By Metropolitan Tikhon Shevkuno
Half of our country is quite familiar with Charles Kirk, who was tragically gunned down in on September 10. What shocked Life Media Group was the stunning and worldwide impact of his ministry. The following excerpts, for example, are from an editorial written by the Patriarch of the Russian Church- in essence, the other side of the Christian Church.
Just a week ago, the name Charlie Kirk was virtually unknown in Russia. Then, like a supernova explosion, he burst into our information space, unleashing a wave of both indignation and admiration. Some saw in him the embodiment of values they found unacceptable and reacted with open hatred and outrage toward Kirk: “How can an American (an American!) be like that?”
Others—astonished and grieved that he is no longer among the living—discovered in him an unexpected kindred spirit. Death, without a doubt, became both the chief sermon and the pinnacle of Charles Kirk’s ministry. It also illuminated his complete image—one filled with faith, resolve, and Christian love—refuting the slanders of those who read the Gospel with their soul’s eyes shut, failing to understand that the bold defense of Gospel truth is love in action.
The murderer—and all those who stood behind him—are powerless to place a final period on the existence of a man who believes in Christ. And in the hearts of millions of his like-minded followers and friends, Charlie’s martyric death breathed new, greatly multiplied life in service of their goals, thoughts, and convictions.
In an age of post-truth, relativism, and libertarianism—when reality is constructed by the media and social networks, and conformity has become the norm—truth is drowning in a sea of political correctness. Charlie Kirk dared to go against the current. He acknowledged no shades of gray, no compromises, no deals with the conscience. He couldn’t have cared less about what was fashionable, accepted, or dictated by the crowd. He allowed himself a luxury almost unheard of in our time—to call things by their proper names, even if that meant that such a royal choice would, inevitably and without a doubt, bring a series of consequences, including the most dreadful ones.
What is especially admirable about Charlie Kirk is his willingness to go and speak about the Kingdom of Heaven, about traditional values, about conservative principles in the very places that seemed most unsuitable—places whose inhabitants, for the most part, do not want to hear anything of the kind. He chose a “mission field” perhaps the most important, but—as we now see—far from safe, not unlike preaching somewhere among a tribe of cannibals. University campuses, the youth culture of Generations Z and Y. But Charlie Kirk, even among these young and often aggressive beings—so dearly loved by him in a truly Christian way, each one of whom he saw as bearing the image and likeness of God—was not afraid to be a “black sheep,” was not afraid to go against the current, was not afraid to speak the truth as he understood it, even if it frequently provoked anger and rejection.
The example of Charlie Kirk is a lesson for us.
Charlie Kirk spoke, first and foremost, about what he truly believed. His sincere passion, integrity, and conviction were contagious to young people and compelled them to think. That is precisely why he was both loved and hated—but he left no one indifferent.
The life and death of Charlie Kirk—his entire life’s work—cannot help but evoke the deepest respect. His stand against retreat and decline, against what our Orthodox elder Father John (Krestiankin) once called “the march of the destroyer,” proved, despite the confessional differences, to be strikingly resonant for many of us.
Metropolitan Tikhon Shevkuno is the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church.
