By Shawn Smith
Actor Russell Brand weighed in on Charlie Kirk’s legacy after his tragic death Sept. 10 when he was shot and killed while speaking at a Utah Valley University event.
“He obviously operated in a space where the alliance of Christianity and Republicanism was explored and expressed and communicated — like, that’s what he was about,” Brand said on his “Stay Free With Russel Brand” podcast. “Christian principles [are] what undergirds the Constitution. These things are inextricable.”
Because of Kirk’s willingness to bring faith into politics and to engage culture in discussion, often with people who were on the opposite side of the political divide, he will “hold a very peculiar place” in history, said Pastor Jack Hibbs.
“[A]s people begin to analyze more and more of his life in the sense that, I mean, he was assassinated, we think of the word assassination connected to maybe the overthrow of a government or a political personality being assassinated,” Hibbs told Bryan Osborne and Avery Foley on the “Answers In Genesis” podcast. “The word assassination applies to Charlie because it was very, very clear that Charlie represented the kingdom of God.”
Related: How Should Christians Respond to Charlie Kirk’s Assassination?
Hibbs addressed the question of whether the Turning Point USA founder died over politics or for his faith, and the pastor believes it’s his faith that compelled him to represent the “politic of God as an ambassador for Christ.”
“You don’t usually put an assassination or assassinated with the word martyr, but in Charlie’s case, he did what he did based upon his faith in the Lord, and he was so able to bring together the public square with his public faith that both of those hats fit. I say yes, he was assassinated, and he is a martyr, because without Jesus Christ, Charlie would not have been called to do what he was doing,” Hibbs explained.
“[H]e always brought it back to the cross, Christ the truth of God, and so I personally believe you can’t separate the two,” he went on to say.
Because of that marriage of politics and faith, an explosion of hate and vitriol against Kirk and his family on social media followed. This was not just from the fringes of TikTok, but teachers, health care professionals, elected government officials and even a youth minister (who was reportedly fired) filmed herself celebrating Kirk’s murder.
Brand address these attacks with his own sense of humility and brought it back to how Charlie would have responded.
“I was, firstly, really shocked,” Brand said in reference to rapper Bob Vylan’s disparaging remarks, that don’t bear repeating here, about the father of two’s death.
“Then I sort of got a few successive waves of, like, I remember a lot of it’s performance,” Brand added.
Do you think Christian principles guide the constitution?
The comedian recalled times where he himself was admittedly a provocateur.
“So I’m trying to hold in my mind my own tendency towards shock, foolish conduct myself,” he continued. “I’m like, really impacted by my own personal connection to Charlie Kirk when I’ve been in trouble and been attacked, Charlie Kirk’s a person has stuck up for me and defended me and like, that’s one less person in the world that’s going to do that now.”
Ultimately, the 50-year-old believed that Kirk would have followed the same precedent set by Jesus to forgive one’s enemies.
“I reckon that Charlie Kirk would have the spiritual maturity and fortitude to approach even that with forgiveness,” Brand said.
The one person who knew Kirk best, his widow Erika, echoed the same sentiments at his memorial on Sunday where she proclaimed that she forgives her husband’s assassin.
“I forgive him because it was what Christ did, and is what Charlie would do,” she said. “The answer to hate is not hate. The answer we know from the Gospel is love, is always love. Love for our enemies and love for those who persecute us.”
Read Next: Erika Kirk Forgives Her Husband’s Killer: ‘What Charlie Would Do’
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