Wars rage in Israel and Ukraine; Russian drones probe NATO airspace; headlines churn. But there’s a deeper story we need to face right now: the assassination of Charlie Kirk—and the spiritual, cultural, and parental reckoning it’s triggering across America. It’s about what this moment is doing in our hearts, our homes, and our churches. And yes—it’s about how God can take what the enemy meant for evil and turn it toward good.

The Rot Beneath the Headlines

“I won’t repeat the shooter’s name. These homicidal narcissists don’t need more publicity.”

Authorities are probing whether extremist groups may have encouraged or helped the killer. I’ve covered Antifa and similar outfits for years; the appetite for political violence has been cultivated, trained, normalized. Even now, you can find groups posturing with rifles outside drag shows for kids—provocation wrapped in moral preening.

I’m a staunch Second Amendment guy. Disarming the law-abiding isn’t the answer. The answer is more sane, trained, moral citizens willing to protect their communities—and the courage to reject the false safety of making everyone more vulnerable.

As my friend Tim Miller said yesterday: “Stand up. Train up. Get prayed up.”

Parenting in an Age That Manufactures Meaninglessness

If we want to understand how a 22-year-old throws away his life to silence a speaker who advocates marriage, family, and the difference between men and women, we have to talk about the culture that formed him—and the homes that allowed it.

Three forces keep showing up:

1) Early, unsupervised screens

A computer in the bedroom at age 10 is not just “gaming.” It’s a portal. The stats on teen pornography exposure are brutal, and early exposure warps identity, intimacy, and moral imagination.

2) Addictive, isolating gaming

The WHO recognizes “gaming disorder” for a reason. Heavy gaming correlates with depression, anxiety, and disrupted sleep. Many of the most popular titles (think GTA) normalize virtual felonies and hyper-sexualized violence. They siphon off a young man’s God-given drive to build, conquer, and take real risks in the real world.

“We used to call it playing outside. Now the ‘adventure’ is a couch, a console, and an algorithm designed to keep you hooked.”

On a somber September 11—I went live to talk about something I wish I didn’t have to: the war we once fought “over there” is increasingly here, testing our communities, our churches, and our national character.

Two themes framed the conversation:

1. The date itself. Twenty-four years after 9/11, we remember the 3,000 lives taken and the millions changed forever. Terror reshaped policy, travel, and how we see risk. The ripple effects were enormous—wars abroad, costs at home, and a reshaped culture.

2. A country at a crossroads. When a prominent conservative Christian figure can be gunned down on an American campus in broad daylight (details still developing as authorities investigate), that should sober all of us. Half the nation mourns; too many on social media mock or celebrate. Whatever your politics, that’s a moral red flag.

Political violence isn’t hypothetical anymore. If we don’t face it and prepare—practically and spiritually—the chaos corroding our civilization will accelerate.

What’s really being attacked

The late Charlie Kirk often articulated the deeper conflict succinctly: a spiritual battle in which radical ideologies—Marxism and Islamism among them—seek to erode the American way of life that sprang from a Judeo-Christian worldview: family, local community, ordered liberty, public virtue, and the conviction that all people bear the image of God.

Why does that worldview cause such hatred? Consider five core claims of Christianity that run directly against the grain of anger-politics and power-religion:

1. The primacy of love.
   “Love the Lord your God… and your neighbor as yourself.” Love, forgiveness, reconciliation—even of enemies—cuts against our culture’s appetite for vengeance and perpetual outrage.

2. Inherent human dignity.
   Every person is made in God’s image (Gen. 1:27). That truth resists all dehumanization—of political opponents, of the unborn, of the elderly, of the foreigner. Tyrants and opportunists hate it because you can’t easily control people you’re required to treat as image-bearers.

Mass Shooting in North Jerusalem

Time/Place: ~10:30 a.m. at the Ramot (Ramon/Rama) Junction on Jerusalem’s North side—one of those busy transfer points where multiple routes converge and buses stack up.

What happened:

• Two attackers arrived by car, boarded a crowded bus, opened fire, then continued shooting outside.

• The rampage lasted roughly a minute.

• Casualties: At least 6 killed, about 20 wounded.

• Stopped by: Two armed Israelis—reportedly ultra-Orthodox (Haredi), one an off-duty IDF commander from the new Haredi unit—neutralized the terrorists on scene.

Notes that matter:

• Authorities believe the cell had ISIS ties, not Hamas/PIJ/Hezbollah.