The Assassination of Charlie Kirk: Murdered for Speaking the Truth

I wrote this article for my scheduled submission to the local newspaper. They refused to run it saying: "we have decided that this topic is too volatile for us to run now."

 

Waverly Democrat – July 18, 2025: “Pastor’s Pen” Submission

 

The Assassination of Charlie Kirk: Murdered for Speaking the Truth

The assassination of Charlie Kirk marks a turning point in our nation. Charlie held traditional, conservative, Christian values and was remarkably effective in communicating them—persuading many, especially young college students, to examine and even change their beliefs. He was winning converts from radical leftist indoctrination. Many believe this is precisely why he was targeted.

Tragically, and unsurprisingly, many on the far left are celebrating Kirk’s murder. This reveals a sickness deeper than politics. It is hateful, evil, even demonic. And in a twisted irony, those who cheer his death accuse Kirk and his supporters of the very hatred they themselves display. They insist that traditional Christian teaching is itself hateful. They are patently wrong.

To understand why Kirk was targeted, one must understand what he believed. He confessed the timeless truths of Scripture: that God created the universe, the earth, and humankind in two distinct and complementary sexes, male and female; that marriage is the union of one man and one woman, blessed by God to be fruitful and multiply; that every human life is sacred, a gift of God made in His image. He believed that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, became man, died for all, and rose again to reconcile humanity to God. Kirk believed this good news must be proclaimed to all and that Christians are called to love one another without affirming practices contrary to God’s will. These convictions are not hateful. They are historic, orthodox, biblical Christianity—once embraced by the vast majority of Americans.

Kirk’s political views were inseparable from his faith. He ordered his world in this way: God, Family, Nation. He believed government exists chiefly to protect the other two estates—the church and the family—by guarding borders, upholding law, and defending life, liberty, and property. Government is the servant of the family, not the other way around.

He championed freedom: free markets, free speech, freedom of religion, the right to own property, the right to bear arms. He emphasized individual responsibility and believed Western civilization has produced unparalleled human flourishing. He opposed globalism, identity politics, and every form of Marxism. None of this was hate speech—though some hated it.

On college campuses, Kirk welcomed debate. He invited those who disagreed to make their case. He listened, responded with truth, and often did so respectfully and compassionately. Sometimes he persuaded; sometimes he faced hostility. But never did he engage in hate speech. He simply spoke words that some could not bear to hear.

And for that, he was silenced. Not by argument, not by persuasion, but by violence. Charlie Kirk was assassinated because his opponents could not defeat him in the public square. They had to kill him there instead.

But in death, as in life, Charlie Kirk speaks still. His voice echoes louder now, calling America to remember that truth is not hate, and that silencing truth by violence is the surest sign of its power.

Rev. Jon M. Ellingworth, Pastor
St. John Evangelical Lutheran Church – Waverly, IA

The Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity 13)

(Audio)

Luke 10:23-37; Galatians 3:15-22; 2 Chronicles 28:8-15

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Three weeks ago, a young woman was murdered on a commuter train in Charlotte, NC. The attacker stabbed her three times in the neck and exited the train. There were witnesses, no fewer than five, right there on the train sitting next to her. Each of them saw what happened. Each of them saw the attacker flee. Each of them saw the poor young woman in distress, dying, and they did nothing. They did absolutely nothing. One by one they exited the train and left the young woman to die alone on the floor in a pool of her own blood. Her name was Iryna Zarutska, a Ukrainian refugee who was simply going home from work. She didn’t speak to anyone; she didn’t make eye contact with anyone; she didn’t confront anyone in any way, and yet she was senselessly and violently murdered for reasons, or for no reason, God only knows. I don’t know much about her other than that, but that’s enough. I don’t know what her religion was, if she even had one. I don’t know if she was conservative or liberal, and I don’t care, it doesn’t matter. And notice, I haven’t said anything about the murderer or those witnesses who did absolutely nothing. I’ve said nothing about their race, their nationality, their political affiliation, their religious beliefs, or anything else, because I don’t know, I don’t care, and it doesn’t matter. But I can’t help seeing the similarity between the murder of Iryna Zarutska and the man in our Gospel lesson today, “who was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead.” There were two men who walked by who could have helped him, but they didn’t. And there was another man who walked by who did help. Why did they not help? Why did the other help? Let’s talk about that.

First, why did Jesus tell this story? Well, a law student, that is a student of the Mosaic law, asked Jesus a question seeking to entrap him: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” The question exposes the fallacy in Jewish thinking concerning the law in the first century: You can’t do anything to inherit, and particularly, eternal life cannot be gained by works but it must be received as a gift of God’s grace through faith. But, since the lawyer asked a law question, Jesus directed him to the law: “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” That was the correct answer. After all, he was a lawyer, and the Mosaic law doesn’t get more fundamental than that. “Do this, and you will live,” Jesus answered. And now the lawyer had a problem, for he didn’t keep the law perfectly, and he knew it, and that made him feel uncomfortable. So, he thought to himself, if I can make the law more do-able, then I’ll be able to justify myself. He was more concerned with justifying himself than with loving his neighbor. “And who is my neighbor?” he asked Jesus. He wrongly thought that if he could somehow pare down the number of people he had to love then he’d do pretty good. In response, Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan, forcing the lawyer to answer his own question, “Who is my neighbor?” Everyone placed before you to extend God’s love to.

The priest came to where the man was. He saw the man, and he passed on by. He was more concerned with his obedience to the letter of the law (as opposed to the spirit of the law), ability to perform his duties at the temple, and his reputation than he was about the dying man who was before him. “After all, he might be a Samaritan. There might be blood. He might be dead. Then I would be unclean. I can’t take the risk.” These reasons are rooted in race, religion, self-interest, and general apathy, likely some of the reasons the other passengers and witnesses on the train failed to act when Iryana Zarutska was murdered. Similarly, the Levite came to where the man was and passed on by, undoubtedly for the very same reasons.

But then a third man approached, and Jesus tells us that he was a Samaritan. Jews viewed the Samaritans as racially and religiously impure "half-breeds" because of their historic intermarriage with Assyrian colonists during the Assyrian conquest in the 8^th century BC. Though both groups believed in God and revered the Torah, they worshipped in different places and were deeply suspicious and prejudiced toward each other. In the context of Jesus’ parable, the Samaritan did not feel the coercion of the Mosaic law quite the way the priest and the Levite likely did. He was already an outcast and unclean in the eyes of the Jews, and he had not duty to perform in the Jerusalem temple. In a very real sense, he was free from the law’s coercion to do it freely and without fear of punishment or loss. So he went directly to the man, poured his own wine upon his wounds, bandaged him up, put him on his own donkey, took him to an inn, and paid for his keep, promising to return and pay any additional expense for the man’s care and shelter.

I hope that you can see that Jesus’ parable isn’t about the letter of the law, but the spirit of the law. The spirit of the law is love. The priest and the Levite were so concerned about the letter of the law that they completely neglected the spirit of the law, and they did not, they could not show love to their neighbor. Ironically, they didn’t really love the letter of the law either, but they considered it hard and coercive, and they obeyed it reluctantly and with fear. The Samaritan had no fear in helping the dying man. So what if he was a Jew, a Samaritan, or even a Roman? So what if he worshipped in Jerusalem, in Samaria, or even if he worshipped Zeus? Your neighbor is literally everyone, but most especially the one who is before you with a need you have been particularly gifted to give. In other words, you don’t have to go out and find your neighbor, and your neighbor is not chiefly someone in another state or another country, but your neighbor is in your family, your church, your neighborhood, your place of employment, and maybe even on the bench in front of you on a train or a bus.

The priest and the Levite permitted the Mosaic law to keep them from helping, from showing God’s love. We all have laws that we make up for ourselves that keep us from helping those whom the Lord has put before us. And I’m not talking so much about homeless people on the street, some of whom are quite likely shysters, but I’m talking your about elderly parents, your non-religious sibling, a rebellious son our daughter who’s made some bad choices, the Republican or Democrat who lives next door to you that you can’t stand, the homosexual couple across the street, etc. It doesn’t matter. That’s the point. It simply doesn’t matter if you like them or not, if you approve of their behavior or not, if you think them foolish or not, what they believe, the color of their skin, what language they speak: It just doesn’t matter. If they are before you, and you can help, they are your neighbor; help them. You’re not endorsing their bad behavior. You’re not blessing their lifestyle or choices. You’re not voting for their candidate or worshipping their god. You are extending the love, charity, grace, mercy, and forgiveness to them that you yourself have received from your loving, charitable, gracious, merciful, and forgiving God through Jesus Christ. Don’t worry, you won’t run out. God won’t let you.

A wise pastor and professor, John Kleinig, teaches, “No man is your enemy. We all share one and the same enemy.” Our enemy, of course, is Satan. Satan seeks to divide us and for us to view each other as “other,” as enemy, to dehumanize them so that we do not see them as fellow human creatures made by God in his image, people for whom Jesus suffered and died to forgive that they may live with him in his kingdom forever. Don’t hear me wrong; I’m not saying that we are to condone and bless their sinful behavior, whatever it may be. Quite the contrary; if you love them, then your desire for them is to repent and receive forgiveness, so help them with that. But, even if they don’t, still you must love them. And if you can help them, you should. Why? Because the law has been fulfilled by our Good Samaritan Jesus. Jesus suffered and died for the Jew, the Gentile, and for all human beings, regardless of race, religion, political persuasion, sexual identity, or anything else. You have been set free from the law’s coercion and threat. You have been set free from the law by Jesus to truly do it out of love for God and for neighbor without fear, resentment, loss, or any such thing. Do not let race or religion, politics, identity, or anything else keep you from loving your neighbor whom Jesus loved enough to die for along with you, especially those who are near to you, in your family, your church, your neighborhood, or on the seat next to you on the train or bus.

“Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

The Twelfth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity 12)

(Audio)

Mark 7:31-37; 2 Corinthians 3:4-11; Isaiah 29:17-24

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.

“O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.” These words of King David from Psalm 51, the Christian Church has spoken, sung, and chanted in the liturgies of Matins and Vespers since at least the sixth century. For centuries, Christians have prayed these words in the morning and in the evening and so have book-ended their daily lives with the confession that, unless the Lord opens our lips, not to mention our ears and our eyes, they are, and they will remain, utterly closed and unable to sing His praise, to confess His Name, or even to hear His life-giving and faith-creating Word at all. For, apart from the Lord’s gracious action, that is our state: spiritually deaf, dumb, blind, and dead towards God – just like Adam before God breathed His living breath into him; just like the blind man begging by the roadside; just like Lazarus before Jesus’ creative and life-giving Word called him to life; and just like the deaf-mute man in today’s Gospel. However, when the Lord opens our lips, our ears, and our eyes, then we will most certainly praise Him, not only in our direct and intentional prayers and praise, but also in our casual and day to day conversations with our families, with our neighbors, and with our co-workers, just as branches joined to the life-giving vine most certainly produce good fruit.

Yet, opening our ears and our eyes and our lips to speak, sing, and chant His Father’s praise is not all that our Lord does or can do. No. But, by His Word, He makes the lame to walk and lepers to be clean; He makes barren lands and barren wombs to be fruitful even as He once spoke light into the darkness and brought forth everything out of nothing, by the power of His life-giving and creative Word, His Word of life which is life, apart from which is only death. Thus, even now, by His same life-giving and creative Word He opens your ears to hear His Word and He creates faith within you through the preaching of His Word, He raises you from death to life in Holy Baptism, He forgives you and makes you clean through His Holy Absolution, and He feeds and nourishes you, His life communes with you, in the Holy Supper of His body and blood with the promise that He who has begun this good work in you will see it to completion in the Day of the Lord, and Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

Therefore, as your mouth has been opened by the Lord to speak and sing His praise, you must not keep it closed and remain silent. For, your Lord has promised that He who confesses Him before men, He will confess before His Father in heaven, but He who denies Him before men, He will deny before His Father in heaven. Indeed, the Holy Spirit is working in you and with you to make of you bubbling spring and a fruitful vine of His prayer and praise, mercy, and compassion. You can no more “tell no one” than could Jesus’ disciples and the crowds after witnessing the healing of the deaf-mute. And yet, you do not, but you remain silent, just like the women at Jesus’ empty tomb, because you are afraid. Like St. Paul, you know what you want to do, but you do not do it, and the things that you do not want to do, that is what you continually find yourself doing, for indeed, your spirit is willing, but your flesh is weak.

Therefore, you must not listen to your flesh. You must not obey your flesh. Rather, you must, as Jesus teaches, die to yourself and live to Christ in His righteousness. And, this is the fruit, not of the Law of God, but of the Law of God fulfilled, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Because He has done all things well, making even the deaf to hear and the mute to speak, He has fulfilled the Law’s demands and has set you free to do it without fear of condemnation, to do it, not to earn salvation, but to do it because you have been saved. Where the Law of God, because of your sin, left you deaf, dumb, blind, and dead, a barren wasteland and a fruitless field, the Gospel has given you a confidence and a sufficiency, not from yourselves, but from God. It is precisely because your righteousness comes from outside of you, not from inside of you, and because your righteousness is found in Jesus’ works, not in your works, that you can be confident and without fear, that you can stand before God and receive His gifts, open your lips and sing His praise, and tell everyone what He has done. Apart from Jesus, your words and your deeds are nothing, even filthy rags, but because of Jesus, in His Holy Spirit, that which once had no glory – your works – has been made to be glorious in His sight.

Jesus did some rather strange things in the healing of the deaf-mute. While His Word was sufficient to open his ears and to loosen his tongue, Jesus also accompanied His Word with symbolic actions: He put His fingers into the man’s ears, and after spitting His touched his tongue. Then, looking up to heaven, He sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” Was this all for show, to draw attention to Himself? No, not at all, for, indeed, Jesus first took the man aside from the crowd privately. Further, even after healing the man, Jesus told him, His disciples, and the crowds not to tell anyone. No, Jesus never seeks to glorify Himself. But then, what was the purpose of His actions? Truly, it may have been only compassion. Jesus often utilized touch in connection with His Word of forgiveness and healing. However, St. Mark’s use of the specific word “finger” brings to mind the Old Testament usage of “the Finger of God” which Pharaoh’s magicians recognized was at work through Moses and Aaron. Jesus Himself used this figure in St. Luke’s Gospel saying, “But if it is by the Finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.” Perhaps Jesus placed His fingers into the deaf-mute’s ears to communicate that “faith comes by hearing, and hearing through the Word of Christ.” Additionally, the use of spit and touching the man’s tongue may have a symbolic connection to Holy Baptism where common water is sanctified by the Word of Jesus’ mouth so that it becomes a lavish washing for the forgiveness of sins and the bestowal of the Holy Spirit. Now, some may say that this is allegorizing, and perhaps it is. However, following these actions, Jesus looked up to heaven, sighed, and said to the man, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened,” making a clear connection between His actions and the blessing of His Father, that the deaf-mute would know the source of His healing through the Word of Jesus.

When you and I sigh, it is usually because of a sense of exasperation, futility, hopelessness, or despair. That is because we are sinners. We know that our best efforts fail and are soiled by our sin, and we daily suffer the effects of other sinners directly and indirectly. But this is not why Jesus sighs. When Jesus sighs He breathes in our curse and He breathes out our cure, the blessing of His Word, the impartation of His Spirit, which gives life. For looking up to heaven, Jesus sighed and said, “It is finished.” He breathed His last and handed over His Spirit. He gave His life into death so that you will live. He took the curse into Himself, your sin into Himself, He suffered in your place, died in your stead and was raised from death, out of the tomb so that you who trust in Him are forgiven your sins, rescued from death, have eternal salvation. And now He gives you His Body and His Blood. He gives you Himself, the embodiment of His Father’s Word, to make it embodied in yours, taking away your sin and giving you His righteousness, His holiness, His purity, His life. Indeed, He does all things well. And in Him, so do you.

Pray that the Father will continue to open your ears and to loosen your tongues by the Holy Spirit delivered through His proclaimed Word again and again. And do not remain silent, but sing His praise in word and deed; tell everyone what He has done! For, you were deaf, and now you hear; you were blind, and now you see; you were mute, and now your lips have been opened, your tongue has been loosed; you were dead, but now you are alive in Christ. For you, to live is Christ, to die is gain. Therefore, die to yourself and live to Christ by laying down your life for your brother and sister, for your neighbor, for the Lord. Your sufficiency is not in yourself, but in the Lord. It is not of the letter, but of the Spirit. The Law indeed was, and is, glorious, therefore, how much more glorious will be ministry of the Spirit be?

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.