Before that incident, I’m not sure I knew who Charlie was. The name rang a bell; I attached it to a podcaster or blogger; something political; but when told of the shooting, it took me a while to familiarize myself with the reach and mission of this man.

When I did, I saw that he was a strong evangelical Christian. I saw he had a Catholic wife–now widow–who is a daily Mass-goer. Two very young children. And a massive following of young people to whom he was imparting powerful, impactful, and unusually intelligent Christian messages. There was the open Midwestern face. There was the wide ready smile. He was a man who mixed it up on campuses with political opposites, but without harshness. His kindness and faith glowed around him. He was a man who went toe-to-toe in a podcast debate with Governor Gavin Newsom of California and asked him not to use the Name of God in vain when the governor did but parted friends with him also. In short, he was one of the best examples for our youth one could possibly conjure and he was reaching them. He was touching them. He brought Christ into their midst. Thousands instantly showed up when he appeared on a campus. Many converted.

This is a fellow who asked his wife every day how he could be a better husband. Thirty-one short years old.

His life snuffed out in a nanosecond.

I think he was on the verge of converting to the religion of his wife. He attended Mass with her. He spoke highly of the Blessed Virgin Mary—a rarity among Protestants. He preached unity in the face of evil, civility in the face of chaos, love instead of rancor, and he was gunned down as a result of that.

When that disordered fellow in Utah shot Charlie Kirk last week, he shot at all of us.

We all were wounded in the crossfire.

We were all wounded also with those Catholic school children in Minneapolis.

In both cases, there was a “trans” element. In Minnesota the shooter was turning into a young “woman.” In Utah, the shooter lived with a man who was “transitioning” into a woman. In both cases, the devil was running rampant.

It was really the evil that shot Kirk and the school kids. It can’t stand the rise of young Christianity. And it is rising. Kirk was just 31 and as well-spoken as any Evangelical preacher in this nation. Satan can’t take that. No. He was getting nervous at the statistics: our young men and women, especially in college—which is where Kirk did most of his “preaching”—are coming back into Christianity and even the most traditional forms of it.

They’ve had it precisely with fatal demonic nonsense like transgenderism.

They’re not satisfied with the immorality that has been normalized and the aberrational behavior now defended as a right.

They’re not going to put up with the world we’ve malformed for them.

They know insanity and possession when they see it.

And they can see the devils coming out of the woodwork.

Have you noticed how many “mainstream” commentators—the Megyn Kellys, the Tucker Carlsons, the Glenn Becks—are now openly discussing evil spirits and the devil?

You can turn anywhere now and not hear some sort of mention of it, whereas just a year or two ago it was verboten.

Have you not noticed the openness of our young to the supernatural? Have you not seen the rise to prominence of exorcists? Have you not witnessed the heightening battle on social media (especially TikTok) between Christians and witches?

At Medjugorje, in the early 1980s, the Virgin Mary described a “darkness” that “reigns over the whole world,” a “great struggle” about to unfold, the “present hour” as the “hour of Satan,” when “the demon is authorized to act with all his force and power.” Have we not borne witness to this?

It is a very serious, pivotal time. There is the sense of something monumental about to happen.

They want to take the world back, as do active Christian youth, and so the shot that rang out at Utah Valley University rings and always will echo in our ears.

The wound is felt by us all.

The threat is to everyone who believes in the Bible, who honors Jesus as Lord and Savior.

We were all shot in Utah, but like Charlie—who is now bigger than ever and whose death is evangelizing people more than he ever could have done while on earth—all of us will rise above it; eventually, all of us will triumph; the guns will one day silence; none of us will ultimately succumb.

But in the meantime is a truly aching sadness that after seeing old clips of him on campuses, after watching him love his wife and kids, and when contemplating what more he was about to do, will take some time to mend.

–MHB