Within minutes of Charlie Kirk’s assassination last week, the video clip was everywhere on social media. More graphic footage followed. Last year’s Butler, Pennsylvania, assassination attempt of President Trump unfolded the same way: instant video all over social media. Earlier this month, you couldn’t open social media without seeing indelible images and video of Iryna Zarutska being stabbed from behind in a monstrous act of murder now being investigated as a potential hate crime. In December, video footage spread rapidly of a black-hooded Luigi Mangione walking up to UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in NYC and shooting him in the back. It’s easy to become numb. But images and video have galvanizing power. The real-time video chronicling of 9/11’s horrors, nearly a quarter-century ago now, powerfully shaped culture in my lifetime. So did the live footage of bloodied teenagers fleeing Columbine High School. So will the Charlie Kirk assassination. What Kind of Turning Point? It’s hard to not notice that the name of the organization Kirk founded—Turning Point USA—mirrors the way Kirk’s assassination feels. Will this event be culture-shifting in the way the 1960s political assassinations were? Is it a “generation-shaping event” like 9/11? Only time will tell. But I do sense that Kirk’s assassination might be uniquely catalytic in American culture. It may not be a decisive turning point, but here are three ways this event might accelerate already-in-motion trends, and why it matters for Christians. 1. New Wake-up Call About Dangers of Digital Life Highly online life warps our brains and poisons our souls. If we’re looking for something that ties together all the political assassinations and school shootings in recent years, it’s this. Whatever their ideologies or motives, these mentally unwell murderers are all mentally unwell in large part because of their digital worlds—Discord, Reddit, 4Chan, TikTok, and all the rest. As they live immersed in these spaces, they are radicalized, dehumanized, and disassociated from reality. Highly online life warps our brains and poisons our souls. With alarming frequency, young people malformed by the internet are resorting to real-life violence. It’s “scrolling ourselves to death” in the most literal sense. Utah Governor Spencer Cox has made a point of highlighting the cancerous dynamics of online life in media appearances following the arrest of Tyler Robinson. Clearly from what he knows of the accused assassin already, “internet derangement syndrome” is no small piece of the puzzle. At the same time, it’s clear in the response to Kirk’s shooting that all of us are being warped in various ways by the internet and social media. Social media this week has been a dumpster fire of “narrative over truth” spinning, fake news, and all the epistemological chaos (now worsened by AI) that has become our norm. The algorithms have divided us into wildly divergent camps passionately advancing preferred narratives—and no one knows what’s actually true. This is unsustainable and we know it. Maybe one galvanizing effect of this moment will be that more and more people, particularly young people, will recognize the problem and pivot to more embodied, less-online life. It seems there’s a growing consensus not only among influencers and politicians, but everyday folks, that screens and scrolling are making us crazy. We know something needs to change in our digital habits. But do we have the individual and collective will to actually change? 2. The ‘Reality Respecting’ Shift of Gen Z Kirk was popular among Gen Z—perhaps the most popular political influencer among young Americans today. And he was a Christian. Now, many faithful Christians will disagree—sometimes even deeply—about the way Kirk applied his faith with certain political and cultural positions. I certainly disagreed with him at times. But can we pause and note the fact that perhaps the most popular political influencer of a generation would be an outspoken Christian? And he wasn’t a barstool conservative who shied away from social conservatism and traditional morality. From his Christian convictions he advocated for pro-life protections and traditional marriage when many older politicians in conservatism had abandoned these causes. On issues like transgenderism, Kirk helped the rising generation see the “reality-respecting” dynamics of conservatism in contrast to the more aggressively reality-denying tendencies of progressivism. Kirk’s packed events on college campuses, social media savvy, and contrarian mojo created plausibility structures for teenagers and twentysomethings (especially young men) to be conservative and faith-rooted on social issues in a world where, for so long, the narrative was “young people are supposed to be secular and liberal.” While not the only causal factor, Kirk and his organization played a significant role in the last U.S. election’s notable shift rightward among young people (something also happening globally). It’s possible Kirk’s influence has also played a part in Gen Z’s renewed interest in Christianity and church. Something is stirring among young people today who are deeply dissatisfied with the status quo. Social media is killing them, cancel culture terrifies them, ideological conformity on many college campuses is stifling, and shaping events like the COVID-19 pandemic now feel like one big deception that didn’t need to ruin their lives. Young people are hungry for a different, better way to live. For stable truth and time-tested tradition. They are primed for renewal. Young people are hungry for a different, better way to live. For stable truth and time-tested tradition. They are primed for renewal. My church was packed with twentysomethings this past Sunday. I’ve heard anecdotal reports of other unusually crowded churches. Let’s pray for a generational revival and shift toward God as the ultimate ground of meaning and reality—and the ultimate answer to our woes, both personally and societally. God often uses jolting moments like this to draw people to himself. Let’s pray toward that end. 3. Further Exposing the Reality-Denying Deception of Transgender Ideology The full picture of Robinson’s motive in killing Kirk is not yet known. But officials have repeatedly confirmed that the suspect had adopted leftist views, spoke of Charlie Kirk as being hateful, and was living with a transgender partner who was in the process of transitioning from male to female. We also know Robinson pulled the trigger at the very moment Kirk was responding to a question about transgender mass shooters. It may be that a constellation of issues motivated Robinson, but it seems likely that Kirk’s outspoken truth-telling on transgenderism (which opponents label “hate”) was a part of it. Transgender ideology mocks God by rejecting his design. This worldview brazenly denies the gift of the bodies God gives. Buttressed by the plausibility structures of internet life—where “who I am” needn’t have any connection to my embodied physical reality—transgenderism’s ascent is a phenomenon that dovetails with then distorting effects of digital life. It’s utterly disconnected from reality (something even many non-Christians see) and wreaks mental, physical, and spiritual havoc. Our trans neighbors are deeply deceived and need help—not the reckless affirmation they get from many leftist politicians. Our trans neighbors are deeply deceived and need help—not the reckless affirmation they get from many leftist politicians. Kirk worked hard to expose the reality-denying, destructive nature of trans ideology. Christians have a duty to do this out of love for God and love for God’s image-bearers being deceived and destroyed by it. Sadly, it’s possible Kirk may have died because of his outspoken courage on this issue. I hope Christians carry the torch of Kirk’s truth-telling about transgender ideology, motivated not by political gains so much as love for neighbor. Seeking a compassionate posture toward people struggling with gender dysphoria doesn’t mean making peace with transgender ideology. Leftism has long perpetuated “bodily autonomy,” which favors personal choice above all else. Its advocacy for LGBTQ “pride” and increasingly extreme support of abortion rights flow from a broader rejection of God’s design for sex. But transgender ideology takes this disconnection from reality to a whole new level. Kirk’s murder may continue to clarify what is already being clarified across Western culture: Trans ideology, and the broader ideology from which it stems, is rotten and bears bad fruit. It leads to death in more ways than one. Christians shouldn’t be shy about saying so. And we should question the wisdom of any political program that embraces such a reality-denying deception. Point People to Hope God is sovereign over history. What he’s doing in any given event—big or small—is hard for us to see. But we can trust that he’s doing something. And our individual actions matter in this; what we do and how we respond is part of how God works in history. We should not react to horrific headlines with narratives of resigned despair (“The world is getting worse and there’s nothing we can do about it”), nor should we react with over-simplified optimism (“With just this change or that, these things won’t happen again”). God expects us to think critically, act courageously, and pray fervently—even as we can’t know the exact shape history will take from here. Amid the shock and horror of the current news cycle, let’s think carefully about what happened and why. Let’s speak up boldly about truth and reality, in a world clearly confused about both. And let’s pray that amid the tumult, God would convict people of their sin and draw them to himself—and that churches would be ready to meet sin-weary souls of every sort, and point them to gospel hope.