, on sexuality, on marriage. Yes. But it's also I hear other things alongside that that don't give martyr.

Starting point is 01:07:41 Okay. That don't give martyr. And she's probably referring to some of the things that Ben Watson felt the need to say, who is also, you know, he's a pro-life out of a kid. but felt the need to call Charlie Kirk, describe him as a racist in his tribute post to Charlie right after he was murdered. Martyr is not defined by someone who is perfect. Martyr is not defined by someone who never says something that you disagree with. It comes from the word Martis, which literally means witness. So Charlie, as he was witnessing to the truth of the Bible,

Starting point is 01:08:15 witnessing to the truth of the gospel, he was murdered for what God's says is good, right, and true. He also talked about politics, but talking about politics, we're talking about marriage or cultural issues, does not negate your martyrdom. So I believe he was. And I believe that we still have a lot of, a lot to learn from him and a lot to learn from others like him who aren't as famous as Charlie, but nevertheless showed courage and are willing to sacrifice in the face of threats and the face of mockery in the face of person. And the face of persecution. And that has really been the story of the Christian church. It hasn't been religious liberty. It hasn't been comfort. It hasn't been inconvenience. It has been adversity.

Starting point is 01:08:59 It has been being lambasted, being castigated by the people in charge and the mainstream culture, the majority in a society and being silenced and being killed for that. And yet, the gospel has been advanced. What did they say that the church has been watered by the blood of the martyrs? And I think that's true. The seeds of the church were watered by the blood of the martyrs. And I think that's still true today. And so use this tragedy, yes, to pray and you could mourn, but also to be encouraged

Starting point is 01:09:40 that we have been given a spirit of power and of self-control and not one of fear. and that God's eternal plan of redemption is going off without a hitch. And graciously, he has allowed us to be a part of that. So I just wanted to honor Charlie today. Like I said, we will have Frank Turrick on on Friday for what I know will be a super meaningful conversation. So meet us back here then.

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 1393 | A Year Without Charlie: What Christians Need to Remember

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