On September 10, 2025, I was at the office when a notification flashed across my computer screen: Charlie Kirk had been shot and killed. It was one of those moments that leaves a sinking feeling in the gut—the sudden realization that a public figure’s life had been cut short.
Apart from a few video clips that occasionally appeared on my social media feed, I had never read Kirk’s books, listened to his podcasts, or closely followed his work with Turning Point. What I did know was that he was a prominent conservative activist, author, and broadcaster. From numerous testimonials, I also learned that he was a devout Christian, devoted husband, and father of two. His witness inspired many people to live out their faith with courage.
Kirk’s untimely death came not long after another tragedy close to home. On August 22, 2025, 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska was fatally stabbed without provocation by Decarlos Brown Jr. aboard a Charlotte light-rail train.
It is in moments like these that we are forced to confront the grim reality of evil in our world.
Recall June 12, 2016, Omar Mateen carried out a mass shooting at Pulse, an LGBT nightclub in Orlando, killing 49 people and injuring 53 in what became the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history at the time.
In reflecting on the Orlando nightclub shooting, Christian philosopher and apologist Travis Dickinson examines competing views on how Christians should respond to evil. While some argue evil must be “destroyed,” Episcopal priest Steven Paulikas—drawing on Paul Ricoeur—suggests that evil should be seen as myth, beyond literal understanding, and that efforts should focus on relieving suffering rather than retributive opposition. Paulikas argues that labeling someone or something as “evil” often fuels a mindset that makes violence against them seem inevitable, whether justified. Dickinson critiques this approach as inadequate and dangerously naïve, seeing opposing evil and caring for victims is far from mutually exclusive. Augustine’s view of evil as a privation of good is true, and the more we know the good the easier it becomes to detect the evil. Evil is like a hole. Something is missing. But it is wrongheaded to call evil a myth. Dickenson stresses that Christians must humbly acknowledge their own capacity for evil while also standing against it in the world, supporting the oppressed, and recognizing the state’s God-given role in restraining wrongdoers (Rom. 13). Ultimately, though humanity cannot eradicate evil, Christians live in hope that God will one day decisively defeat it.
“O Lord, how long shall the wicked, | how long shall the wicked exult?” (Psalm 94:3).
— WGN
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