Last week — just days after Charlie Kirk’s assassination — I wrote a column in which I warned that inflammatory rhetoric and violence erupting from the Left would not be going away anytime soon:

“Anyone thinking that a spate of firings or nationwide prayer vigils are going to deter the American Left had better open their eyes and gird their loins. It is far more likely that the Left will double down on their efforts, because they think no one on the Right has the intestinal fortitude to stop them.”

That was Thursday. On Sunday, Charlie’s memorial service was held at the State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. It was truly something to behold.

Several of the nation’s top contemporary Christian artists performed as the venue opened and before the scheduled speakers arrived. Those invited to speak included pastors and friends of the Kirk family, members of the Turning Point USA staff, President Donald Trump’s Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Vice President JD Vance and even Trump himself.

Not only was the State Farm Stadium (70,000-plus capacity) packed, but another nearby venue was as well. It’s estimated that 200,000 people watched the five-hour service locally. Additionally, views on cable TV and via various streaming services have already surpassed 22 million.

As I watched, I was amazed to see some of the most prominent figures in American politics professing their faith in God, one after another. I have never seen anything like it in my lifetime, and I was certain it would be the most memorable aspect of the service.

But then Erika Kirk, Charlie Kirk’s widow, came to the podium. In her remarks, Erika praised her husband for his virtue and kindness. She acknowledged the daunting responsibilities of her new role as CEO of Turning Point USA, the organization her late husband founded. She thanked those (especially second lady Usha Vance, the vice president’s wife) who had provided unflagging support for her in the agonizing days since her husband’s murder.

Erika challenged America’s men and women to be the best people they could be; to be gallant husbands, virtuous wives and emotionally generous parents. She singled out young American men in particular, saying, “Charlie passionately wanted to reach and save the Lost Boys of the West; the young men who feel like they have no direction, no purpose, no faith and no reason to live; the men wasting their lives on distractions, and the men consumed with resentment, anger and hate. Charlie wanted to help them.”

And then, in an astonishing moment punctuated by tearful, emotional pauses, she said, “My husband, Charlie … he wanted to save young men — just like the one who took his life. On the cross, our Savior said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they not know what they do.’ That man … that young man … I forgive him. I forgive him because it was what Christ did; what Charlie would do. The answer to hate is not hate. The answer we know from the Gospel is love and always love.”

Erika Kirk’s words of forgiveness, unfathomably difficult and spoken through tears only 11 days after her husband was gunned down in public, brought the entire arena to its feet.

This country has — sadly — suffered through other public assassinations that some of us remember: President John F. Kennedy in 1963; civil rights leader Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy in 1968. The country was united in shock and sorrow and horror, all three times. One would think we would react the same way after the senseless murder of an innocent young husband and father.

Charlie Kirk’s memorial service was filled with beauty, music and worship; with sorrow and hope; with faith and courage and conviction. With forgiveness. What we saw there last Sunday was some of the best of what it means to be American; to be human. Surely, such a display would prompt even the most hardened of hearts to tone down hateful rhetoric; to appreciate the faith of their countrymen; to unite around the most basic of human values.

But it doesn’t appear that will be the case.

Immediately following Charlie Kirk’s memorial service, the left-wing outrage and propaganda machinery went into full gear. Amanda Marcotte, writing for Salon, described conservatives as “slobbering MAGA masses” and Charlie Kirk’s TPUSA as “an empire … built on videos promising sexualized humiliation of liberal women — really, girls — for MAGA men.” The term “Christian nationalist,” launched (largely unsuccessfully) as a slur in the run-up to the November 2024 elections, is now being flung about again, as if being a Christian and wanting to live in a nation whose citizens embrace values like faith in God, sacrifice for one’s family, love of one’s neighbor and forgiveness of one’s enemies is a bad thing; a mortal threat.

Karlyn Borysenko, an author and podcaster who has done extensive research — including undercover work — into America’s most extreme left organizations, has been warning for years that these revolutionary groups and those who belong to them will not eschew violence and, in fact, are ramping up plans for more.

Plenty of evidence supports Borysenko’s assertions. At Georgetown University, the John Brown Club is now advertising for new members with fliers saying, “Hey Fascist — Catch!” — the same words inscribed on one of Tyler Robinson’s (the man accused of assassinating Charlie Kirk) bullets.

Antifa Virginia is calling for open war against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. And on Wednesday of this week, another fatal shooting occurred, this time at an ICE facility in Dallas. One ICE detainee was killed, and two more were critically injured. The shooter, identified as Joshua Jahn, killed himself at the site. Bullets found next to Jahn’s body had anti-ICE slogans scratched into the casings. Jahn’s now-deleted Facebook page contained images suggesting communist and Antifa sympathies.

As demonstrated by the vile responses cheering Charlie Kirk’s death on social media and the derogatory articles describing his memorial service, there has been no respite, no collective impulse to pause and reflect, no bipartisan efforts to eliminate dangerous and hyperbolic accusations, no unified calls for behavior we once agreed reflected basic human decency.

Brace yourselves. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.

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