Join us for a compelling discussion as we reflect on the assassination of influential Christian leader Charlie Kirk, whose life and mission inspired millions. This episode unravels the narrative around youth radicalization and violence in America, providing insights from key figures including Governor Spencer Cox and FBI officials. In the face of tragedy, Washington Watch calls for unity and renewed courage, drawing inspiration from Charlie Kirk’s legacy of unwavering faith and dedication to societal renewal.
SPEAKER 17 :
from the heart of our nation’s capital in Washington, D.C., bringing compelling interviews, insightful analysis, taking you beyond the headlines and soundbites into conversations with our nation’s leaders and newsmakers, all from a biblical worldview. Sitting in for Tony is today’s host, Jody Heiss. We got him.
SPEAKER 03 :
On the evening of September 11th, a family member of Tyler Robinson reached out to a family friend who contacted the Washington County Sheriff’s Office with information that Robinson had confessed to them or implied that he had committed the incident. This information was relayed to the Utah County Sheriff’s Office and scene investigators at Utah Valley University. This information was also conveyed to the FBI.
SPEAKER 12 :
That was Utah Governor Spencer Cox announcing this morning that authorities have arrested 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, suspected in the killing of influential Christian conservative Charlie Kirk. Welcome to this September 12th edition of Washington Watch. I am your Friday host, Jody Heiss. Thank you so much for tuning in. All right, coming up. The tragic assassination of Charlie Kirk has certainly left the nation grieving, and now, with the arrest of a suspect, disturbing evidence is emerging about his possible ties to Antifa and radical leftist ideology. Larry Taunton, executive director of the Fixed Point Foundation, will join us to discuss the deeper cultural and spiritual forces that are at play here. Also, Congressman John McGuire of Virginia. He will be joining us a little bit later to share his thoughts on the impact that Charlie’s life and death have had in Washington, D.C. And then as we do each Friday, we’ll look at all the headlines from this week through the lens of a biblical perspective. David Claussen, the director of our Center for Biblical Worldview here at the Family Research Council, will join us to reflect on why Charlie Kirk was such a role model, specifically to young men, and how the church now should carry on after his death. All right, a mugshot was released today that reveals the face of Tyler Robinson. He’s the man who’s now in custody for the fatal shooting of Christian conservative Charlie Kirk and Utah Governor Spencer Cox in a very emotional press conference earlier today called the Killing an Attack on All of Us. He also praised the swift action of law enforcement who tracked down this suspect in just 33 hours. Also, FBI Director Kash Patel echoed all those remarks, vowing continued transparency as the investigation unfolds. Well, joining me now is Washington Stand reporter Casey Harper, who’s been following this story very closely. Casey, let’s start. What more can you tell us about the suspect, Tyler Robinson, and how authorities were able to track him down so quickly?
SPEAKER 16 :
Yeah, thanks, Jody. So according to Utah Governor Spencer Cox, the break in the case came when Robinson reportedly confessed, actually, or at least heavily implied his guilt to a family friend. That friend alerted the authorities Thursday morning. Investigators moved quickly from there. The FBI director credited both the public tips and interagency cooperation for what he called a historic 33-hour apprehension window. It’s also worth noting that Governor Cox mentioned that a family member told investigators that Robinson had recently become more politically radicalized, even frequently speaking poorly and disparagingly about Charlie Kirk in the weeks leading up to the attack.
SPEAKER 03 :
Charlie said, when people stop talking, that’s when you get violence. It is also much bigger than an attack on an individual. It is an attack on all of us. It is an attack on the American experiment. It is an attack on our ideals. This cuts to the very foundation of who we are, of who we have been, and who we could be in better times.
SPEAKER 16 :
Now, the suspect is expected to face federal formal charges in the coming days. And you know, Jody, as we reflect on this tragedy, I’m reminded that this issue of violence and hatred, it’s not just political. It’s a matter of the heart. It’s spiritual. And in Jeremiah 17, verse 9, it says that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. However, I do have some hope that in the midst of the darkness, that we can hold fast to the promise of redemption. You know, Governor Cox quoted Charlie Kirk, where he said, when people stop talking, that’s when you get violence. And of course, Scripture calls us to something higher, Jody. Let’s not grow weary of doing good.
SPEAKER 12 :
Casey, thank you so much. I appreciate that. I was reminded of Matthew 15, I believe it is, where Jesus said what you just said, that the heart is wicked to all manner of wickedness. In fact, one of the Items he listed in that list was murder. So thank you, Casey, very much. I want to go further into the latest details on the suspect who is now accused of assassinating Charlie Kirk and joining me now to discuss this. Larry Taunton is the founder and executive director of Fixed Point Foundation. Larry, welcome back to Washington Watch. Thank you for joining us.
SPEAKER 04 :
It’s great to be with you.
SPEAKER 12 :
Okay, first of all, we should note that this is certainly a developing story, and details continue to emerge even as we talk right now. So some of the details are not yet confirmed at this point, but there are some reports, Larry, that at least are suggesting that the shooter may have had some ties with Antifa. So as you have been looking into this, what have you found so far about this suspect?
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, well, Jody, those details, as you point out, are still quite sketchy, but it is being reported from several sources at this point, again, very early in the investigation, that he did have links with Antifa, or Antifa, if you like to call it that, and that he had inscribed his bullets there. with so-called anti-fascist statements, you know, things like Bella Chao, Bella Chao being a famous song from the Spanish Civil War in 1939 that, you know, the communists are going off to fight the fascists and catch this fascist. Also, putting on the shell casings, the Antifa arrows, you know, that looks very much like the logo. And it seems that Discord, which I’ve been asking my own children about, you know, for the last couple of hours, Discord, which is a chat app, is one that he was involved in. And it seems that he was involved with groups that met there that were calling for the extermination of Christians.
SPEAKER 12 :
Wow. Larry, how does a person get here? I mean, you look at this individual himself, a college student, but was on a prestigious academic scholarship. How in the world does a young person like this get involved in a group like that? What is the appeal that’s drawing young people into this stuff?
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, you know, as a former educator, you know, someone who taught both university and preparatory school, I have to tell you this. It’s very rare that you encounter a hypocritical youth. They are painfully, almost painfully naive and sincere, and they’re looking for something to believe in. They’re looking for purpose. And as such, teachers… You have to be very careful in what you say to your students. I’m mindful of the old Hitchcock movie starring Jimmy Stewart where he plays a professor of criminology and just sort of throws out to his students if the perfect murder could be committed. And the next thing he knows, a couple of students have gone out and actually killed someone. You must be very careful with students that you are not – you know, throwing out crackpot ideas because they’re all too ready to put hands and feet to your ideas. And what we are seeing across the country, Jody, is we’re seeing the radicalizing of America’s youth. And it’s being done very cynically. It’s being done very deliberately. And that’s because youth have always been the shock troops, the cannon fodder for every radical movement.
SPEAKER 12 :
So the appeal is something bigger than themselves? Is that what it is?
SPEAKER 04 :
Yes, I think so. Listen, I was speaking on a college campus just a couple of years ago where I was speaking on a topic that I’ve been asked to speak on, which was the Declaration of Independence. And I was talking about the very radical idea that that, you know, this is actually Civics 101, I’m being sarcastic, that are inalienable rights, that they come from God, they don’t come from government, and that’s embedded in the Declaration of Independence. Well, the next thing I know, a professor stands up during my lecture, he says, the lecture is over. He was offended by my reference to God, and he kept telling his students, don’t listen to him, don’t listen to him. And I just continued to plow on. This is what’s happening. in our universities. And so I think a lot of these kids, when they’re told repeatedly, I mean, we see what happens to adults. We saw what happened to an entire country in Germany with propaganda. When kids are told repeatedly that someone is evil and we must do everything we can to stop them, when comparisons are made, New Republic, to Adolf Hitler, to Nazis, to fascists, a mass murder, these kinds of things, kids are ready to act. They want to become the next Dietrich Bonhoeffer, you see, but they don’t understand that Dietrich Bonhoeffer was motivated by something else and understood it in a very different way. Most of these kids don’t even have any idea what fascist means. You know, my conversations with them reveal they just don’t know that. They don’t know what these words are. They just associate it with something evil. And that’s because they’re being wound up and directed towards these kinds of activities. And then Democrats sit back and pretend they don’t know what’s going on. And I want to be clear on this point, Jody. What Tyler Robinson did here is exactly what Democrats wanted him to do. The crocodile tears we’re hearing are not genuine. They want these things to happen. They created the atmosphere for assassination in Butler, Pennsylvania, and they continue to create it. These are sleeper cells in a sense that they’re creating and setting loose into the culture to do precisely what they are doing.
SPEAKER 12 :
Wow. So you mentioned the messages that were left on the bullet casings. Interesting to me how frequently we see these little signs of motive left behind. What do you make of that?
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, in part, what I get from it is that they want what they’re doing to be known and associated with a much larger cause. Listen, we saw how the left celebrated the murder, the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO shot down in cold blood in New York. We saw how they celebrated that. And we would be naive to think that there are plenty of directionless youth who aren’t prepared to go out and do the same thing in order to get the same acclaim. You know, I’m reminded of something C.S. Lewis said in a little book that he wrote during World War II called The Abolition of Man, where everyone was saying we have to get rid of the potential Hitlers, you know, in our – in our classrooms? And C.S. Lewis said, no. He said, for every student with bad ideas, there are three with no ideas at all. So the task of the modern educator isn’t to cut down jungles, is to irrigate intellectual deserts. And that’s where we find ourselves. A lot of these kids, they have not been given a strong ideological basis. And the result is they’re easy prey for propagandists when they come.
SPEAKER 12 :
Wow. Very interesting. I mean, what you’re laying out for us there is both a responsibility and a problem that we’re seeing in so much of our educational institutions. You know, sometimes Christians ask me, believers, you know, what’s the problem? And I say, look, we as believers are the problem, but we are the solution as well. And to some extent, that’s what we could say with education right here. They’re the problem. But they can be part of the solution as well. Larry, look, we’re up against a break. I’d like for you to stick around if that’s okay with you.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, I’d be delighted to, Jody.
SPEAKER 12 :
Okay, thank you. All right, friends, after the break, we’re going to continue this conversation with Larry Taunton, Executive Director at Fixed Point Foundation. So don’t go anywhere. Much more coming your way right after the break.
SPEAKER 07 :
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SPEAKER 12 :
Welcome back to Washington Watch. I’m Jody Heiss, your Friday host, and glad to have you with us. My guest right now is Larry Taunton. He’s the executive director of the Fixed Point Foundation. Larry, thanks so much for sticking around over the break.
SPEAKER 04 :
Delighted, Jody.
SPEAKER 12 :
All right. Listen, we’ve been discussing the suspect who has now been apprehended for the assassination of Charlie Kirk. But before we continue on that track, Larry, I wanted you to share some of your thoughts on Charlie. You knew him. So from your relationship, tell us about Charlie Kirk.
SPEAKER 04 :
Sure. I can’t claim to have known Charlie real well, but I met him at Mar-a-Lago and had dinner with him a couple of years ago. And one of the things that immediately struck me about Charlie, other than the fact, I mean, I’m a pretty big guy and Charlie is a big guy. But I also was struck by the fact that Charlie. What you saw with him offstage is exactly what he was onstage. He was driven by a sense of mission. He was highly energetic. He was a real thoughtful guy, friendly, and believed. He was very sincere in what he believed. And, you know, I just love that. about Charlie. I love the fact that Charlie was driven to make an impact for Jesus Christ in this culture. And that’s something I really want to underscore here, because the media pundits want to recast him as some kind of quote-unquote far-right individual. you know, political operative, Charlie’s political beliefs were rooted in his Christian conviction. So he was, it was his Christian conviction that determined his political beliefs, not the other way around. And that just made Charlie just a wonderful guy.
SPEAKER 12 :
Well, and I know you, like the rest of us, have been just grieving. You know, it was such a shock to get the word of this. And, you know, I’ve just been kind of numb, to be honest with you. Throughout the week, I’m sure that’s been a similar situation for you as well. But as we now have a suspect in custody, it’s interesting that family members actually told investigators that the suspect had become more politically radicalized, like you were talking about before the break, and that he had spoken specifically about Charlie Kirk in the weeks leading up to this attack. Let’s go back to our conversation before the break. And if you can just elaborate a little bit more, in your opinion, what is it that is radicalizing our youth these days?
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, let’s talk about the violence, excuse me, of the left. I myself, along with maybe about 15 other people, have been the target of their violence. There was an attempt to murder me and several others before. By proxy, my home was swatted in February of this year. My dog Ranger, a German Shepherd alerts me to the fact that there are people outside my home and I look out and I see armed men wearing body armor pointing AR-15s into my windows. Turned out there were 19 of them, all, as the FBI said, loaded for bear with 30 more units on the way. Now, those guys didn’t know that they had been set up. It was law enforcement that had been set up with bogus calls. But the point that I’m making here is that this isn’t anomalous from the left. This is the way they operate. And they will continue to operate this way until there are severe consequences for these kinds of actions, until the cost-benefit ratio is flipped. And you see right now, it’s all benefit for them because there has been no cost. There have been no arrests. In my own swatting, the swatting of several others, there have not been any arrests, not been any consequences for that. So that has to change. Where the failure has taken place, in my opinion, as a longtime educator and dealing with so many youth over the course of my career, is that there has been, first of all, there’s the breakdown of the family, which I know that the good people at Family Research Council are very aware of. But then you couple that with what’s happening in our institutions of education, of higher learning, lower, where you have individuals who are coming into these places who are themselves radicals and who have the objective of radicalizing young people. So that my experience in going to college campuses and speaking, say, 15, 20 years ago, they would maybe line up at the mics to take you on. and try to put together arguments. Maybe they weren’t good arguments, but they were ready to engage with you, and they believed in free speech. These days, they just want to shut you down, or they just want to kill you. And that was, of course, what happened in the case of Charlie Kirk. But I do want to say this to those who are listening to us, Jody. We’re winning.
SPEAKER 12 :
I got another question for you. Go ahead. Well, I just want to say… Right in long with what you’re saying. Let me just ask you this, because I got you. We are winning, and I agree with you. To verify what you’re saying, a recent poll indicated some 34% of college students believe that it’s acceptable to use violence these days to silence someone like you’re suggesting. And you go even further beyond that, over 55% of those on the left identifying as left of center, over 55% of them believe that it would be justified to murder President Trump. I mean, so we have an assassination culture, a death culture that is developing. Real quickly, your thoughts on that?
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, well, I mean, some very clever people have put together a montage, perhaps you have here on Washington Watch, of people like Hillary Clinton and Chuck Schumer and Adam Schiff and Gavin Newsom and on and on and on, the usual suspects, all using the language of violence and all saying that we must do whatever it takes to stop the MAGA movement. And so, you know, young people aren’t stupid. They hear that, they see that, and they think, okay, well, I’ll be a hero if I go out and I assassinate this person or that person. And, you know, and we’re hearing all this stuff, you know, now we need to calm down, you know, the rhetoric. We don’t need to point fingers. To me, that would be like the Nazis post-World War II saying, gosh, let’s be careful with the finger pointing here.
SPEAKER 12 :
Yep. Larry Taunton, Executive Director of Fixed Point Foundation. Fascinating conversation. Thank you so much for joining us today on Washington Watch.
SPEAKER 04 :
It’s great to be with you, brother.
SPEAKER 12 :
Thank you. God bless. Wow. Amazing information. All right. Coming up, we’re going to continue this conversation. One area that we have not yet gone is on Capitol Hill. Their perspective on the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Congressman John McGuire will join me right after the break for that discussion. So stay tuned.
SPEAKER 16 :
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SPEAKER 12 :
Welcome back to Washington to Watch. Grateful to have you on board with us. I’m Jody Heiss, your Friday host. All right, as you know by now, the last couple of days we’ve talked a lot about the life and the legacy of Charlie Kirk, and we’ve looked at it from several different perspectives. We’ve discussed the circumstances and the significance of this absolutely horrible incident. and senseless act that took his life. But one of the angles that we have not yet approached is the perspective from Capitol Hill where Charlie’s life and death also had an enormous impact. So joining me now with his perspective is Congressman John McGuire. He represents the 5th Congressional District of Virginia. Congressman McGuire, welcome back to Washington Watch. Thank you for joining us.
SPEAKER 13 :
Jody, thanks for having me on. I got to tell you, it’s been hard to sleep the last couple of nights. I can only imagine what the family’s going through. I was on the floor. Actually, I was in committee voting when my wife sent me a text that he had been shot. And I was praying that it was fake news and then praying that somehow he survived. But, you know, God called him home. But it’s just heartbreaking. I mean, I never saw a person more articulate on our conservative Christian values. And as a freshman congressman, I study his videos all the time. The day before he was shot, I was watching a bunch of his videos. It just helps me better debate and argue on the floor our conservative values. And I was scheduled to be with him at convocation at Liberty University in a couple of weeks. So it just rips your heart out, heartbreaking.
SPEAKER 12 :
It really does, and I’m aware of that meeting coming up at Liberty. In fact, it was on the day that he was assassinated that evening. Liberty University had one of the most powerful worship services taking place. With the knowledge that he was coming, I just wept through all of this. What has been your… Not only your personal reaction to his assassination, but that of your colleagues as a whole in Congress. What is the tone that’s being felt there?
SPEAKER 13 :
Well, it’s certainly the thing that everybody’s talking about. And I got to tell you, he was killed for having a different point of view. And he was assassinated. And we can never forget that. We had a never forget moment with 9-11 that we celebrated this, or we remembered. Take it back. We remembered this week. And this is another never forget moment. And I think that it’s going to just inspire more people to get his message. And I think we’re going to have a million more Charlie Kirks pop up in our country. At least I pray for that. And I don’t know if anyone has done that, but if they haven’t done it, someone should archive all of his wisdom because he was 31 years old and he’s irreplaceable and his his intelligence and his ability to articulate. And when the argument for Christians, for conservatives is just unmatched. And so I don’t know who’s going to do that, but I certainly support that effort.
SPEAKER 12 :
Yeah, you know, there’s no question this is a political assassination, but this is much deeper than politics. He was assassinated, as you said, because of his beliefs. He was assassinated because of his Christian stance. It goes further than mere politics, but the ramifications and the rippling effect has been so… Far reaching. I’m hearing that at least there are reports of some potential security protocols being reexamined there on Capitol Hill. What can you tell us about that?
SPEAKER 13 :
Yeah, certainly there’s a heightened sense of security with elected officials. There’s been a pattern. Obviously, we saw two assassination attempts on President Trump and some other folks up north. So there’s certainly concern for that. And there should be. It just seems like you can’t have a different opinion. And it just seems like the left is more prone to violence. I mean, I’m sure you’ve seen some of the videos where they talk about get in their face, create a crowd. Biden talked about taking them out back and punching them out. I mean, they just have a lot of rhetoric. In fact, on the floor, you probably saw there was a scuffle. One of the members of Congress said to me, your side needs to tone down your rhetoric. And I probably shouldn’t have said it, but I said, you guys need to stop shooting people on our side. And of course, there was a back and forth about prayer. You probably saw that. And same thing happened in the British Parliament. I saw a video today where in the British Parliament, they asked for a moment of silence for Charlie Kirk. And the leader said, no way. So the conservatives stood up anyway as a show of respect for Charlie Kirk. And of course, the opposing party just made all kinds of noise. So…
SPEAKER 12 :
So what is your message to your colleagues right now? Yeah, we saw the chaos on the floor and asking for a moment of silence and prayer, and that was soundly rejected by some. What is your message to your colleagues and the rest of our country right now?
SPEAKER 13 :
So my message would be is remember that God is in control and God always gets the last word. But what we have to do is we have to stick together. We have to stay vigilant, stay vigilant as a country, as lawmakers. If you see something, say something, do something. And together, united we stand, divided we fall. We’ve got to keep an eye on each other. You know, there are many situations that going back to 9-11 where people saw simple things they didn’t report. And had they reported it, it could have prevented that horrible day. Same thing with the folks who saw the shooter for President Trump in Butler. They could have said something and reported it. So if you see something, say something, do something. And I see the young girl who was killed on the subway. It was heartbreaking. She slipped away all by herself, and no one on the train did a thing to help her. And maybe that’s because of Daniel Penny. He tried to save some lives, and they tried to ruin his life. But, you know, it’s good versus evil. It’s spiritual warfare. Lots of prayer. And let’s keep an eye on each other.
SPEAKER 12 :
It really is spiritual warfare. That’s what it comes down to. All of this from the heart comes all manner of evil. And Congressman John McGuire of Virginia, I want to thank you so much for taking time to share with us what’s happening in your life and on Capitol Hill. We greatly appreciate it.
SPEAKER 13 :
Thank you for having me.
SPEAKER 12 :
All right, friends, don’t go anywhere. On the other side of the break, David Claussen will join me for our Biblical Worldview segment. And we’ve got a lot to talk about this week, so stay tuned.
SPEAKER 01 :
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How should Christians think about the thorny issues shaping our culture? How should Christians address deceitful ideas like transgenderism, critical theory, or assisted suicide? How can Christians navigate raising children in a broken culture, the war on gender roles, or rebuilding our once great nation? Outstanding is a podcast from The Washington Stand dedicated to these critical conversations. Outstanding seeks to tear down what our corrupt culture lifts up with an aim to take every thought and every idea captive to the obedience of Christ. Whether policies or partisan politics, whether conflict in America or conflict abroad, join us and our guests as we examine the headlines through the lens of Scripture and explore how Christians can faithfully exalt Christ in all of life. Follow Outstanding on your favorite podcast app and look for new episodes each week.
SPEAKER 12 :
If you’re tuned in to Washington Watch, welcome back. I’m your Friday host, Jody Heiss. Glad to have you tuning in. And before I get to my final guest, I want to just remind you that today, today is the last day to take advantage of our special discount for the upcoming PrayVote Stand Summit taking place on October 17th and 18th in Chino Hills, California. And with fall just around the corner, we’re offering a $30 discount on the Summit package for anyone who registers today using the code FALL, F-A-L-L. So if you have not already done so, go and register today. To learn more and to register, you can visit PrayVoteStand.org. That’s PrayVoteStand.org. All right, as we do each Friday, we like to end the program and really the entire week by thinking about some of the headlines through the lens of a biblical worldview. I don’t know that there’s anything more important for us as believers as we are just in the midst of a whirlwind of news to learn how to look at it all through the lens of Scripture. And there’s no doubt there’s a lot of news taking place, but pretty much all of that has been eclipsed this week by the assassination of Christian conservative leader Charlie Kirk. And even our programs over the last couple of days have reflected that. So I think it’s appropriate for us to continue this discussion. WITH OUR BIBLICAL WORLDVIEW SEGMENT. AND JOINING ME NOW TO DO SO IS DAVID CLAUSON. HE’S THE DIRECTOR OF OUR CENTER FOR BIBLICAL WORLDVIEW HERE AT THE FAMILY RESEARCH COUNCIL. HE’S ALSO AUTHOR OF THE BOOK, LIFE AFTER ROE, EQUIPPING CHRISTIANS IN THE FIGHT FOR LIFE TODAY. DAVID, WELCOME BACK TO WASHINGTON WATCH. THANKS FOR JOINING US.
SPEAKER 10 :
IT’S GOOD TO BE WITH YOU, JODDY.
SPEAKER 12 :
All right, well, there has been a pretty numbing week for many of us, a lot of outpouring of emotions from people. I think probably if there’s any one category that that would be reflected most would be with young men following the assassination of Charlie Kirk. And I’d like to talk about that specifically here in just a little while. But, David, first, let me get your personal reactions to that. toward the events that have happened over the last 48 hours or so.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, Jody, just shock and grief. It’s so sobering when someone with a public platform passes. But when someone, this is a political assassination. And it has rocked me. My wife called me when news broke and was just worried. And we watched the video. And my initial reaction was just tears. just crying seeing that. Now, you know, it’s just disorienting to just, you know, I had the privilege of meeting Charlie Kirk once. We both spoke at an event two years ago in California. And I just, remember it so vividly. We were in the green room, and he walks in with his kind of entourage and security, and I’m kind of just standing there, went up to him and introduced myself. And it was amazing, someone kind of with a high platform that he had. He was just kind, warm, genuinely interested in my work and the work we were doing here at the Family Research Council in particular to support pastors. And it’s just the legacy. 31 years of age, so just a few years younger than me. And to think of what he built. I think J.D. Vance yesterday said that Charlie Kirk deserves a lot of credit for the Trump-Vance team winning the election last fall. But like you said, this is also someone who is really seen as a role model by millions of young men. So I think the hurt experienced in that demographic especially is just, it’s visceral.
SPEAKER 12 :
And I can just say my experience with Charlie Kirk was very similar to yours as well. And you would never be with him for just more than a couple of moments. And you realize this is a special young man in so many ways. But you mentioned specifically the role model that he was, especially for so many young men. What do you think it was that he was able to tap into with these young men?
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, Jody, I think the big thing is that he spoke with clarity, conviction and courage to a whole kind of cohort that feels adrift. And of course, that’s young men, particularly Gen Z, these young men who, again, They’ve been talked down to as they’ve come into adulthood. And what he did is he called them to responsibility. He called them to something bigger, something outside of themselves. He called young men to put down the video games and to go build something, to go find meaning. You know, it’s interesting, Jody, you asked the question. At lunch today, I actually had lunch with FRC’s new intern class. These are young college-age men and women. One of the young men, he’s 19 years old, I asked him kind of, what did Charlie Kirk mean to your generation, to Gen Z? And what he said, he said, Charlie Kirk spoke to my generation. He fought for us and he challenged us. And I think that was just really insightful. You know, I’ve probably watched hundreds of clips over the years of Charlie Kirk while I’ve listened to his speeches. What I appreciated about him is I think as he got older, that there was actually a maturation and a deepening that took place, in particular, as Charlie Kirk began to really take his faith very seriously and connect his political convictions to his Christian faith. I think that really came out, especially in the last couple of years, And I think young men saw that and they felt that they were being called to a higher standard. You know, young men. So I’m a millennial. I would include millennials and Gen Z. We’ve heard phrases about toxic masculinity. We’ve heard the broader culture kind of demean men. And again, I think Charlie Kirk challenged young men to grow up and to do something. He would talk about the fight for civilization, doing something outside of yourself. And I think that resonated with young men in just a powerful way, really.
SPEAKER 12 :
You know, we’ve talked about it before on this program, David, you and I, but there seems to be a remarkable movement that’s taking place within Gen Z, particularly with the young men in that demographic. Even the New York Times has noticed this trend and has written stories about it. Can you kind of remind our listeners what some of the recent data, specifically from like Barna, is showing about young men and maybe connect that with what you were just talking about with Charlie Kirk and others in terms of how they took their faith and connected that politically and otherwise?
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, Jody, I think it’s one of the most encouraging developments that I’ve been seeing since I’ve kind of entered into this life of public policy and politics. The data shows that for the first time ever, young men are going to church at higher rates than young women. So if you look at every demographic, whether it’s baby boomers, Gen X, millennials, the oldest generation, the elders, in every generation, this has always for decades been true, that women outpace men as far as kind of not only church attendance, but things like Bible reading and prayer. And what the data shows is that for the first time, young men, specifically Gen Z men, are attending church at higher rates than their cohorts and young women. They’re reading the Bible. They’re engaging in spiritual disciplines. And it’s not just kind of those spiritual practices, the desires and the vision that young men have. You referenced the New York Times article. Actually, I have it in front of me right here. They did some research, Jody, and it showed that unmarried young men. desire to become parents and to raise a family by a higher margin than their young women counterparts by 12 points. So again, young men, unmarried men, tell pollsters at higher rates than women that they aspire to have a family, to have children. And again, we’ve never seen that. It’s usually women who are seen as the ones that want to get married and have families and just start a life with a partner. But I think it shows that, again, young men are hungry to aspire to something outside of themselves, to connect their life to something that has a transcendent meaning. And again, I think especially in the last couple of years of his life and his ministry, this really is kind of the charge of Charlie Kirk. You would hear him often, whether it was on Fox News or at one of these college events, he’d look at the young men and tell them, get married, start a family, and start building something. And again, I think that resonates and he would connect that as well to church, building your life in a community that actually believes in absolute moral values. And so, again, I think with Gen Z men in particular, that there’s kind of been a revival. There’s been an awakening. I think part of that is folks like Charlie Kirk that have been challenging them. And I think, Jody, part of it is kind of a almost a whiplash to the broader culture that’s been telling them that they’re toxic and that, you know, the future is female and shout your abortion and things like that. And so there’s a lot kind of in the cultural milieu. But I think Charlie Kirk has a lot to do with this vibe shift with young men.
SPEAKER 12 :
Very, very interesting. Let me kind of shift gears with you maybe just a little bit and move a little bit more towards a pastoral question. David, and this is partly for me too. I may be needing a little therapy discussion here as well. But in moments like this, when someone’s so prominent, so effective is suddenly taken away from us. Many people, I think in this case probably especially young men, they feel a sense of disorientation. In fact, I think you used that word yourself with how you’d felt this week. But what biblical counsel would you give to those individuals as they process the grief, as they process the anger as they process things like even fear in light of Charlie’s death? How would you counsel them?
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, Jody, I… I think it’s okay to grieve. I think as Christians, we’re the folks that have the category of lament. Jesus, in fact, wept outside of Lazarus’ tomb. And I think it’s important for us as Christians, as we lament and as we grieve, to remember what 1 Thessalonians 4 teaches, that we don’t grieve, though, as those that don’t have hope. we have hope as Christians. We are rooted in eternal truths. Um, we, we, we are rooted in the things that the Bible teaches us. Um, you know, the gospel is still true today as it was on Wednesday. Uh, you know, one of the last questions Charlie was able to answer, he was actually quoting scripture. I was, I believe it was first Corinthians. Um, and so those things are all still true today. Um, And so I think what we need to do is we grieve, but then we get back up, Jody, and we fight for truth. We fight for the principles that we find in God’s Word that we believe serve civilization, that support families, that build strong communities. We get back on the horse and we do the work that God has called us to do. And of course, as people that care about justice, it seems that earlier today they announced that someone has been apprehended who appears to have been the perpetrator. As Christians, we want justice and we need to be praying that justice is carried out. But again, as we grieve, Jody, I think as Christians, we find resolve to get back up and do the work that our Lord has called us to do.
SPEAKER 12 :
Yeah, and great points. And, you know, I think of Charlie Kirk. Here’s an individual who was courageous. He was bold in speaking about his faith. He was bold about speaking about politics, as you’ve talked about how he connected those two, connecting it all with our culture. And he did all that without apology. And so I look at where we are today. What lessons do you think he leaves the Christian community, especially young leaders? But what lessons should we take from this example?
SPEAKER 10 :
Jody, the lesson is courage, that you can speak to people filled with your convictions. Now, you can go into the lion’s den and you don’t have to compromise. Again, Charlie Kirk would really with Turning Point USA, the organization he founded, they went on and they have hundreds and hundreds. It might even be thousands of chapters on American college campuses. You know, it’s kind of been a just a. A BELIEF IN POLITICS THAT THE YOUNG GENERATION IS ALWAYS GOING TO KIND OF BE LIBERAL AND MAYBE WHEN THEY GET A LITTLE BIT OLDER THEY’LL WISE UP. CHARLIE KURT HAS SHOWN THAT IF YOU ACTUALLY MAKE YOUR CONVICTIONS CLEAR AND YOU’RE WILLING TO HAVE A FREE EXCHANGE OF IDEAS, YOU CAN CHANGE HEARTS AND MINDS. In this last election, 2024, it showed that young men, Gen Z men, actually favored Donald Trump over Kamala Harris. And so, again, I think the lesson that he leaves us with is courage. You can still connect with people and be filled with, you know, rock-ribbed conviction. You don’t need this mealy-mouthed third-wayism. You can speak the truth in love, and people actually are hungry for that.
SPEAKER 12 :
You know, courage begets courage. When young men especially see someone that courageous in his beliefs to the extent of losing his life over it, it inspires others. And I know one of the things that my wife and I are praying specifically is that this would be a time where tens and hundreds and thousands of young men all across this country step up to the plate with that same type of biblically oriented, biblically rooted courage, will step up into the gap and be seen, be heard. And may God grant that. David, I want to thank you, as always, for joining us on this edition of Washington Watch, bringing a biblical perspective to it all. It’s been a very heart-wrenching week, and your words of wisdom and grace found in truth, greatly appreciated. Thank you. Thank you. God bless. All right, friends, that wraps up this week of Washington Watch. Have a great weekend. We’ll see you next week.
SPEAKER 17 :
Washington Watch with Tony Perkins is brought to you by Family Research Council and is entirely listener supported. Portions of the show discussing candidates are brought to you by Family Research Council Action. For more information on anything you heard today or to find out how you can partner with us in our ongoing efforts to promote faith, family, and freedom, visit TonyPerkins.com.
