It only takes a few minutes. Just watch an interaction between Charlie Kirk and a college student. You’ll learn some good arguments on an important cultural issue. And you’ll get a lesson in civil discourse done with excellence, mercy and grace.

Commentator, Rod Dreher wrote of the late Charlie Kirk: “True, he could throw some rhetorical punches, but he always did so in the spirit of engaging his opponents, not seeking to humiliate or ‘destroy’ them.” He described Charlie as “a man who did everything right: a cheerful young dude who thought the best way to advance his political ideas was through meeting the people and debating and discussing with them the issues of our time.”

And yet, on the night of Charlie’s death from a gunshot by a radicalized 22-year-old, Fox News’s Jesse Watters declared: “They took a shot at Charlie to tell you: It’s dangerous to speak your mind.”

So far, the message of intimidation articulated by Mr. Watters is not sinking in with the movement Charlie Kirk spawned through the organization he founded, Turning Point.

We must pray that the young people he had such an impact on, whose hearts and thinking he sought to develop, will be strengthened to do what Charlie taught and modeled —

• that they will stand in faith and for faith
• that they will defend the sanctity of human life and protect the unborn
• that they will choose leaders who will act courageously to preserve a free and decent society
• and that they will marry, have children, and parent them well

Make no mistake, Charlie Kirk was a martyr for America, for free and open debate, and yes, for the cause of Christ.

He knew the risks. He had a security team with him. He faced the danger because, as he told a questioning student, “When people stop talking, that’s when you get violence.”

The violence came. And so, we pray, does the courage.