He decided not to go to college, graduating from Wheeling High School* in 2012. He traded university life for Turning Point USA, founding the nonprofit at the age of eighteen. Few expected anything to come of it …. What they didn’t know was that God was in it, right through to the end of Charlie’s life, and beyond. 

Charlie Kirk grew up, got married, had two kids, and thirteen years later was killed by a twenty-two-year-old progressive. Today, at his memorial, a stadium was filled with sixty thousand supporters (and thousands in overflow) plus “the most powerful people in the free world.”

Now thirty-one years old …. One man took hold of a generational movement many had discounted as lost forever. Instead, they may be the trigger to a Biblical Christian revival or … the last throes of faith before the labor pains take over, pointing to the return of Christ.

Pastor Rob McCoy gave an invitation, and many stood up as a first-time profession of faith in Christ, something at the heart of Kirk’s ministry.

After the plan of salvation was shared by multiple speakers affiliated with TPUSA, it would be logical to expect the politicians who spoke later to be focused on platforming the conservative agenda. What was remarkable was, with the not surprising exception of Trump, the gospel took center stage time after time. Erika Kirk, Charlie’s widow, closed down the stadium with her testimony of Christ providing the strength to not only bear up under the loss but also to push forward in growing the ministry. Today, Turning Point USA has approximately 900 college chapters. However, they have received over 62,000 additional chapter requests since Charlie’s assassination.

It remains to be seen which way the nation will move. Will we drift toward a resurgence of our Christian faith as the country did for a brief time after 9/11, before falling back into the confrontational, anti-church mindset? Or, will we, as a nation, soften our vitriol and become more accepting of differing opinions, while drawing closer to the God of the universe?

Regardless of the direction, Charlie’s assassination has become a watershed moment in America … truly a turning point.

• Wheeling High School has had two petitions running since Charlie’s death, one in favor of honoring him with a statue and the other against any form of recognition. Just one small example of the divisiveness of America in the midst of mourning and recovery.