When Christ hung on the cross, one thief mocked Him, and the crowd jeered, “If you are the Son of God, save yourself.” That is what this article in The Nation represents — a mocking of truth in the face of suffering and death.

It is rude of me to say all of this, because we live in a culture where manners are often valued more than truth. That is why a slew of pundits and politicians have raced to portray Kirk’s activities, which harmed many vulnerable people, in a positive light—and to give him the benefit of the doubt that he did not grant to anyone who wasn’t white, Christian, straight, and male. California Governor Gavin Newsom framed Kirk’s project as a healthy democratic exercise: “The best way to honor Charlie’s memory is to continue his work: engage with each other, across ideology, through spirited discourse. In a democracy, ideas are tested through words and good-faith debate.” This downwardly defines both “discourse” and “good faith.”

There is no requirement to take part in this whitewashing campaign, and refusing to join in doesn’t make anyone a bad person. It’s a choice to write an obituary that begins “Joseph Goebbels was a gifted marketer and loving father to six children.”

Many of the facile defenses of Kirk and his legacy are predicated on the idea that it’s acceptable to spread hateful ideas advocating for the persecution of perceived enemies as long as you dress them up in a posture of debate. This is just class privilege. The man who smeared Black women like Ketanji Brown Jackson and Michelle Obama, whom he claimed had benefited from affirmative action, saying, ‘you do not have the brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously,” said it while wearing a nice shirt and a tie on a podcast instead of tattered overalls in the parking lot of a rural Walmart. That does not make it any less racist.

Elizabeth Spiers’ piece is not journalism. It is a disturbing and disgusting attack on who we are as a republic. She calls Charlie Kirk a bigot, a misogynist, and every other slander in the book, even dragging in race and attacks on black women, throwing every accusation she can muster.

These are the kind of voices that must be challenged and exposed for the radical sickness they spread. She claims Charlie attacked “vulnerable people,” men who were convinced by quack psychologists and disturbed medical professionals that mutilating their bodies is the answer, women who choose to rip babies from the womb, and girls who have had their bodies disfigured by an industry profiting from their confusion. In her inverted world of good and evil, Charlie is the monster. No, Elizabeth, you and those who share this twisted view are the monsters.

Charlie Kirk was executed in front of the world. You cannot change that reality. He stood there, civilly doing what Americans have always done. Our forefathers gave us the right to debate each other, to speak truth in the public square. But, like those who gnashed their teeth at Stephen, tore their clothes, and stoned him for telling the truth, you continue to attack him even in death.

You can celebrate, you can invert reality all you want, but America saw what happened. We saw a man who spoke the truth, who tried to reach across the aisle, who wanted honest debate, and was murdered for it. People like you, Elizabeth, are why this nation is on the precipice. America cannot afford silence in the face of this monstrosity.

Charlie leaves behind a wife and two beautiful children, and you respond by writing about his networked ties and misogyny. That is not journalism, it is malice. You are the embodiment of the very evil you claim to oppose.

But this is not the end. Just as Stephen’s death did not silence the early church, Charlie’s death will not silence those who love truth. Christians are awake now. We have seen what radical evil is willing to do, even to someone who tried to live out the life of Christ. America will not back down. Good will prevail.

Stand Up Against the Lie.

America cannot afford to be silent. This is not about politics. This is about truth. Share this, speak boldly, and refuse to let those who cheer at the death of a good man write the story of this republic.

— Claston A. Bernard

Olympian • NCAA Champion • Author of In America, It’s More Than Race