24 years ago, 19 jihadists hijacked four commercial airlines and turned them into missiles, killing just under 3,000 Americans in three cities, changing the world forever. The Hugh Hewitt Show was a 9am-Noon Eastern radio program, and Hugh and I were planning on doing a relatively silly show. Congress was on summer break, George W. Bush had finally gotten the keyboards replaced in the White House after the Clinton team had glued or removed all the W's, and politically speaking, nothing was going on.
Hugh and I had played in a 100-hole fundraising golf tournament for Young Life, the Christian youth outreach ministry, the day before, and both of us had plenty of stories from the links, heavily exaggerated, ready to deliver to the radio audience. When the second plane hit the World Trade Center about a minute before we went live, all that went out the window. We knew we were at war, and American life would never be quite the same again. It was the hardest day of broadcast I've ever been a part of in my 30-plus year career.
Yesterday was the second-hardest.
Hugh had just interviewed Justice Amy Coney Barrett at the Nixon Library about her new book, Listening To The Law, and was winging his way back to the Beltway. Alex Marlow, the editor-in-chief of Breitbart.com, was filling in. We had a great show planned. I had about 20 clips of Democrats saying the most ridiculous things possible. It was going to be a fun show.
As we came down the home stretch in the half-hour before going live, there was more than the normal amount of clutter going on in the studio. We had lighting issues, I was trying to pull one more cut to add to the mix, and Alex walked into the studio a little later than expected. He walked into the studio, put his bag down, was on his cellphone, and all I heard from my production room was, "Oh, my God." Everyone else in the studio hadn't picked up on it, yet, but I immediately knew something bad had happened.
Within minutes, the internet, especially my X feed, was full of reports of our friend and colleague, Charlie Kirk, being shot at an event in Orem, Utah, 30 miles south of Salt Lake, at a community college called Utah Valley University. Seconds before air, we saw the first grainy video of the shot that hit Charlie. We were numb.
The clock did not stop, although we prayed desperately that it would. We had to cover the worst breaking news story imaginable - the shooting, and potential assassination, of one of our own.
Marlow isn't just an acquaintance of Charlie Kirk. Kirk wrote an essay for Breitbart.com about bias in high school textbooks, and noted how sad he was at the recent passing of Andrew in 2012. Marlow and Kirk became friends and stayed so until Charlie's murder in Utah yesterday.
Yes, Charlie was a fearless debater. He would go anywhere and tackle any odds stacked against him, whether it be at Oxford or a community college in Utah. His famous edict was that all were welcome to engage him in debate, but if you disagreed, you were invited to come to the front of the line.
Yes, Charlie was a fierce defender of MAGA conservatism. He was an avid reader, and was an autodidact. What he lacked in letters after his name, he more than made up for doing the research, studying, thinking, and then communicating issues that specifically resonated with younger Americans.
What Charlie was above all else was an unapologetic Christian. Politics were his trade, but his faith was his passion. This is the Charlie Kirk I will remember.
Charlie Kirk will spend eternity with Jesus pic.twitter.com/Y7yADQwGLf
— Anna Lulis (@annamlulis) September 11, 2025
We will never know this side of Heaven how many people came to saving faith in Jesus Christ because of the evangelism of Charlie Kirk, but the number will be significant.
As the afternoon dragged on, praying that God would perform a miracle and spare his life, knowing in the pit of our stomachs the reality that was eventually confirmed at 5pm Eastern, the tally climbed on the left, whether they be elected politicians like J.B. Pritzker and Elizabeth Warren, or Resistance media anchors and guests on MSNBC and CNN uttering the most reprehensible, vile, tone deaf, and insensitive comments possible. House Democrats reacted to a motion for a moment of silence by screaming, "No!" and jeering it down. All of the standard human emotions - sadness, depression, anger, despair, and worry were fighting in me to race to the surface first. Seething anger got the gold medal.
My wife and I are fortunate to be in a mid-week Bible study with four other couples, and by the time I got home from the studio to start prepping for that, it was nearly impossible to get my head and my heart anywhere near where God wanted it to be. I frankly did not feel like going, and just wanted to recoil by myself and let the rage consume me. But that's not what the Christian life is about. That's not what Charlie was about. Matthew Dowd, now-former MSNBC pundit, made his final outrageous comment on the network before he was terminated later in the afternoon. He said Charlie engaged in hate rhetoric, and basically got what he deserved. It's obvious Dowd had never seen Charlie in action.
An hour before the time came to leave, after a very disgruntled prayer, the thought came over me. If I stayed home and gave into the hate, I'm letting the same demonic evil that took Charlie's life in Orem have another victory by keeping me from closing ranks around God. That's not at all what I wanted to do - not for me, and not for Charlie. We went to Bible study.
It was a very cathartic session. The assassination of Charlie was weighing on everyone's heart, and no one really knew how to process it. So we all did by praying and then talking about it. The part of Scripture, Acts 2:42-47, was what we were to discuss, and it turned out to be pretty on point with how we were feeling. That's the beauty of having church, whether in Church or meeting in small groups. Often times, even when you don't know the words to say, if you open yourself up to be led by the Holy Spirit, God will provide the words. We got to the point where no matter how much we grieve for Charlie's wife and young children, and we certainly do, achingly so, we have the hope and knowledge that Charlie is as alive as the Savior he defended so robustly on his all-too-short time here on Earth.
Charlie's death as a professing Christian is nothing new to believers. Christians for over two millennia have been tortured, persecuted, and/or put to death for their faith, many times as an attempt to stop Christianity from spreading and taking a wider hold on the world. And yet every time in the ancient world and even examples more recently in Nigeria, when a noted Christian gets martyred, an explosion in faith follows. In 2023, in the midst of 200 attacks on Christians in the African nation, Father Isaac Achi was murdered by terrorists. Since then, Mass attendance by Catholics is at 94% daily or weekly. It's among the highest percentage of Mass attendance of any nation on the planet.
I believe America really is at a crossroads here. My head and my heart are telling me two different things right now. My head says barring a spiritual revival, the Civil War of the 1860s between the North and the South may look different this time on our present course. Instead of a regional fight, the republic could devolve into an ideological war between the left and the right. My heart, of course, is that the impact Charlie had on young people explodes and intensifies as a result of his death, and instead of a plague of disaffected, disassociated youth gangs terrorizing the nation's big cities we've seen metastasize since COVID, revival breaks out and the next generation discovers faith and rejects the wickedness that has found a home in today's political left.
If religion isn't your bag, or isn't your bag, yet, I understand. The single hardest lesson of Christianity for me is the whole 'forgiving your enemies' part. It sounds great in sermons, and on Bible paper, it reads great. But applying it to your own life when something tragic happens to you or someone you care about, that's when your faith is put to the test. If you are still wrestling with the seething anger, think that the train's coming off the rails, and it's getting half past time to see some justice one way or the other, let me offer this. Channel that anger.
There isn't one Democrat out there that deserves your vote. Not one. Yes, John Fetterman has been a pleasant surprise regarding Israel policy more times than not, but he has still voted to confirm every district court judge that has helped turn criminal justice into a revolving door back out onto the streets to commit more crime. In short, Democrats have become the anti-God party. Please don't misunderstand what I'm saying here. I'm not claiming that God is a Republican, nor am I stating that Republicans are all fundamental Christians. He is, and they certainly are not. Besides, the Creator of the universe in which I believe is bigger than politics. If I'm able to compartmentalize God into an ideological box, God isn't big enough.
Nevertheless, the American left has become a cesspool collecting up anti-God people, whether they be governors, Senators and Congresspeople, and media types claiming prayer is a lie and it does no good. They are populated with those demanding the ability to terminate life God created in the womb up to the point of delivery, and even a week or so afterwards if certain conditions arise. This is a political movement that weaponized the Department of Justice against Christian parents trying to keep pornography away from their kids in school. This is a political party that tried to prosecute nuns who didn't provide health care options antithetical to the tenets of their faith. There is one party that is hostile to people of faith, and one party that is, at least for now, defending the religious liberties of those who want to practice their faith as well as those with no faith who do not wish to be coerced into doing so.
President Trump from the Oval Office sat behind the Resolute Desk and addressed the nation after ordering flags nationwide to be lowered to half-staff after the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
— Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) September 11, 2025
Christians have the hope that God is exactly who He claims He is, and will follow through on His plan, regardless of what we do to each other here on Earth. The left's hope? That is perfectly encapsulated in the personage of Minnesota Governor and former Democratic Vice-Presidential nominee Tim Walz.
His hope is that Donald Trump dies soon.
While nailed to a cross, after being beaten to a pulp beyond recognition and about to die as payment for every sin ever committed for all eternity by anyone who will accept that sacrifice, Jesus saw the crowd mocking and jeering him, as well as the Romans crucifying him, looked skyward and said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."
I can bring myself to forgive the anti-God left for how they've conducted themselves in the wake of Charlie's murder. It's hard to do, but I do honestly believe they do not appreciate the concept of eternity and who's ruling throughout it to fully know what they are doing.
But along with forgiveness comes prudence. If they don't know what they're doing on that most basic spiritual front, we should not trust that they know what they're doing with the levers of power, either, at any level of government. If my hope and prayer is right, the next election cycle might hold a surprise for both Democrats and conventional wisdom. Whatever electoral advantage Democrats think they have by juicing their base with all this 'Trump is Hitler' rhetoric, I'm sensing that after that shot rang out in Orem Wednesday and Americans all experienced the horror that followed, Democrats may not know what hit them a year from November.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member