No Sanity Required
No Sanity Required is a weekly podcast hosted by Brody Holloway and Snowbird Outfitters. Each week, we engage culture and personal stories with a Gospel-driven perspective. Our mission is to equip the Church to pierce the darkness with the light of Christ by sharing the vision, ideas, and passions God has used to carry us through 26 years of student ministry. Find more content at swoutfitters.com.
No Sanity Required
The Death of Charlie Kirk | How Should Christians Respond in a Time of Darkness?
The assassination of Charlie Kirk and the murder of a Ukrainian refugee in Charlotte have shaken many, raising urgent questions about truth, persecution, and the Christian response to growing hostility. In this episode, we reflect on Charlie Kirk’s legacy of respectful dialogue, the cost of speaking truth in today’s world, and the wisdom scripture offers in times of grief and confusion.
Jesus warned that persecution would come—and history confirms it. Yet even in the face of evil, God remains sovereign. We’ll explore what it means to stand firm with conviction, to defend the vulnerable with grace, and to fix our eyes on eternity rather than fear. Turn off the noise, open God’s Word, and rediscover the peace that only Christ can provide.
Psalm 5
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Hey, we're going to talk for a few minutes this morning about recent events and specifically about, uh uh, assassination and murder of Charlie Kirk, and this coming on the heels of the brutal murder of an innocent young lady, the Ukrainian young lady who was murdered on a on a city transit in Charlotte. And before we get into this, I just want to say the one thing that has come out in the last few days. I wasn't super familiar with Charlie Kirk. I mean, I had watched sound bites and clips but I never really followed Turning Point in depth. But I just knew I resonated with him. You know, like when I would hear him talk I would think, man, this guy makes a lot of sense especially to be such a young dude with him.
Speaker 1:You know, like when I would hear him talk I would think, man, this guy makes a lot of sense, especially to be such a young dude and um, but I I didn't. I have listened to more of him in the last 48 hours than I ever had.
Speaker 3:I think that's the case for most people yeah, and what I've?
Speaker 1:what has been shocking to me is how open he was to discourse, public dialogue, and you know he would always operate in the public square. I was talking to Tuck last night and Tuck said man, he's slated to come to Virginia Tech in two weeks and do, and you know he was going to be at Tech, but he would go into the public square and he would.
Speaker 1:he would have open discourse with people that disagreed with him and if the crowd was predominantly conservative or from his viewpoint, he would tell the crowd please be quiet and let this be respectful, let this person talk, and so I I appreciate that approach that he took and and uh, and I don't think anybody can say that he you know that he was guilty of hate speech or you know creating, creating arguments or fights just for the sake of it.
Speaker 3:He was a person who was interested in free speech and discourse and sitting down with people that you had opposing views with and talking through things and was so good at articulating and, like you said, it just made so much sense when you listened to him. And one thing that I really appreciated of him was he fought for the truth and ultimately, I. We talked about this later in the episode, but that's what killed him.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it killed him.
Speaker 3:And, uh, we always say here at Snowbird the most loving thing I think Brody says this a lot the most loving thing you can do to a person is share the truth with them. So we're kind of talking. That's something that we can definitely take away from. All of this is just his way to discuss peaceably with people of such differing opinions, the way he just was able to respect their thoughts but also share the truth with them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:So yep.
Speaker 2:Welcome to no Sanity Required from the Ministry of Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters. A podcast about the Bible, culture and stories from around the globe from around the globe.
Speaker 1:I want us to talk about just kind of the state of what's going on right now. This past week there was the murder of a Ukrainian refugee. It didn't happen this past week but it became headline news this past week because it seems like when it happened a few weeks ago it then was just kind of swept under the rug. It happened in the city of Charlotte, which is here in our state, which is not known as kind of a crazy place of crime.
Speaker 1:It's not Chicago, it's not Las Vegas, but Little, and I have been talking about this. We're already feeling the stress and strain of of that situation. And then the incident with Charlie Kirk happened. And I've in my life, I've lived through a few monumental things historically. You know like I remember when I was a kid people talk about they remember where they were when Kennedy got shot, or the older people when I was a child remembered, uh, pearl Harbor, december, december 7, 1941, when America got attacked by the Japanese Empire. And then I remember.
Speaker 1:The first thing I remember as a kid was when I was in fourth grade the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan. I can remember getting on the school bus and something I remember vividly from that. I remember getting on the school bus and something I remember vividly from that. I remember getting on the school bus and kids saying if the guy killed Reagan, if Reagan dies, they should give this guy an award. And instantly there was this let's celebrate this person because of what he's done to the person that we oppose politically. And when this stuff happened this past week, a couple of days ago, with Charlie Kirk, it was like instantly people were saying similar stuff. And so you realize it's not just that we live in a world of darkness, it's just chaotic. It's dark, it's chaotic, and so I want to before. I want you to kind of leave this conversation, jb, but I want to say this first, to set it up, jesus gave instruction in mark 13 and matthew 24.
Speaker 1:Jesus gave instruction, what's called the olivet discourse, and in that instruction a lot of people take those two passages and they they think that those two passages apply to the end times.
Speaker 1:I don't hold to that. I believe there are aspects of those passages that are pointing to end times and there are aspects of those passages that are pointing to things that would happen in the time of Christ. And what he promised is he said, this generation is not going to pass until there's conflict, rumors of war, wars, catastrophe. People are going to rise up against each other, and he paints this picture of great persecution against the church of Jesus. And from the time of Christ until today, there's always been persecution against Christians, and when you speak out for truth, there's going to be persecution for that, and so we shouldn't be surprised when things like this happen. It's still shocking, but we live in a world where the truth will always be under attack, and I think I was talking to Austin yesterday. What's hard to process and what's disorienting is when you have professing Christians speaking out saying things like well, he asked for this or he didn't ask for this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, not asked to be murdered in the public square. That's crazy.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 1:It's asinine. It's like you don't have to agree with this guy on all of his viewpoints, but, man, he loved the Lord, I believe, believe and made a very clear and articulate expression of his faith in jesus and he got killed for it. Ultimately, that's why he died, yeah, I think, and so we just just take a few minutes here and and give thoughts, answer questions that I think from your generation.
Speaker 3:I'd like to hear it from your perspective and I'll do my best to kind of shed light on on questions that you think might be asked yeah, um, I just also want to clarify and you did a great job like I don't want this episode to just dwell on the evil and the horrible things that have happened this week, and that's kind of what started this conversation. As I've been just praying through this and working through it, I've just kind of been, I guess, in the mindset of like, okay, now that this has happened, like what can we focus on? And like what should this encourage us to focus on? And, yes, obviously, like still mourning and grieving the loss, like so much has happened in the past couple of weeks that have just been horrific and terrible. But I think the biggest thing step number one, I think for me, when all this happened, I think I spent like an hour and a half just like scrolling and searching and, you know, trying to figure out what happened Is he okay, is he going to make it, do they have the guy and whatever. And then, like immediately following that, I just remember being like why did this happen? Like why did this happen? And just kind of started to go down a path of like I don't understand, like I know that God is sovereign, but why would this happen? And I think that's very easy to fall into those questions of anything tragic happens on a public stage or in your personal life, whatever, and I think that just reminded me. Okay, I need to get in scripture, I need to get off social media, and I think that would be helpful for so many people, because so many people just have so many strong opinions and even, like you were saying, I've seen a lot of people start to make mockery of his death, of how things should be handled, whatever, and I think that is not helping, if I'm honest, and so I would just encourage those who are listening like get in scripture.
Speaker 3:I like, probably for that first day after Charlie's death was announced, I was just feeling like blah, like it was just super weird. I went to a Braves game with my parents and was just kind of sitting there and was like I was just feeling like blah, like it was just super weird. I went to a Braves game with my parents and was just kind of sitting there and was like what is going on? And it wasn't until later that evening that I, you know, got in scripture and journaled and prayed, and then that's kind of where all of these things kind of the Lord placed on my heart and we'll get into that.
Speaker 3:But I just kind of wanted to open with that of like take a second and get off social media and stop watching videos and stop like it's not helping, you know. But kind of what I mentioned earlier is kind of like what we can focus on. Like I said, I don't just want to dwell on this evil that has happened and, like you said, like I think for me this was eyeopening of like evil is in the world. It always has been in the world and so when you ask yourself that question why did this happen? Or maybe why did God allow this to happen I quickly was humbled and was like I don't have an answer and I never will have an answer besides, like we live in a fallen world and it's riddled with sin and that is why evil things happen you know, and so that kind of um, I've just been praying and journaling through, um, like what we should be focusing on and what we can be focusing on, and ultimately I want this episode to be a bit of an encouragement.
Speaker 3:Um, and weirdly enough, in this time of like grief and craziness and sadness, I have felt like this pocket of peace and pocket of like encouragement, and so that's kind of what I'm going to go through. I feel like I'm just talking in circles, but that's good.
Speaker 3:Um, one of the main things that I first jotted down. I have a few bullet points of what we can focus on, and the first one is eternity. I think I mentioned this on an episode a few months ago. I had a conversation with my brother-in-law a while back about just like secular beliefs, or maybe what different political parties believe, and like so crazy that they're just so passionate about. Like you're right, I'm wrong, whatever. And he said, for those who don't know Christ, like this is their eternity, like this world is all that they have. So, of course, they're going to fight so hard to make this amendment or to make this law or whatever, and they're going to fight so hard to make sure their point is correct quote unquote. And I think that is like super eyeopening for me as well. It's like, as believers, we know we don't belong here, like we know, um, that this isn't it, this isn't all we have been promised, and like, if anything, everything that's happened should just make us like long for eternity, for home. You know, and I also think that's like it makes me sad, like that people who don't know christ are so hopeless that they feel the need to rationalize with these horrific, these horrific, horrific actions of violence. Um, and so I think that, like, as believers, we can truly just reflect and thank the Lord, like this isn't our home and we have so much more you know to look for and long for. Um, and then that also kind of leads me into God's sovereignty.
Speaker 3:Um, like I said, like when this first happened I was praying through. I was like Lord, I know that you're sovereign and I trust that you're sovereign. But like it's just so hard sometimes to wrap your mind around that you know. And so even just praying through that and even looking back in Old Testament and all throughout scripture, like you said, there's always been evil in the world and God has remained Lord and King and victorious. And like scripture is so clear that, like the world hates God, the world hates truth. Like John 15, 18 maybe says, like if the world persecuted me, it will persecute you. If the world hated me, like just know, or if the world hates you, just know it hated me first. And so just kind of looking back at those all throughout scripture of, like man, this is not the first time something like this has happened and it's not the last time unfortunately, and just really relying and trusting and sitting in the fact that, like through all of this, the Lord is sovereign and will continue to be sovereign. Sitting in the fact that, like through all of this, the Lord is sovereign and will continue to be sovereign. And then also, for some reason, luke 23, where Jesus is on the cross and he says, father, forgive them, like they don't know what they've done.
Speaker 3:I don't know why that verse has just been in my head. By no means am I trying to take scripture and morph it and apply it to a situation that doesn't apply, but I think for me that verse has just been in the moment that Christ died and there was so much arguing and so much disunity. In that moment he was still so graceful and merciful and in a weird way, like that gives me so much encouragement and obviously, as a believer, we should strive and desire to look more like Christ and to act more like Christ. And I think in that moment I don't know it just gives me so much encouragement of like he did not step back. He did not, he was not defeated, like he wasn't passive, but he was still so merciful and so gracious and so loving towards people that you know were so corrupt and stuff, and so I think I don't know why, like other than the fact that the Lord placed that in my mind and in my heart.
Speaker 3:So, even though, like I just see so much arguing and stuff on social media, which I agree, like we do not need to be passive, but also like he was so graceful, gracious and caring and compassionate in the most like heated time, you know, and so I think that's just encouraging to me, one for me to look to and try to replicate, but two, also like so encouraging that we serve the God who is so strong, victorious, but also so kind and compassionate and gracious, and so that kind of just wraps up like overall, just reflecting on Christ and the personhood of Christ, the life, death and resurrection of Christ. And I know that's like a lot of times I can almost try to look past that and be like, no, what's the deeper? Like I need something deeper. No, that's it, that is it, you know, like Christ was persecuted, Christ was killed, um, and Christ rose, like he's victorious and because of that, as believers, we're victorious, we can live and walk in that.
Speaker 1:I think that's all good. A couple of thoughts. One, the writer of Ecclesiastes says that there's a time for everything, a time and a season for everything. And he says there's a time for war and there's a time for peace. And as believers, there are times where we're called to fight or to defend the weak or to fight against evil.
Speaker 1:I believe in history there are times where Christians can agree that fighting was the right thing to do. Now there's going to be disagreements on when and what that looks like. If you take someone who's a pacifist, they're going to say we should never fight, we should just trust God. And then you take someone who's a Christian nationalist, they're going to say we should take up arms and create a Christian state. I mean, that's not. That's a generalization of what christian nationalism is. That's not fair to to say that's what christian nationalists believe, but an extreme view of that, where we see christianity as this sort of militant march which is what happened under the latter part of the roman empire, where it became governmentally controlled christianity like we're all going to be Christian and that doesn't. That doesn't seem biblical. Passivism doesn't seem biblical and it all comes down to that verse in Ecclesiastes that says there's a time to fight and there's a time for peace.
Speaker 1:Jesus gives us some context to it. He says in John 14, um, let not your hearts be troubled. So in a time like this, jesus would say to us hey, don't let your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid, because in my Father's house there's security. That's not the word he uses, but he's saying there's a place where this doesn't happen. And I go to prepare a place for you there and you're going to come to me there. I'm going to go before you prepare this place. You're going to come. Charlie Kirk has entered into that. You know I texted. All the men in my family are in a text thread, a text group, and I love those guys. They're they're kind of some knuckle dragon. You know good old boys and and you know they're ready to take up arms and let's go.
Speaker 2:And I love it.
Speaker 1:I don't want them to not be like, yeah, that's how they are, but um and, and they're patriots. And I told, I texted them the other day and I said, hey, I'm bummed by this, but I believe Charlie Kirk was a believer, which isn't, you know, conversation for maybe another time. But I believe he made it clear that he embraced and accepted the gospel and I've heard him give his testimony and his account.
Speaker 1:And I texted all the guys in my family in that thread and said, hey, this is hard and I hate it, but he's entered his reward, he's entered his rest, he's received his reward. He has now received the reward of his suffering and he's gone to a place that will one day go. And I think the lesson we learn is wake up every morning prepared to die. You don't know what's going to be your last day, and every single day I want to wake up, put on the whole armor of God, live my life wearing the breastplate of righteousness, carrying the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. Get up every day, drench your mind in scripture, drench your heart in the grace of the Lord, embrace the responsibility of the gospel and go, live it out and know this might be your last day, and I don't want to die on a day where I'm not doing that Right. And so he. I think that's a perspective we can take from this and and we can thank him for for that he exampled for us how to die Well, cause we're all going to die. I want to die Well. I want to finish my race with my hand gripping the plow, my other hand gripping the sword, and that's the way I want to go see Jesus. And so there's a time for war, there's a time for peace. Right now it's probably not the time for war, but it's also back to what you said when Jesus prayed Father, forgive them. I think there is a time where Jesus would say when someone persecutes, you embrace that persecution, and we may be seeing a shift in our culture, whereas Christians, we're going to see an increase in persecution. That may happen. And I would just say to folks that lean more aggressively towards a nationalistic idea of Christianity, I would say this that throughout history, if you take every century, in 21 centuries of Christianity 20 plus centuries of Christianity the majority of the church has faced persecution for their faith. I mean, of the 12 apostles of of Christ take Judas out the other 11 were all persecuted. At least 10 of them died for their faith. John was imprisoned. Uh, there was great persecution in the church Then. There's great persecution in the church today. And the other thing I would say is the capital C church is not just the American church, it's the African church, the Asian church, the South American church, and when you take the global church of Jesus, the amount of persecution is great. I mean, christians are persecuted, and so we wake up each day knowing I need to put on the armor of God and be ready to proclaim the truth and love my enemy and do good to those that persecute me and have the mindset of Christ in that, and when there is a time to fight, whether that's through legislation or to defend the weak, I would say when someone says, well, when should you fight? Well, I'll give you a working example.
Speaker 1:People have often asked at Snowbird why we take security to the extreme. We take it because we have we have a very aggressive security protocol for our worship services. A lot of churches have some guys carrying pistols that are kind of walking around. We have the most aggressive security protocol I've ever seen. We have multiple long guns around the building. We have a gated security checkpoint. People have to come through Within the building when we're having a worship service. We have multiple long guns in strategic positions and we have anywhere from six to 10 people carrying handguns placed throughout the building and we have a plan for how we're going to react and we drill it and we train it and we practice it. We have a protocol. So there is a time to fight. And I will tell you this if you attend an event at Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters as a student, I would say this to parents we will kill to protect your child. There's a time to fight right.
Speaker 1:There's a time to kill and there's a time to die. And for for Charlie Kirk, his was a peaceful approach. He used he used the public square to speak truth and to accept the consequences, cause more than once now we've all seen videos in the last few days of him saying I want to, I want when I die, I want to be known as a guy who had courage in his faith. And he did that and he showed that. So let's learn from it. Let's honor him by by being able to articulate the gospel and keep your composure. Don't freak out. Those dudes who I love, that are my family members. They freak out when somebody goes on social media and says something that's contrary to what they believe. It's okay. People are going to not believe what we believe and they're going to persecute us for it.
Speaker 2:That's all right, that's fine, that's good. No, what we?
Speaker 1:believe and they're going to persecute us for it. That's all right, that's fine. That's good yeah, no worries, the truth will set you free.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 1:And the truth is the gospel, and so let's spend our energy proclaiming the gospel of Jesus and knowing the gospel. And knowing the gospel.
Speaker 3:Teaching it to yourself, preaching it to yourself? Yeah. So when the time comes to defend, you're ready. Yeah. So when the time comes to defend, you're ready. You know it. That's right.
Speaker 1:It's drenched in your mind. All my cousins and brothers, them guys are all going to be listening to this.
Speaker 2:They're going to be like he just threw us under the bus.
Speaker 3:No, I'd go to war with them dudes, that's my boys.
Speaker 1:I'm just saying to the general men in my life and at Red Oak and in the snowboard community hey, we can take a breath. I don't think it's a time for war here to take up arms. It's a time to remember what Tertullian said in the first century the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. Second century, when people are persecuted for the name of Jesus, we have an opportunity to use that persecution for gospel leverage. So let's turn our attention to the confidence. We have an opportunity to use that persecution for gospel leverage. So let's turn our attention to the confidence we have in Christ and be ready to fight when the time comes. I'd fight to defend the powerless or the weak, but there's a time for that and there's a time to point people to Jesus.
Speaker 1:The hope that we have Peter says. Peter, who was persecuted and ultimately martyred, said always be ready to give an answer to those who ask for the hope that is in you. And the hope that we have is the hope that Charlie had, which is that Christ is Lord and he's establishing a kingdom where this is, this nonsense ain't going to be going on Right. It ain't going to be happening, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah for sure. No-transcript. Give ear to my words, o Lord. Consider my groaning. Give attention to the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for to you do I pray, o Lord, in the morning. You hear my voice.
Speaker 3:In the morning, I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch, for you are not a God who delights in wickedness. Evil may not dwell with you. The boastful shall not stand before your eyes. You hate all evildoers. You destroy those who speak lies. The Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man. But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love, will enter your house. Amen. I will bow down towards your holy temple in the fear of you.
Speaker 3:Lead me, o Lord, in your righteousness, because of my enemies. Make your way straight before me, for there is no truth in their mouth. Their inmost self is destruction. Their throat is an open grave. They flatter with their tongue. Make them bear their guilt, o God. Let them fall by their own counsels Because of the abundance of their transgressions. Cast them out, for they have rebelled against you. But let all who take refuge in you rejoice. Let them ever sing for joy and spread your protection over them. That those who love your name may exalt in you, for you bless the righteous O Lord, you cover him with favor as with a shield. For you bless the righteous O Lord, you cover him with favor as with a shield.
Speaker 1:But I just think that has been good for me to hear and to read and to dwell on it's hope in scripture.
Speaker 3:Yes, so much of it. You open the word of.
Speaker 1:God and you read something like that and it just puts your soul at rest.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 1:I appreciate what you said. I hope people take it to heart. Get off your social media feed. Open word of god, get quiet, get still before the lord. Go sit down under your favorite tree in your yard or on your porch, or jump in the car and go to your favorite spot where where it's quiet you're unplugged.
Speaker 1:Leave your phone at the house. Open god's word. Spend an hour just meditate on scripture, letting it saturate and drench your mind, and and find that peace that the Lord alone can provide. Yes, and and. Uh, yeah, I appreciate that a lot. All right, Well, I hope this is a some source of encouragement for folks and we'll be back Monday with a normal, normal episode. So, you guys, have a great weekend. Keep your eyes on Jesus, Keep your hand on the plow.
Speaker 2:Thanks for listening to no Sanity Required. Please take a moment to subscribe and leave a rating. It really helps. Visit us at SWOutfitterscom to see all of our programming and resources, and we'll see you next week on no Sanity Required.
