Dear editor:

Charlie Kirk’s gruesome assassination marked the most prominent political killing since the murder of RFK in 1968. Like the second Kennedy assassination, and that of MLK, Kirk’s murder sent shockwaves through American society and across the globe. It seems like an inflection point, a fulcrum upon which American history will turn, a time which later generations will look back on, either in horror at what we became following the attack or gratitude at the good we accomplished in the face of so grave an evil. Charlie was murdered chiefly in retaliation for his refusal to bow to the modern rejection of truth and desecration of the human person, specifically its ideological apotheosis: the transgender delusion. Charlie was killed because of his incessant search for truth. His assassination is disturbing but not surprising to most campus conservatives of the last decade.

In college, I was involved in Turning Point at UW and saw first-hand the dangers of left-wing violence. I had the privilege of speaking with or hearing Charlie Kirk four times. Two involved significant (though largely unrealized) threats of violence, vandalism and harassment. In 2020, I chauffeured him around Gillette with his then-fiancée, Erika.

That evening, he gave a speech to the Wyoming GOP which in many ways inspired the conservative political resurgence in our state and galvanized Wyoming’s nascent pro-life majority. I approached Kirk with some misgivings about his sincerity and appreciation for our way of life. But our conversation convinced me that Charlie loved America and deeply respected Wyoming and her people. The way forward, for Kirk, was to seek the truth: a conservative sentiment if ever there was one.

Most of our time was spent talking about God and how best to know and love him. Despite our overall agreement, the Catholic-Protestant divide formed the bulk of our conversation because Charlie was never content with agreement on the lowest-common-denominator. He wanted it all; he was insatiable in his quest for a better future for America, one grounded on the solid rock of truth upon which the West was originally built and which now must be rediscovered stone by stone. He didn’t become a Catholic that day — though he admitted that, in his estimation, everyone who took Christianity seriously eventually did. But he convinced me of his desire to lift America from her self-inflicted malaise and push the nation to be the shining city on a hill that the best of our tradition calls us to.

Hopefully Charlie’s devotion to America and love for truth will be remembered not as a futile kicking against the goad but as a step toward the bright future America still aspires to. Perhaps he will be remembered by Americans like St. Athanasius is remembered by Christians. In Athanasius’ day, the world was seeped in heretical rejection of the Trinity.

Even the emperor promoted the error. But Athanasius fought for the truth of Trinitarian orthodoxy and is remembered today as a hero of the faith. He is commemorated with the moniker “Athanasius against the world,” a watchword to the importance of standing for the truth — even if you stand alone — and a reminder that reality always reasserts itself in the end. That same faith stands against all the errors of our age, including the transgender perversion and political violence.

I pray Charlie Kirk may share the everlasting glory St. Athanasius now enjoys. I pray also that his murder inspires America to continue his legacy of truth-seeking and respect for the dignity of the human person. Truly good men, free men, are those who stand for the truth … and take the bullets for it. The truth, after all, will set us free.

Jesse Campbell

Cody