A number of important lessons to learn—and relearn—loom from the tragedy of the murder of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.
First is obvious—or should be: That it is wrong to murder persons for speaking their political beliefs however wretched they may be.
Second is that words and ideas hurt and hurt deeply. We now know that apparently the murderer was in a relationship with a trans person and Kirk was explicit about his belief that trans people don’t have a right to exist.
Third is that truth matters. Kirk championed the lie debunked by 65 court decisions and common sense that Trump won the 2020 election.
Fourth, in a democracy, diversity matters. Governor Cox of Utah, himself a Mormon and conservative like the murderer’s family, cited the basis of American democracy articulated by Abraham Lincoln: That every American has the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
This includes trans people. Trans people are people. Trans people have rights. Trans people have the right of dignity of self. Trans people are different, and are a tiny minority and all the more vulnerable for that. Therefore our treatment of them is a test of our commitment to the ideal that all people are images of God and children of God and deserve respect and dignity.
It is contrary to Jesus’ teachings to preach that some people are less than human or that there is only one version of humanity—that which mirrors oneself. People who are so insecure about their sexuality that they have to make scapegoats of others ought to look in the mirror and examine their own souls.
Diversity exists—God and nature are biased in favor of diversity. No political demagoguery can make it otherwise. Wars against DEI such as Mr. Kirk waged do not make it otherwise. Here is what he said about people different from himself: “Prowling Blacks go around for fun to go target white people.” And, “Islam is the sword the left is using to slit the throat of America.” And, “we need to have a Nuremberg-style trial for every gender-affirming clinic doctor.”* He also called for televised public executions that children should view.**
Apparently Kirk’s killer had an addiction to a video game that was explicit about shooting people with a rifle from a distance and spent thousands of hours online mastering that fetish.
The killer was, like many young men today, confused about life. A very high percentage of those who commit mass murders in the US these days are young men. They need mentors and elders in their lives who can teach them what healthy masculinity is as opposed to the dominant cultural version of maleness which so often champions domination and the reptilian brain—“I win, you lose.”
Kirk declared that “I can’t stand the word empathy, actually. I think empathy is a made-up new age term that does lots of damage.” He taught birth control causes women to be “angry and bitter” and that a ten-year old girl who was raped should bring that baby to term. He said that seeing a black pilot makes him wonder, “I hope he’s qualified.” Recently, on hearing of the engagement of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, he told Taylor to “submit to your husband….have a ton of children….If she has children, she’ll stop this liberal nonsense.” ***
Healthy manhood invites qualities and powers that develop our deep capacities for compassion and understanding, for courage, justice-making, healing and respect for those different from ourselves. Love, therefore, as Jesus taught.
Christian nationalism is the opposite of all this. Just as the opposite of Christ is Antichrist.
*Will Neal, “Fox News War as Host Declares Charlie Kirk ‘Wasn’t a Saint’” Daily Beast, September 14, 2025
**Andy Borowitz, “Sorry, Loser! As long as there’s a First Amendment, I plan to enjoy it.” The Borowitz Report. September 16, 2025.
***Evolve Editors, “Charlie Kirk’s Most Controversial Moments,“ Yahoo! News, September 12, 2025
See Matthew Fox, The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors To Awaken the Sacred Masculine.
And Fox, Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the World.
And Fox, Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality.
And Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul & Society.
And Fox, A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice.
And Adam Bucko and Matthew Fox, Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation.
And Fox, Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2025 Election.
Banner image: “Am I Next? Student lie-in at the White House to protest gun laws.” The demonstration was organized by Teens For Gun Reform, an organization created by students in the Washington DC area, in the wake of Wednesday’s shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Photo by Laurie Shaull on Flickr.
Queries for Contemplation
What lessons do you learn from this most recent tragedy and upheaval in American politics and peoples’ responses to it?
Related Readings by Matthew Fox
The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine
To awaken what Fox calls “the sacred masculine,” he unearths ten metaphors, or archetypes, ranging from the Green Man, an ancient pagan symbol of our fundamental relationship with nature, to the Spiritual Warrior….These timeless archetypes can inspire men to pursue their higher calling to connect to their deepest selves and to reinvent the world.
“Every man on this planet should read this book — not to mention every woman who wants to understand the struggles, often unconscious, that shape the men they know.” — Rabbi Michael Lerner, author of The Left Hand of God
Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth
Fox’s spirituality weds the healing and liberation found in North American Creation Spirituality and in South American Liberation Theology. Creation Spirituality challenges readers of every religious and political persuasion to unite in a new vision through which we learn to honor the earth and the people who inhabit it as the gift of a good and just Creator.
“A watershed theological work that offers a common ground for religious seekers and activists of all stripes.” — Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice.
“I am reading Liberating Gifts for the People of the Earth by Matt Fox. He is one that fills my heart and mind for new life in spite of so much that is violent in our world.” ~ Sister Dorothy Stang.
Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality
Matthew Fox lays out a whole new direction for Christianity—a direction that is in fact very ancient and very grounded in Jewish thinking (the fact that Jesus was a Jew is often neglected by Christian theology): the Four Paths of Creation Spirituality, the Vias Positiva, Negativa, Creativa and Transformativa in an extended and deeply developed way.
“Original Blessing makes available to the Christian world and to the human community a radical cure for all dark and derogatory views of the natural world wherever these may have originated.” –Thomas Berry, author, The Dream of the Earth; The Great Work; co-author, The Universe Story
Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society
Visionary theologian and best-selling author Matthew Fox offers a new theology of evil that fundamentally changes the traditional perception of good and evil and points the way to a more enlightened treatment of ourselves, one another, and all of nature. In comparing the Eastern tradition of the 7 chakras to the Western tradition of the 7 capital sins, Fox allows us to think creatively about our capacity for personal and institutional evil and what we can do about them.
“A scholarly masterpiece embodying a better vision and depth of perception far beyond the grasp of any one single science. A breath-taking analysis.” — Diarmuid O’Murchu, author of Quantum Theology: Spiritual Implications of the New Physics
A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice
In A Spirituality Named Compassion, Matthew Fox delivers a profound exploration of the meaning and practice of compassion. Establishing a spirituality for the future that promises personal, social, and global healing, Fox marries mysticism with social justice, leading the way toward a gentler and more ecological spirituality and an acceptance of our interdependence which is the substratum of all compassionate activity.
“Well worth our deepest consideration…Puts compassion into its proper focus after centuries of neglect.” –The Catholic Register
Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation
Authors Adam Bucko and Matthew Fox encourage us to use our talents in service of compassion and justice and to move beyond our broken systems–economic, political, educational, and religious–discovering a spirituality that not only helps us to get along, but also encourages us to reevaluate our traditions, transforming them and in the process building a more sacred and just world. Incorporating the words of young activist leaders culled from interviews and surveys, the book provides a framework that is deliberately interfaith and speaks to our profound yearning for a life with spiritual purpose and for a better world.
“Occupy Spirituality is a powerful, inspiring, and vital call to embodied awareness and enlightened actions.”
~~ Julia Butterfly Hill, environmental activist and author of The Legacy of Luna: The Story of a Tree, a Woman, and the Struggle to Save the Redwoods
Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election
Matthew Fox tells us that he had always shied away from using the term “Anti-Christ” because it was so often used to spread control and fear. However, given today’s rise of authoritarianism and forces of democracide, ecocide, and christofascism, he turns the tables in this book employing the archetype for the cause of justice, democracy, and a renewed Earth and humanity.
From the Foreword: If there was ever a time, a moment, for examining the archetype of the Antichrist, it is now…Read this book with an open mind. Good and evil are real forces in our world. ~~ Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit and Conversations with the Divine.
For immediate access to Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election, order the e-book with 10 full-color prints from Amazon HERE.
To get a print-on-demand paperback copy with black & white images, order from Amazon HERE or IUniverse HERE.
To receive a limited-edition, full-color paperback copy, order from MatthewFox.org HERE.
Order the audiobook HERE for immediate download.
10 thoughts on “Lessons from the Murder of Charlie Kirk”
Thank you, Matthew for speaking out. This post is representative of the Matthew Fox I have respected and followed for many years. I’ve commented several times critical of posts that rehash and make reference to Matthew Fox books, or generalized statements with little or no bibliographical reference. I had about given up reading the DMs because they appeared to be edited by a committee of press agents with an agenda. If this post is any indication of what is to come, I’m back to looking forward to reading what the real Matthew Fox has to say. Heart felt gratitude!
I love all the daily messages, both Matthew’s and Gianluigi’s.
Hopefully our long history of unbalanced and toxic patriarchy, egocentricity, duality, and anthropocentricism is coming to an end in this turbulent and violent transition we’re all going through in our human and planetary evolution. We have to maintain Our Faith that our personal and communal spiritual journeys as Humanity and with All spiritual beings, of many physical and nonphysical sacred dimensions, of Sacred Mother Earth/Cosmos are All unique spiritual parts of Our Source~Co-Creator’s Flowing Present Spirit and ongoing Creation/Evolution in LOVING DIVERSE ONENESS…
Great to know some specifics of what Kirk taught. I understand he wasn’t really even an Evangelical but adopted that Christian identity because it was politically expedient. Maybe karma is real.
The more I watch (and engage with!) what is happening in our country, the more complex I realize it all is. For those who want a further deep dive into what’s happening, I offer this investigation from the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI). Beyond the analysis in PRRI’s report, our current situation has been guided by Leonard Leo and consequently the Supreme Court, “Anti-Christian” Nationalism, Project 25, and so on. It seems clear to me that Vladimir Putin, not able to gain the upper hand internationally through the sadly traditional method of war, took on tRump as his protégé. Guided by Putin, tRump and his minions have destroyed the U.S. through division and the near-complete undermining of our Constitution, the rule of law, the court system, the fourth estate, and on and on. Using tRump, Putin has weakened the EU and NATO and is turning the U.S. into an autocracy. Destroying U.S. dominance didn’t cost Putin much—didn’t cost him money his country didn’t have. It was a wise Machiavellian choice and Mr. tRump was too much of a wannabe dictator to see what Putin was doing. Needing to be loved, tRump thought he’d have a friend in Putin in the end. Let’s see how that works out for him. https://prri.org/research/threats-to-american-democracy-ahead-of-an-unprecedented-presidential-election/
I agree with you entirely! Your analysis of today’s political climate is spot on. Thank you for sharing.
I’m not sure I’ve learned anything except I was previously unaware of Charlie Kirk. What I see is a world that is dangerously unwell. It is hard not to consider that we are slipping into apocalyptic chaos.
I think that this country as a democracy is doomed because not enough people care about their neighbors’ health and welfare, are either fearful or lazy and complacent, and are ready to follow what they see as simple and black and white. I can remember trying to explain to my granddaughter before the first regime that democracy was messy and required checks and balances because concentrated power is dangerous, but all she could see was a “strong” man. Her father is a good man but very right wing. The loss of a very flawed democratic system of government does not mean that resistance is not ultimately effective, and there are many, many prophets and leaders like Matthew and others who continue to speak the truth, but that right now maybe the best we can do is keep the faith in small groups, encourage and support one another, and plant seeds—not expecting immediate results but leaving a legacy of truth and justice for our children and their children and their children.
I’m so appreciative of today’s (9/17) DM. Your message was what I needed to hear. It lifted and opened my heart.
Over 50 years ago I read a science fiction/fantasy book – where a couple stumbled across a religious community that had burned some people (who were not members of the community, but were complete strangers) because they were “witches” and the Bible said “thou shalt not suffer a witch to live”. One member leaving the community said to this couple “I didn’t know they were like that…They tell you exactly what to do to be saved. You DON’T HAVE TO THINK OR WORRY OR WONDER…”. That was a part of my awakening and questioning of the strict religious rules I had been brought up on. I think today that too many people have given up on thinking, worrying or wondering, and as a result are easily led astray by whoever comes by with quick answers – this little circle I have inscribed around me is RIGHT, and everything outside of this circle is WRONG. I don’t know how we can encourage people to think, to question, to wonder – but I thank God for all those I meet who do, and who challenge me to keep going and not settle for the easy answer.