Charlie Kirk’s Assassination and a Renewed Homeschool Vision
Most of your days, as mine, are likely consumed with the ordinary cares of life. Between the grocery store and the soccer field, church activities and family dinners, our lives fall into predictable and comfortable rhythms. We are occupied with the mostly pleasant, sometimes laborious tasks of managing a home and training children. We are endeavoring to raise happy, healthy, well-rounded, intelligent kids who love the Lord and grow up to raise strong families themselves.
Most of us don’t aspire to involve ourselves in the dirty world of politics, nor do we often have energy to devote to challenging the culture around us. The culture can be unfriendly, intimidating, and exhausting. We merely want a safe, quiet existence, and the freedom to live the way in which we believe God has called us. It’s the quintessential American dream, dating back to the first Pilgrims who crossed the Atlantic. Freedom—it’s the American way, and until recently, it wasn’t considered radical.
But whether we avidly follow favorite news commentators and subscribe to political podcasts, or we intentionally avoid these intrusions in order to give our souls rest, we have all noted the shift in recent years. This seething contempt for Christian beliefs was building quietly for decades. It was in the media, in the TV shows, and in the public schools. It always starts as subtle mockery, questioning, and planting seeds of doubt. Not so different from the snake’s first query in the Garden: “Did God really say…?” It eventually transpires into full-blown hostility.
The Culture War and Homeschooling
In many respects, homeschoolers have been on the forefront of the culture war, for we homeschoolers were the first to buck the system and remove our children from the indoctrination in the government schools. It was radical for the few thousand brave families who initiated the first wave of homeschooling over thirty years ago. They never dreamed it would grow into the substantial tsunami it is today.
We modern homeschoolers enjoy the fruits of their labor. And now, basking in hard-won liberties, we simply want to be left alone. We want to live in a country that delivers on the promise of freedom, and we don’t want to devote ourselves to constantly defending these basic rights. We’ve endured the insanity of Covid lockdowns and witnessed several years of political upheaval and vitriol. We just want rest, unity, and peace. It’s not so much to ask.
And yet, as abolitionist Wendell Phillips aptly stated, “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.”
There are dark forces at work in this world. Edmund Burke famously said, “The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”
We have an Enemy who seeks to devour and destroy. We have a fiercely divided country, and if you worship God and believe His Word, there are many who want you silenced.
Silence Dissenters
Charlie Kirk was assassinated this week. Some labeled him a divisive provocateur. Others called him much worse. He was murdered while simply providing free and open debate on a college campus. He was characteristically compassionate and civil, yet straightforward and unashamed in his defense of his faith and his beliefs. It would have been a blow to discover that Charlie Kirk had died in a tragic accident, but to see him maliciously gunned down in front of thousands–it was grievous, appalling, evil, and it spoke volumes. The message was clear: Silence dissenters.
What was the message for us—the innocent, uninvolved citizens who just want to live freely? Sit down and shut up. Cloister your faith in your churches, don’t dare bring Christian ideals to the public square. And if you want to live unmolested, don’t permit anything too piercing or convicting to cross pulpits or social media platforms.
That isn’t freedom; it is tyranny. Far too many Christians have accommodated this philosophy for far too long already. The subtle intimidation is how we found ourselves entrenched in this culture war, and the open intimidation will only increase, not decrease. The demonic powers will not be appeased by the blood of this one martyr.
Spirtual Battle for Our Souls
The hour has come, indeed it is long past, for Christians to be emboldened. I am aware that the homeschooling movement consists of more than just Bible-believing Christians. Whatever drew you to homeschooling, I’m glad you’re here. But no matter who you are, or what you believe, you are inescapably embroiled in spiritual warfare. We are spiritual beings made in the image of God in a battle for our eternal souls, and the souls of our children.
The Christian faith is not synonymous with the American nation; it is not necessary to attempt melding the two loves into a national religion. However, God has placed us in this country, in this moment in history; therefore, we are consequently in a battle for the soul of our nation.
Even now, vile lists are circling social media. Names of many others they want to kill. It is not hyperbolic; they are out for blood. Christians, in times like these, are pulled in many different directions. Some sink into quiet despair, some simmer with rage, and some demand that we forgive and move on, with reminders that Jesus instructs us to turn the other cheek. Others piously call for a recognition of our individual sinful hearts, as if our own sin must so humble us as to preclude us from naming and opposing the evil we are confronted with.
The Christian Response
What is the right response for a Christian? And how might this alter our homeschooling goals for the year– or forever?
First, we call evil by name. We do not discourage righteous anger. God is angry with the wicked every day (Ps. 7:11). Jesus was not smiling when he chased the money-changers from the Temple (Matt. 21). It is good and right to be angered by this heinous murder. Those who celebrate it have joined forces with Satan. Those who are apathetic ought to question what they are living for and what they value.
Second, we must boldly proclaim God’s Word. Not just the nice passages, but the hard ones. We must do it in love, with gentleness, but without weakness or apology. In the words of Alexander Solzhenitsyn, we must “live not by lies.” (I encourage you to read, with your children, his entire speech by that title.) We must not withhold from a dying world the truth of God’s holiness, His justice, His wrath, as well as His love and forgiveness.
Next, we homeschool with an eye to the eternal destinies of our children. Our ultimate goal is not that they are awarded Ivy League scholarships or that they achieve wild success in the business world. We are raising warriors for the Kingdom of God. We are sending them as sheep among wolves, to be future businessmen, artists, authors, teachers, pastors, plumbers, and political leaders. Whatever their future occupation, we want to prepare them to love the Word of God and to defend it with calm confidence. We want them to embrace Proverbs 23:23– “Buy the truth and sell it not.” How they live this life matters for eternity. How we teach them matters for eternity. We are in a war, not physical, but spiritual.
“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” (Eph. 6:12)
Finally, let us remember that there are things worth dying for. In the eloquent words of statesman Patrick Henry, (in another speech I recommend reading with your children),
“Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace– but there is no peace… Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”
A Death Not in Vain
Charlie’s death was not in vain. I pray that we homeschool families, with the help of Almighty God, will raise many thousands of bold believers to follow his footsteps. I pray none of us are ever faced with death for our faith, but as in the cause of liberty, vastly more so in the cause of defending our faith, we must remember that “to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” (Phil. 1:21)
