John and Jenny Fulton

Charlie Kirk and Counting the Cost

By Jenny Fulton

On September 10, 2025, Charlie Kirk died. Assassinated while peacefully and respectfully speaking the truth in love. Martyred while sharing and living out his faith. His death has shaken the world in ways we cannot fully fathom. Even with all the stories and images being shared from around the world, we are only gaining a small glimpse of the extent and impact this man’s life and death is having and will continue to have.

Shocked and Grieving

I’ll never forget the shock that jolted through me when I saw the news that a bullet had pierced Charlie Kirk’s skin. I’d just opened the local news ap on my phone. The headline seared into my mind: “Conservative activist Charlie Kirk shot while speaking at a Utah College.” I was stunned, so frozen at what I was seeing that it took me a few seconds to click on the article so I could discover what happened.

It didn’t seem real. But I thought, surely, he’ll pull through because he’s too important, too much of a fixture in the American Christian and political spheres not to. I prayed throughout those next few hours, still thinking, believing, hoping that God would save the life of this faithful servant. Surely there was more for Charlie to do here on earth. I frequently refreshed my X Home screen, desperate for updates on how he was doing, looking for the post that would tell me he was in stable condition and expected to pull through.

I was waiting to pick up my kids from school when my eyes landed on the post I’d been dreading. God hadn’t saved his physical body. Charlie Kirk was dead to this earth, his soul forever alive in Heaven with God.

Grief struck me with a force I didn’t expect and couldn’t understand. I immediately started crying, something I don’t do easily. With tears trickling down my face, I wondered why this was hitting me so hard. I’d never met him, didn’t know him personally, and the closest I’d come to seeing him in person, even from a distance, was when he spoke at a church I was attending. And even then, I’d watched him on the screen in the church lobby rather than in the sanctuary where he stood. I followed him on social medial, enjoyed reading his posts, looked for his commentary on current events, and enjoyed watching clips of his conversations with young men and women. Less than a week before he died, I drove past that same church and, due to all the policemen and protestors with their signs, realized he was in town again. But with these limited interactions, why was I feeling as though a good friend or family member had died?

Safety Isn’t Guaranteed

My husband encouraged me to journal about it, knowing that I often can’t sort through and identify my thoughts and feelings until I put pen to paper. It took a couple of days, but on September 12, I did.

I know I’m not alone in feeling this heartache over a man I didn’t know. And yet, as a friend pointed out and as others have done in various posts over the days that followed, we did know him. We saw his love for God and others through his posts and videos, witnessed his courage and peace in the face of hostility, gained hints of his mind and ability to reason. Our spirit recognized a comrade in the Christian faith and felt its loss when that beautiful soul departed this temporal realm for the eternal one.

As I wrote, I realized one aspect of this tragedy that was hitting me the hardest surrounded the matter of safety and God’s protection.

Charlie faced constant opposition and threats for speaking the truth in love, for standing firm on God’s foundation of moral absolutes and values. He wasn’t afraid to counter lies with Truth, to stand against evil. He willingly faced threats and danger every single day. But every day, he pressed on. The death threats never successfully materialized. It seems apparent now that God was divinely protecting him. Until He didn’t. Charlie always returned home, safe and sound. Until he didn’t.

I’ve known for years that safety isn’t guaranteed, that it’s only given by God’s hand, that the only reason I’m still alive at 41 is because of His will – His protection. Maybe one of the reasons that Charlie’s death is such a shock is that it amplifies how fragile, how uncertain, how temporary, our life on this earth is. It’s a sharp reminder that after years of preserving us, God may allow our life, or the life of a loved one, to be taken out in an instant.

It Isn’t Safe to be a Christian

But there’s another reality Charlie Kirk’s assassination reveals as well: it isn’t safe to be a Christian in America. Charlie was killed, not for his conservative political views on the importance of freedom of speech, small government, closed borders, etc., but for his Christian, Bible-based beliefs in God’s moral values and absolute truths.

For many Believers in America, the persecution of Christians is something we read about in the Bible and Voice of the Martyrs. It’s something we may hear about regarding people in other countries or the rare outlier case in America. Some may experience it in the form of insults, lies, slander, the loss of their jobs, or severed relationships. But very rarely have we thought about or expected Christian persecution in America to take the form of violent assault and murder.

In 2007, I moved to China right after graduating from college to teach English at an American International school. I’d heard about the Communist government’s persecution of Christians in that country, had heard general stories about the underground church and the immense risk the Chinese nationals faced when they chose to follow Christ. But the reality of this threat became more real to me when I was given, then lived under, such instructions and information as:

  • Don’t ask other foreigners what they do, because it’s illegal to be a missionary in China and the less you know about what other people are doing, the safer you and everyone else will be.
  • Be careful what you write in any letters or packages you send home. Your mail might be opened and read. If you’re communicating online, don’t write the words ‘pray,’ ‘God,’ ‘Christ,’ ‘Christian,’ or other Christian words or phrases that could get flagged by the Chinese government.
  • Don’t try to attend an underground church because you might be followed.
  • You can attend an international church, but only if they check passports and don’t allow Chinese nationals to attend the services.
  • Be careful who you talk to about Christ, especially if they’re Chinese nationals.
  • Missionaries may be deported for breaking the law, but Chinese nationals could be imprisoned, tortured, or killed for following Christ or attending a church other than the Communist controlled ones.

In many ways, living in China was a wake-up call, making me realize how good we had it in America. My respect and admiration for the Christians in China, and other countries where Christianity is outlawed, increased immensely. In China, there was no place for a lukewarm, take-it-for-granted, watered-down version of Christianity. I got up every morning knowing that in choosing to follow Christ, I was potentially putting myself and others at risk. This awareness created a strong bond among the international Christian community. We lived each day with purpose, comrades in arms, united in a common struggle, willingly accepting a common risk.

Although I didn’t agree with every sermon I heard at the international church on Sunday, those points of disagreement didn’t seem important. I had too much love and respect for the other Believers for any trivial differences to matter. I didn’t ask, and didn’t care, if these Christians from all around the world were Protestant, Catholic, or Orthodox, if their home denomination was Anglican, Presbyterian, Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist, Brethren, Non-denominational…  Instead, I believed and focused on the truth the Apostle Paul wrote in Ephesian 4:4-6, that “There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.”

I never spoke about politics with Americans or those from other countries. We never mentioned whether we were liberal or conservative, whether we voted Democrat or Republican. All that really seemed to matter was that we were serving and loving God and others in a nation that was hostile to Him.

Thankfully, American isn’t China. Our Democratic Republic hasn’t declared the Christian faith to be illegal. However, Charlie Kirk’s death revealed there is a very real threat to Christians in this country. It’s a threat that’s so high, it could result in our death or the death of someone we care about.

This danger doesn’t come from the established laws of the land, but from a group of passionate individuals who are so zealous about their defined reality that they demand everyone else approve, accept, and believe in their reality as well.

By word and deed, they proclaim, “Believe as I do. Define reality and see the world as I do. Speak the way I want you to speak. Obey. Or Die.”

There is no place for Biblical, Christian morals and values with these people. They demand absolute adherence to their ideology and are willing to slander, assault, and kill any who disagree, whether it be innocent children praying at a Christian school or a man holding a microphone, speaking God’s truth with a heart full of love.

And while one murders the innocent, their supporters look on and applaud from the sidelines, loudly proclaiming that the innocent deserved to die and that the murderer had a right to kill them. They call the evil good, and what is good, they declare to be evil.

Counting the Cost

How can you count the cost of something if you don’t know there is one?

For so long in America, Christians have had it easy. The freedom of speech and religion promised in our Constitution has enabled us to live a Christian faith free from the fear of obvious, observable, life-threatening persecution. Wrapped in the illusion of this safe environment, we’ve let down our guard, forgotten there’s a spiritual battle going on for our physical lives and spiritual souls, and taken the beautiful gift of the Gospel for granted. We absolutely must not forget that although people may do horrible things, they are not the true enemy. The true enemy is Satan and his demons who hate God, want to destroy anyone who loves God, and are more than happy to set people against us and use them to execute evil deeds of darkness. “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12, NASB95).

We can’t ignore the fact that being a Christian isn’t easy. It gives us spiritual and physical enemies. Following Christ is a risky road that may include hardship and suffering. New Christians and longer, life-long Christians alike need to realize that if we haven’t done so already, it’s time to count the cost of our faith.

In Luke 14:16-24, Jesus told a parable about a man who invited many, what would seem to be wealthier, people to a feast. When it came time for the feast to begin, each of those he’d invited had an excuse for why he couldn’t make it. There was something each of them valued more than the opportunity to spend time with the man. So, the man, the head of his household, invited the poorest of the poor, those who had nothing to lose and everything to gain. Following this parable, Jesus told the crowds who had gathered that those who wanted to follow Him must count the cost of doing so. They must consider what they might lose versus what they would gain and decide if the cost was worth it, if they were still willing to follow Him. Jeus told them they must value loving and following Him above everything and everyone else in their life (Luke 14:25-33).

John 14-17 records Jesus’ final words to His disciples and His final prayer to God before He was betrayed and sent to the cross. In John 15:18-19, He warned his followers: “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you” (NASB95).

A few verses later, Jesus gave them another warning but also offered them hope. “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33, NASB95).

Jesus wanted His disciples to be aware that there was a risk in following Him. But He also wanted them to know they didn’t need to be afraid because He would give them peace and courage in the mist of those trials. And that in the end, He would win.

Charlie and Erika Kirk counted the cost. They knew that following God meant Charlie would be traveling most of the time and made plans for how to ensure their marriage and family stayed strong. They talked about what could happen when Charlie courageously stood before those who hated him. They made plans for what Erika should do and how she should live and raise their kids if the worst happened – conversations that are heartbreaking to imagine and more so when you hear her reveal pieces of what those discussions included. They counted the cost and deliberately, intentionally, chose to continue serving God in the way He had led them to serve.

Living Boldly Where God Leads

Charlie Kirk was active and widely known in the political sphere. But he was first and foremost a Christian. His politics were driven and defined by his faith. The political landscape was simply where he lived out that faith, on full display before millions of people from around the world.

God may not call us to be active in politics, as Charlie was. He may not call us to speak publicly to large groups of people. But wherever He does lead, I pray we may courageously, boldly, and authentically live out His calling in our lives, trusting that whether He protects our physical bodies or not, whether we live or die on this earth, we are held in God’s hands. And there’s no better place to be.   

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
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