A Heavy Day. A Moving Day. But Most Of All, An Uplifting Day.

On Sunday, I had the privilege and the honor of attending the memorial for Charlie Kirk that was held in Arizona. It was an overwhelming event, an unbelievable event. The stadium at which it was held was packed with roughly 65,000 people. There was an overflow arena with another 20,000 people, and it was packed.

It was essentially a worship service, an enormous amount of outreach to people, telling them that they ought to embrace faith.

As I’ve been saying for years, there ought to be a religious revival in this country. The fact that there was so much focus on Christianity — which, of course, is something that Charlie lived for and something that he wanted to leave as his legacy — is a good thing for the country.

We are starting to see an uptick in young people going to church. That was happening before Charlie’s death, partially as a result of the work Charlie was doing out there in the world, but also because an emptiness has settled into the heart of Western civilization since it has forgotten about its relationship with God.

If Charlie’s death can be a turning point back toward faith for a lot of young people, that would be an amazing thing.

I don’t think that you have to be a Christian, which I am not, to believe that an America that is more deeply ensconced and deeply rooted in faith is a better America. An America where more people go to church is going to be a stronger America. An America where people believe in Biblical values will be a better and stronger America.

The event that moved everyone the most, that really shattered everyone, was Erika Kirk’s speech. She’s truly a strong, amazing person. She is a woman who is deeply in touch with her faith at the deepest possible level, and that’s what she spoke about yesterday. It was incredibly moving, truly one of the greatest speeches I think I’ve ever seen.

She spoke about what it means to be married, what the Bible calls for us to do as husbands and wives, and what Charlie was trying to do by reaching out to young men.

The audience was trying to reach out to her with their love to uplift her in this moment of darkness for her and for her family. You could feel the love in the arena.

On stage, in front of 100 million people, she forgave the assassin of her husband, truly an act of spiritual courage. It’s hard to think of anything more powerful than what Erika did.

I don’t think she meant that, as a society, we ought to ignore sin, or that his murderer shouldn’t be punished to the fullest extent of the law and receive the death penalty. I think she was saying something very different. She was saying that as all human beings are sinners, all human beings require forgiveness for their sins, which is an amazing thing to say for a young wife who has been left with two small children.

She spoke of the fact that after her husband’s assassination, his death did not drive mass violence in the streets; it drove prayer. Her statements on marriage were quite wonderful; she talked about how a man and a wife are supposed to relate to one another, that the man’s job is to be a protector and a provider, and a wife’s should be a helper, in the sense that they are one unit.

The president of the United States was the last person to speak, and it was classic Trump. He took the stage after Erika Kirk and proceeded to just be himself. After Erika had forgiven Charlie’s killer — which does not mean on a public policy level that there ought not be consequences for murder or that Erika Kirk believes that the murderer should be released or anything idiotic like that — President Trump stated he didn’t believe the same thing. He said of Charlie, “He did not hate his opponents. He wanted the best for them. That’s where I disagreed with Charlie. I hate my opponent, and I don’t want the best for them. I’m sorry. I am sorry, Erika. But now Erika can talk to me and the whole group, and maybe they can convince me that that’s not right. But I can’t stand my opponent.”

President Trump also went after the Left. It was not a call for unity from President Trump. And I think that to a certain extent, that was fitting. It’s very difficult to unify with people who wish to kill you, as Vice-President JD Vance has said before.

Then President Trump got truly serious. He said that Charlie’s murder was an attack on the country. He said:

Every single American should take a long, hard look at the twisted soul and dark spirit of anyone who would want to kill a young man as good as Charlie, to kill anybody. but to kill a man like this. He didn’t deserve this. He didn’t deserve this. Our country didn’t deserve this. And anyone who would make excuses for it are just out of their mind.

Charlie’s murder was not just an attack on one man or one movement. It was an attack on our entire nation. That was a horrible attack on the United States of America. It was an assault on our most sacred liberties and God-given rights. The gun was pointed at him, but the bullet was aimed at all of us. That bullet was aimed at every one of us. Indeed, Charlie was killed for expressing the very ideas that virtually everyone in this arena and most other places throughout our country deeply believed in. But the assassin failed in his quest because Charlie’s message has not been silenced. It now is bigger and better and stronger than ever before, and it’s not even close.

President Trump’s speech culminated with the singing of “America the Beautiful.” Erika came back on stage, and President Trump hugged her.

It was quite a moment.

It was a heavy day, a moving day.

But most of all, it was an uplifting day.