Charlie Kirk and an Uncompromising Faith

I let this sit. I said nothing yesterday when it happened. Partly because gut reaction is one thing, but I need time to process things, not that I’ve completely done so yet. Words are how I get things figured out. I am not known for flying off the handle. I am quiet. I don’t speak unless I have something to say. If you want a question answered in a group there is a strong chance I am not the person you want to ask. Not because I refuse to answer, but because I’m not going to answer if I don’t have something I feel is important enough to say. That being said the following is about the murder of Charlie Kirk. If you didn’t like the man, agreed with his death, or just don’t care either way this is your warning to stop reading.  

 

 

Charlie Kirk is a martyr. Charlie Kirk was murdered for what he believed in and because he wasn’t willing to compromise those beliefs because others didn’t agree with him. Charlie Kirk inspired a generation, and his death is only going to inspire those same people and more like them. He was a husband, a father, and in my opinion one of the best debaters to ever live. I told two of my friends last year while watching one of Charlie’s campus debates that I wish I could debate as calmly as he did. I say that, not just because his biblical beliefs are like my own, but because if you watch him debate he handles himself better than any political candidate on either side of the aisle in decades.  

In an age where the response to people disagreeing with you leads to shouting, name calling, and what I would consider childlike tantrums he never disgraced his faith by acting unkindly to those he was speaking with. We can’t say that about our political candidates and I don’t care who you voted for. You want to learn how to disagree with someone? Watch Charlie Kirk.  

I think he had the reach that he did because of how he carried himself. He gave young people something to emulate that wasn’t showy it was grounded. He made no excuses for his faith and had no problem telling folks that his faith informed his belief on subjects. That is what faith is supposed to do. It should permeate how you live and form the foundation of what you believe and how you make decisions on things. I think if he’d been loud and vain he would have not drawn as many people. Charlie knew what he was doing. He was an example of living out his faith in the public square that wasn’t counter to that faith.  

My journey to faith in Jesus was heavily influenced by stories of people like him killed because they had beliefs that were counter to the culture they lived in. Men, women, and children who were killed centuries and decades before I was alive because they knew Jesus and refused to recant their faith in him fueled an intense curiosity in a young kid who had no idea how you could believe in anything so strongly, much less die for that. A belief like that was worth listening to and I would eagerly listen to any story of martyrs I could find.  

For years I’ve sat and told students that we don’t face persecution like the global church. Bulllying is the worst thing done in the United States and that paled in comparison to torture and murder that is the reality for believers around the world. Yesterday I watched those same students realize that persecution no longer just meant being made fun of in America. You can say oh he was just killed because of his political beliefs all you want and you’d be wrong. Make no mistake Charlie Kirk was not killed simply because he voted republican. Charlie Kirk died because his beliefs informed his stance on subjects and people don’t agree with those beliefs. His faith informed his politics, not the other way around.  

The last three weeks those students have been looking at what it means to follow Jesus within the context of Matthew 16:24-26.  

24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. 25 If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. 26 And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?[a] Is anything worth more than your soul? 

Following Jesus requires realizing that sometimes following him means physical death. Following Jesus means all in or nothing. There is no halfway. It is a lesson that until yesterday I’d seen only in stories of believers a half a world away. I said in the beginning that he inspired a generation to come, and I meant that. I don’t mean politically, although I think he was changing minds in that arena. I mean in faith. He showed a generation what it meant to boldly live their faith no matter the pushback around them. In a world that says if you disagree with me you should die he was a steady influence that didn’t bully his way around he just lived what he believed without compromise.  

There are days I will remember until my body cannot hold memories any longer. September 10, like September 11, will be one of those days. I will be able to tell you exactly what I was doing when I heard the news. September 10,2025 marked a shift that will go down in history as much as 9/11 for almost exactly the same reasons. One person didn’t like the way another believed. The list of deaths was much smaller, though no less tragic.  

Charlie Kirk didn’t deserve to die. His children don’t deserve to grow up without a father. His wife doesn’t deserve to be a widow. But in the coming years Charlie Kirk will be remembered as a man that helped show the world living your beliefs comes at a cost, but it can be done without compromise.

Superman-The Heart of the Matter

Thoughts on the new Superman movie. Read at your own risk. There are spoilers ahead, but nothing that will ruin your movie watching experience.  

 

Let me be upfront with you and say I liked Man of Steel. It was long, it was dark, but its portrayal of the Kent’s and Clark as a young kid was top notch. But when it comes to a portrayal of Superman on the big screen Corenswet beats Cavill any day of the week.  

 

In the new Superman movie we see something that Cavill never did. Maybe it was because of a difference in plot and writers and technical things he had no control over, but Corenswet gives Superman his heart back. He’s “human” as much as he can be for an alien from a different planet. Not just in the big moments when he’s taking a stand against Luthor (who was portrayed the best he’s ever been on the big screen by NIcholas Hoult in an absolutely unhinged side of Lex that was fantastic to see), but in the small moments.  

There’s an interview scene in the movie between Clark and Lois and then Superman and Lois that humanizes him maybe the best possible way in the whole film. He gets passionate, he argues, he gets angry, but it isn’t in an overbearing I’m right and your wrong way. He’s responding to hard questions because he’s done what he thought was the right thing to do, and it has opened a whole new can of worms for him. And his reaction isn’t kryptonian, it’s human. We see not Superman, but Clark despite the interview being him answering questions as Superman. It shows that Clark is Superman not because of what he can do but because of why he does what he does. Here we don’t see a man compulsively saving people because of an obligation. We see a guy saving people because he WANTS to save them. He cares for people. The interview is shown in the trailer but the scene goes much further than the few seconds you see and it sets up so much in the way of showing who he is.  

Now to Krypto. I’m not a huge fan of his design being used to seeing the famous dog usually portrayed as looking like a white Labrador. But aside from that he was one of the best parts of the movie. He was very much a terror on four legs and while he was comedic relief and entirely a riff of Gunn’s own problem with his dog who was the pooche’s inspiration for the film, he helps show that Clark doesn’t have a heart of stone in the slightest. He cares greatly for him.  

Lois and Clark-This version of them was great. They had fantastic chemistry that actually felt like a real relationship. They teased each other, pushed each other, but in the end they were there for each other and nothing would stand in the way of that. I enjoyed the banter and it is highlighted by the fact that they talk about it when alone as if proving their banter means they aren’t together for some reason when the teasing is definitely a tell that they aren’t just coworkers and are fooling absolutely no one. They feed off each other and their relationship shows them juggling life and being together that is a good look at reality if you forget for a minute that he is an alien and a superhero. But it also shows that he cares. He isn’t just a man flying around helping others, he wants someone to come home to at the end of the day, someone to share his life with that knows exactly who he is, not just one side or the other.  

 

SPOILER below 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Kents- I wasn’t a huge fan of how hokey Gunn wrote the Kents BUT the conversation between Pa Kent and Clark near the end of the movie is one of the best in the whole movie. Like I said above I loved the relationship in Man of Steel between the Kents and Clark when he was young. If you’ve been around a while you know that adoption is a huge thing for me. In fact it is one reason I love Superman so much. There is a line in Man of Steel after Clark saves a bus of children as a teen and he’s sitting with Jonathan after and he asks Jonathan if he can just pretend he’s his son. Jonathan responds with you are my son. It wrecked me then and it will probably always do so. In this Superman he is dealing with basically the whole world hating him and calling him a monster because it is revealed that he was sent to rule the Earth because Earthlings are simple and weak people. So he’s sitting on a bench outside the Kent Farm talking with his dad who knows all of this and his dad looks at him and says a parent doesn’t tell a child who they should be. A parent is there to help a child make a fool of themselves and become who they are. Your choices and your actions make you who you are and I’m always proud of you. 

Again WRECKED. I’m fully aware that my children if they happen probably won’t look like me and hard conversations will happen at some point. But you have an entirely normal, humble, farming couple who finds an alien baby, raises him as human, loves him through all the ups and downs of not only life but a life full of super powers as well as puberty (I deal with teenagers regularly and let me tell you that is a whole different ball game compared to a baby that can’t take of himself but you throw in laser vision and super strength and all the things he can do with hormones and its game on). It takes special people to deal with all of that. But they do it. You don’t see struggles. You don’t see doubt. The only thing you see is two people who love their child and despite what everyone in the world aside from a few people namely Lois are saying they don’t give in to what has been revealed and recoil. They step in like they should and nothing changes. In the end Clark is Kryptonian, they cannot change that and they don’t want to, but Clark is not just Kal-El he is Clark Kent from Smallville, Kansas raised on a farm full of cows and hard work.  

Sometimes it just takes a gentle reminder from the people who love you most and hearing that they are proud of you even when everyone else has turned away to remind you that you aren’t loved because of what you do but because of who you are and to them he’s not just Superman, he is son.  

It was one of my favorite moments in the film and you see Clark as a human just wanting to be reminded that he matters.  

Now as for the rest of the film Guy Gardner was surprisingly fun, and both Hawkgirl and Mr.Terrific were great add ons. Jimmy Olson was someone I want to see more of for sure. Overall, I definitely recommend seeing it if you are a Superman fan.