In this week’s brief: the cultural shockwave of Charlie Kirk’s assassination has rocked the nation—politics, media, public safety, and Americans are all grappling with the aftermath of his death. We’re breaking down the investigation, the cultural responses, and what his legacy means for a new generation of voters.
We’re also digging into the rise of political violence, security for public figures, and the thorny free speech fights sparked by Kirk’s death. And yes—there’s a spiritual awakening angle you’re not hearing anywhere else.
Plus, quick updates on Israel’s ground offensive in Gaza, a US drone strike on a Venezuelan drug boat, fresh updates from the Russia–Ukraine war, the Emmys, Larry Ellison leapfrogging Elon Musk, and the passing of Robert Redford. Oh, and we respond to listeners wanting to know if we’re Team Conrad or Team Jeremiah (iykyk).
We’re here to help you cut through the noise and make sense of a whirlwind news cycle. No spins—just biblical insights to help you stay grounded and engaged in today’s culture.
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Topics
- (00:21): Deep dive into Charlie Kirk’s assassination
- (08:26): Cultural impact and responses
- (16:35): Political violence and free speech
- (26:48): Kirk’s posthumous influence
- (27:30): Spiritual awakening and revival
- (29:45): A call to action for believers
- (37:34): TSITP teams
- (40:35): Current events and pop-culture updates
Resources
- Send us your thoughts, questions, and topic ideas: [email protected]
- Culture Brief Instagram
- Sign-up for Denison Forum’s daily newsletter: DenisonForum.org/subscribe
Links mentioned in this episode:
- White House on X
- Can Bonton Farms show us a better way to restore hope to struggling communities? – Denison Forum
Other articles on this week’s top headlines:
- Charlie Kirk fatally shot at speaking event in Utah- Denison Forum
- What does Charlie Kirk’s death mean for America? – Denison Forum
- Trump says suspect arrested in Charlie Kirk assassination – Denison Forum
- Three reasons Charlie Kirk’s murder is relevant to us all – Denison Forum
- Could Charlie Kirk’s death be a “turning point” for America? – Denison Forum
- How should Christians respond to the assassination of Charlie Kirk and rising violence in our culture? – Denison Forum
- Sources: Kirk suspect’s transgender roommate “aghast,” may be key to motive
- ‘It Will Scar This Generation.’ Charlie Kirk’s Death Ignites a Campus Reckoning
- Charlie Kirk Helped Republicans Break Through to Young People
- Axios: America’s Violent Spiral
- The Assassination of Charlie Kirk – The Free Press
- Axios: Four ominous trends
- Suspect left note saying he planned to kill Charlie Kirk, later confessed in texts, prosecutor says
- Suspected gunman Robinson wrote note threatening Kirk, tied to scene by DNA, FBI director says | Reuters
- Charlie Kirk vigils held at universities across America following assassination of conservative activist
About Conner Jones
Conner Jones is the Director of Performance Marketing at Denison Ministries and Co-Hosts Denison Forum’s “Culture Brief” podcast. He graduated from Dallas Baptist University in 2019 with a degree in Business Management. Conner passionately follows politics, sports, pop-culture, entertainment, and current events. He enjoys fishing, movie-going, and traveling the world with his wife and son.
About Micah Tomasella
Micah Tomasella is the Senior Advancement Officer at Denison Ministries and co-hosts Denison Forum’s “Culture Brief” podcast. A graduate of Dallas Baptist University, Micah is married to Emily, and together they are the proud parents of two daughters. With an extensive background in nonprofit work, finance, and real estate, Micah also brings experience from his years in pastoral church ministry.
About Denison Forum
Denison Forum exists to thoughtfully engage the issues of the day from a biblical perspective through The Daily Article email newsletter and podcast, the Faith & Clarity podcast, as well as many books and additional resources.
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
NOTE: This transcript was AI-generated and has not been fully edited.
Conner Jones: [00:00:00] Hi, I’m Conner Jones.
Micah Tomasella : And I’m Micah Tomasella,
Conner Jones: and this is Culture Brief, a Denison Forum podcast where we navigate the constant stream of top stories and news, politics, sports, pop culture, and technology. And we’re doing it all from a Christian perspective. Micah, it’s been a big week, lots going on. You wanna just give us a rundown on what we’re gonna be hitting on today?
Micah Tomasella : Yeah, I do. So obviously the biggest story is surrounding Charlie Kirk’s assassination. We touched on it briefly last week. We’re really gonna dive deeply into all of the angles this week. We’re gonna give you cultural responses to Charlie Kirk’s assassination, the latest on the investigation and official responses, the division that we’re seeing in America, political violence, security going forward for public figures who are worried about.
Their safety now firings across the nation that we’re seeing and the free speech arguments that are coming from it, his impact through his death. The impact that we’re seeing through Charlie Kirk’s death has been nothing short of astounding. And then we’re gonna give you a couple hot takes, more top headlines and even more than that.
So let’s jump [00:01:00] into the brief. The brief. Alright. So I just wanna give you the latest on the investigation. Revolving around Charlie Kirk and the assassination. One week after the assassination of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University on September 10th, the picture is much clearer.
Tyler Robinson. 22 has now for, has now been formally charged with aggravated murder and a slate of other offenses with prosecutors announcing they will seek the death penalty. Mm-hmm. According to the charging documents, Robinson was apprehended on September 11th after his father recognized him in photos released by the authorities.
We’ve learned more about kind of what happened in the Robinson household, those kind of 36 hours that it took for him to turn himself in and get captured. And so his father recognized him in the photos that were released by authorities that all of us saw when everybody, you know, when there was this massive manhunt, Utah.
Governor Spencer Cox confirmed that detail last week. [00:02:00] Robinson’s father told investigators that when his wife showed him the surveillance image of the suspected shooter on the news, he immediately agreed it looked like their son, and he knew it was his son. When he called Tyler, the young man hinted that he planned to take his own life.
But his parents persuaded him to meet them at their home. There, they confronted him directly and asked why he had done this. Robinson allegedly replied, there is too much evil, and the guy Charlie Kirk spreads too much hate. The charging documents. Also note that Robinson’s mother told investigators her son had recently begun a relationship with his roommate who is transitioning and that he had grown more politically left leaning in the last couple of years, more pro-gay and trans rights oriented.
In her words specifically, authorities have not confirmed whether those views are Kirk’s rhetoric on those issues played any role in his decision. Sure does seem like it though, but you know, you can’t really confirm it until [00:03:00] later. Prosecutors say DNA evidence ties Robinson directly to the rifle used along with a written note and messages in which he admitted his plan.
So this was a big thing yesterday. Yeah, unless you were under a rock. You got to see kind of yesterday afternoon that the, the entire text conversation between Tyler and his partner was leaked basically when the partner found out that. Tyler had shot Charlie Kirk and how he was trying to get the rifle, how he had hid the rifle, but he’s trying to go get it and, you know, things like that.
And it just seemed like Tyler was worried about all the wrong things. He was worried about getting the gun back to his, you know, it was his grandfather’s gun or something like that. And he was worried about, oh, if I lose this, my dad’s gonna be upset. Okay. What about he, he seemed to really be
Conner Jones: thinking he was gonna get he was gonna escape.
Like no one was ever gonna figure out Yeah. That it was him who did this, which was, obviously he is not in the right place of mind by any means. Yeah.
Micah Tomasella : Yeah. And he had said in those text exchanges that he had been planning it for a little over a [00:04:00] week. So you know how sometimes you hear people plan things for months, for years?
Seems like he right now seems like he just kind of made the decision somewhat on the fly, which is hard to believe. But then at the same time, when I see something like what he said in the text exchange about how he actually thinks he’s gonna get away with it. And how he didn’t leave in a d, any DNA and how the gun is the only thing that ties him to it.
He just has to go get it and then he’ll be scot free. No one’s mentioning him on the news. Mm-hmm. It’s okay, well maybe, maybe you weren’t really that prepared because you’re not gonna get away with this. I can’t remember the last time anybody’s gotten away with something like this. Yeah.
So anyway he is being held without bail. And a protective order bars him from contacting Erica Kirk. Obviously, president Trump called the assassination a direct attack on America itself, and pledged swift justice, while also noting the rise in political violence in recent years. He acknowledged it, including two attempts on his own life, which have happened in the murder of a democratic lawmaker.
He compared this moment to the [00:05:00] turbulence of the late 1960s with J-F-K-M-L-K. Erica Kirk has been the most powerful voice in this aftermath. No matter how you might feel about Charlie Kirk and who he was, whatever it might be his wife Erica, has been incredible and at Turning Point headquarters, she quoted Psalm 46 1, declaring God is our refuge and strength, a very present help and trouble, and promised her husband’s mission would continue stronger.
Bolder and louder and greater than ever. The public Memorial service for Charlie Kirk is being held on September 21st at the State Farm Stadium in Arizona, where the NFL’s Cardinals play and is expected to draw one of the largest political and faith gatherings of the year. So the stadium seats just a little over 70,000 is not as big as Jerry World.
It doesn’t seat, you know, a hundred thousand like at and t Stadium does. But there’s definitely gonna be people crowding up on the outside of it as well. So across the country we’ve seen candlelight vigils and campus memorials that have already taken place. And we’ve seen a mix of grief, worship, reflection in those, some [00:06:00] random people trying to be disrespectful, things like that, trying to destroy vigils or say hateful things.
But at the same time, we’ve seen misinformation and conspiracy theories swirl online. Hmm. I mean, of course. That’s not surprising. With false alarms about the shooter, his motives the hours after the attack. Authorities warn that while they’re investigating Robinson’s political shift, the exact motivation is not fully established, is what authorities are saying.
But, you know, you can definitely put some of the pieces together. So anyway, there, there, there’s the latest on the investigation, Conner.
Conner Jones: Yeah, that’s, thanks for that. There, there’s still just so many moving pieces and so it was good that you summed up a lot of what we do know and yeah, you’re right, there are conspiracy theories and there’s still a lot of questions.
Everybody’s trying to get their takes out there, get their, their thoughts on what really happened, who’s really behind this, all the stuff. I would just say give it time and let the authorities work their stuff out and then, you know, let the DA put together their, their case essentially. And yeah, the, the DA of Utah did come out.
And say, I am or the attorney General of Utah said, I’m [00:07:00] going to seek the death penalty in this. I mean, they’re, they’re gonna go full force into this. Obviously. It’s a, it’s a massive, massive case and it’s one of the biggest things that’s probably ever happened in Utah
Micah Tomasella : and what we do know Yes, for sure.
In Utah. Yeah. What we do know already a week later is actually kind of astounding. Mm-hmm. I do feel like we have more detail on something, this high profile. Then I can remember in recent years, like we’re a week out and we have the text exchange. We know, we seem to be able to start piecing together what those 36 hours after he shot Kirk look like.
What’s, what the mom is saying, what the dad is saying, what they’re telling authorities, what the grandma is saying, what the partner is saying. I mean, we have learned a lot already. It’s just been a week.
Conner Jones: Yeah. And you know, I’ve seen several of the, like Dan Bonino, the deputy director of the F fbi, I has been on several media hits.
K Patel has been on media hits. They’re like talking about the case openly on tv and they always have the caveat of we can’t say everything ’cause we have to protect it for the case or whatnot. But either [00:08:00] way there’s still, there’s still detailing all this stuff. There’s a lot of transparency and you’re right, i I, for a high profile case like this, there’s usually months or years before we find out a lot of the answers.
So this is kind of interesting and I
Micah Tomasella : do appreciate the transparency. I really do. You start to think about the motivation. I know that Republicans are gonna try to flip this into some political momentum, and so I think that that’s a part of it. You know what I mean? Could be. But at the same time, I am thankful for the transparency.
Alright, Conner, what you got for us?
Conner Jones: Yeah, I just wanna, I kind of wanna break down all these cultural responses. Our culture has been just upended in the last week, and so that’s what we talk about here on culture Brief. What’s going on in our culture well, obviously this jarring event took time to process.
It took a day or two to just even grasp what happened. I mean, last Wednesday. We were able to hop on Wednesday night and give a little intro ’cause we were like, we gotta talk about this. But we were still just jarred by the events that had just happened a few hours earlier. And I think it will take time for our country to process, but also specifically those close to Charlie.
But now that we’ve had kind of a week to think through everything. [00:09:00] It’s now the part of the, of the tragedy where people start to really bring out the knives and you see the after effects and the downstream effects of something like this taking place where people start to say things, society starts to react and all of that.
I just wanna first and foremost say there’s just a recognition that there is a giant hole left in America now with Charlie Kirk’s death. His, his just influence was so big. I knew he was big and influential. And Micah, I think you did too. But sometimes ’cause we’re so ingrained in politics and stuff.
I think that certain political figures and again, he was not an elected official, but he was, politics was his life and what he did and his faith as well, but that’s where his influence was. So I think I wasn’t even aware of just how influential this guy was. Yeah. But to see the response and that everybody in America pretty much knew him, at least to some extent, because they see him on their social media feeds, all of that.
Man, what a fixture of just. Social fabric of America. I really liked what Emily Hinky, she tweeted. She said, Charlie Kirk is a fixture specifically of the Gen Z social [00:10:00] media diet. People feel like they know him, and this is just his death is gonna hit very, very close to home in ways that we’re not prepared for.
And it didn’t matter which side of the aisle we’re on, you were on, you probably still saw his videos debating. Now whether it was somebody saying they really loved what he was saying, or a social media account saying this is evil or whatnot. You still saw his face. He just was that kind of figure. Yep.
And he may very well have been responsible for bringing in the young voters that were needed to get Trump over the edge. In 2024, wall Street Journal said that he was a master of 21st century mass media, and he was, man, he just always on podcasts, always on media. He’s the one who told Trump to go on podcasts and the last election cycle that probably helped push him over the edge to win the election as well.
Just saying, Hey, you gotta get in this new media environment. Get away from legacy television. ’cause that’s a dead thing for young voters. It’s and then he, you know, he was always consulting Trump on things that young people Trump would call him up and ask about the pulse of how young people would feel about certain policy positions, even global affairs.
I know when Trump was considering bombing Iran, he called Charlie Kirk to ask [00:11:00] what he thought. ’cause he knew Charlie Kirk represented this big segment of the voting population. The White House Press Secretary, Caroline Levitt. Said that the president’s massive gains with young Americans across the country was in no small part because of the efforts of Charlie Kirk and Turning Point USA Charlie’s organization.
And Ben Shapiro. Also an influential right-wing figure. About 10 years. Senior of Charlie said that he thought Charlie would one day be the head of the RNC, the Republican National Convention, but that he was wrong. Instead, Charlie ended up building something much bigger and far more important.
That’s Ben’s own words, right? Mm-hmm. So all these right-wing influencers are very just recognizing how much Charlie mattered. And a lot of them, including Donald Trump himself, said that they thought he would one day be president of the United States of America. Yeah. Which, you know, there’s no way to know what was gonna happen and there’s no way to know if he would’ve ever pursued that.
But the idea that these people saw that potential in him just makes it sting a little bit differently. ’cause you’re like, man, what, what was left in his life that could have been done? Yeah. And not just for America and for [00:12:00] politics, but for faith, right? Mm-hmm. And he was trying to start something big with schools and educational.
They had founded Turning Point USA faith, a whole different branch of the organization. So a lot there. And obviously Charlie whether you. Respected what he said or did not respect what he said. What you cannot deny is one, he, he was a big figure in public, just speaking and free speech, but he also had an irreplaceable grit and work ethic, right?
Yeah. He was, he had an irreplaceable ability to debate his positions. He knew his stuff. He had a deep understanding of the best formats, the media formats to present that stuff, whether it’s on a campus or on a podcast, radio or whatnot. And man, he was just, he was just huge in that environment. Now the question is how do you fill the shoes of someone like that, that had this unbelievable reach and impact on American society and our electoral just voting population.
How do you replace that and what happens to the movement? You know, I, I think it’s kind of a time now where a lot of people are [00:13:00] trying to figure out how they carry this on, how they carry on Charlie’s legacy and all of that. And so even the New York Times, who is very left-leaning, they, they recognize.
That Kirk’s death only crystallized his status as a mobilizing force. The, the response among supporters of Kirk is really, they see him as a martyr and that his assassination is kind of a watershed moment that will propel their cause and cement both conservative values and conservative Christian values in American life for decades to come.
That’s in their own words. And so the question a lot of people are asking kind of in the vein of Charlie Kirk’s organization is. Is his assassination, the turning point in America? Or a turning point, whether for better or for worse, is it gonna cause more division or is this a point where man, there could be a turning point in revival, in faith, in conservative values or whatnot?
I mean, do you have initial thoughts, Micah?
Micah Tomasella : Yeah, I mean, just surveying the landscape, you know, and I know you’re kind of about to talk about some of the division in America and stuff like that, but I mean, obviously being on social [00:14:00] media. Being on social media a lot is almost never a good thing, I would say.
Yeah. Almost never. Just ’cause you, you can try to build your algorithms by consuming what you want. You know? Let’s say you like crafts, I mean, okay. What’s wrong with crafting on social media, right? Like videos of people doing interior design or crafting or painting or projects like, but you just still can’t fully control your algorithm.
But being on social media. Has been one of the most destructive things that I did this last week. Yeah. After Charlie Kirk was assassinated, it, it left me feeling unsatisfied and hopeless every single time I left it for the most part. So there that was really what struck me because everybody has a strong opinion or some people have no opinion whatsoever, and it’s like, why are you even.
What are you saying? You’re just talking because everybody else is talking or all of the clips that were taken outta context or all of the people making it [00:15:00] seem like he was perfect and the best guy ever. Nobody is. That’s no knock against him. I, I just really saw the gambit in responses and I did not leave feeling encouraged that we’re gonna learn much from this as far as our political divisions go.
Can this? Yeah. We may not. United movement. Can this unite a movement? Can this bring be something that God uses for revival? Absolutely. But as far as our divisions go, I wasn’t left feeling very encouraged. And I think, I think that that’s kinda my biggest takeaway from when you’re kind of giving the responses from, from the left and right.
Conner Jones: Yeah, I, I, I agree with that. It was, it got kind of ugly out there on social media this week. And it’s gonna continue that way as people just argue about Charlie Kirk and whether he was a good person or a bad person. Just some of that does depend on who, just your political leanings, maybe your values, maybe your algorithms.
I mean, that’s, algorithms are really under fire right now. For two things. One, the division at stirring, also the just autoplay videos of his death that. Everybody was kind of subjected to when they got on social media all of the [00:16:00] platforms were just unable to quickly put those videos down. So anyways, there’s a lot to think about there.
I, there’s also been some hopeful things. There were a lot of people posting tributes to Charlie and they were trying to point back to Jesus, a lot of influencers, a lot of, yeah. Faithful people. And, and then even later on, they would show all the people that unfollowed them. A lot of people with big followings lost thousands of followers because.
They spoke out in Memorial of Charlie and I’m sure went the opposite way too. People who spoke out in hatred of Charlie, I’m sure lost followers as well. So it’s kind of just, yeah, you’re right. There’s the, there’s such a division on social media, but it goes beyond that. It goes into political violence, obviously that’s a topic of conversation this week.
There’s been an uptick in political violence. Even Trump. He called the Utah governor, Spencer Cox, who by the way. Has been a really good leader in this. Just tragedy. I don’t know if you guys have seen the press conferences with him, but he’s taken a lot. Great. Just,
Micah Tomasella : yeah,
Conner Jones: man, he, he’s really trying to say, get off social media.
He told everybody, go touch grass, let them do their [00:17:00] jobs, try to unify, be with your family. It’s all that. So he’s, he’s doing a great job, but Trump called him this week and even told him that this is the type of person. He said, you know, the, the type of person who would wanna do something like that to Charlie, speaking of the assassination, would love to do it to us, talking to the governor.
And then Trump also told him statistics about just political violence, and Trump told him that the presidency is actually one of the most dangerous jobs on the planet. 15% of the men who have held the office of president have been shot. 8% of them have been killed. God. Which is kind of crazy. Again this just political violence is there.
There’s been other attempts on obviously Trump’s life. There’s been the, assassination in Minnesota of the state lawmaker. There has been a fire set to Governor Shapiro in Pennsylvania. His house was set on fire in arson and then, you know, there’s just so much happening. It’s reminiscent of 1968.
That’s the last time there were so many acts of official political violence since and, and kind of a [00:18:00] 14 month span. So that was 1968 and we’re kind of back there in a way. And we’ll see if it dies down and hopefully it does. I hope there’s no more political violence. We don’t need that. That is not the answer ever.
This, right?
Micah Tomasella : I mean be because the, it’ll just go back and forth. I mean, we’ve mentioned the democratic lawmaker that got shot. That was killed. We mentioned that earlier this year too. That was really sad. It was done in a different way. It was done in a more private way and it’s still awful.
Kirk was literally assassinated in front of 3000 people and he was assassinated in front of his family. Yeah. So there’s, there’s just something much different about that and all of the videos of it just have really riled people up and, and caused some very visceral reactions and us being able to see that is emblematic of 2025.
Our, our nose and our phones, our social media algorithms. The fact that we saw that is emblematic of it, but. Something that I wanna point out. This is a quote from Charlie Kirk that I, I really do believe the majority of Americans would agree on this quote, the vast majority [00:19:00] in his own words, Kirk said, when people stop talking, that’s when you get violence.
That’s when civil war happens, because you start to think the other side is so evil and they lose their humanity. Charlie Kirk was not killed for what he did. He didn’t hurt anyone per se. He was killed for what he said. Yeah. And there is this weird juxtaposition where people are arguing and some are believing that hateful words.
Actually is like a hateful action or actually doing something to someone. I believe that there’s a distinction, like if you take something as a hateful or hurtful word, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re actually doing something bad to me, you’re saying something, but it’s different than doing it.
So I think that that’s kind of where the argument’s been coming in, but that quote, we’ve gotta keep talking is very, very powerful.
Conner Jones: Yeah, it’s, it’s so true. And honestly, it, I know he said things that probably really irked people and rubbed them the [00:20:00] wrong way, but when you look at the majority of what he was saying and if you’ve seen so many of the clips that have gone even more viral, especially his last couple of years as he was, yeah, he, he really started to a, working through his faith more.
Yeah. Yeah. He started to try to point more people to faith and family, specifically young people. He is don’t focus on the things that the world wants you to focus on. Go, love God. Go to church, get married, have kids, buy a home, settle down, spend time together. That’s what’s important in your life. And he called on men, men specifically to lead in their homes and in their work, and in their communities, in their church, all of that, right?
He was trying to help raise up a generation of young men who were being told they were not good enough. That’s part of why Trump won this past year, is because young men felt a need to bring in a different type of leader because they felt like they were being ostracized. And Charlie Kirk spoke into that.
Mm-hmm. Very frequently. Yep. And so that’s why so many young men really respected him. That’s, and he was trying to bring biblical values to that. So I think he’s a piece of why we’re seeing Gen Z, at least in America, really coming more in tune with the Christian faith. I think he’s a piece of it.
[00:21:00] There’s way more to that and obviously God’s the biggest piece of that, but I think God was using him in that way, right? Mm-hmm. All that to say. Back to the political violence thing, real fast. Security, this is a concern for a lot of people. Congress is talking about upping their security funding for.
Just government officials so that they’ve got more security. You’re seeing campus tours that were scheduled, staying on schedule, Megan Kelly, Ben Shapiro, other right wing people that do these tours on campuses. Some of the visits were gonna be alongside Charlie Kirk. They’re saying they’re not canceling, they’re not backing down, they’re not gonna do that.
They’re gonna continue Charlie’s work and they’re going to just move things indoors, increased security, all of that. But they’re, they’re gonna continue to go out and speak. But you can’t blame people for being a little oh man. Yeah. We gotta be more cautious for sure. Yeah. I’m sure you will see more security around these people as well.
Just in daily life. The other thing that’s happening, and this has been a big just kind of topic of conversation, is some would say it’s a, a clamp down on free speech. Others would say, this is just the free speech economy, right? Where people say things. They get fired from their jobs [00:22:00] or they get quote unquote canceled.
And it’s, it’s caused quite a problem. There have been lots of people who have been publicly fired or shamed on social media this week. Their companies are announcing they’re gonna fire their university, that they work at, their sports team, that they work for, whatever it is. Lots of people have been fired for basically celebrating Charlie’s death.
Is essentially kind of what’s happening there. There have been websites and social media pages set up to reporting these people. One website has branded themselves as the largest firing operation in history as they have built a searchable database that now has get this 50,000 submissions of people saying things publicly on social media.
So we have seen teachers, pilots professors. Sports team, employees, they’re all getting suspended or fired. And all these companies that have made public statements. And then Vice President Vance, he hosted the Charlie Kirk show on Monday, the first episode since his death and was kind of the fill in host and did a memorial episode for him.
But even on that while hosting it, he said, if you see [00:23:00] someone celebrating Charlie’s murder call their employer. So he is behind it too, and the government’s kind of yeah, that, that’s part of it. But my, my question is, and what a lot of people are calling out is, is this hypocritical? And I’m saying that because just a few years ago.
A lot of people will remember kind of that big period where lots of people were getting canceled specifically on the right for things they were saying on social media or in a comedy special or whatnot. They were saying these things and then the left would just be like, you’re canceled. We’re getting you fired.
We’re de platforming you. We’re making sure you’re getting pulled off YouTube, off your podcast platform, off whatever it is off the TV network you’re on. We wanna make sure you are canceled and cannot come back. Now a lot of those people have come back. And actually found big audiences on the right.
But the question is, is this hypocritical? Are, is if cancel culture was coming for the right several years ago, and are they doing the same thing now on the, to the people that are celebrating Charlie’s death?
Micah Tomasella : Maybe it’s a little hypocritical. I think it’s really hard in moments like this where people are kind of trying to [00:24:00] grieve and then you see people getting out there just actually celebrating it.
Like they’re truly I’ve just seen so many things I’ve seen leaders of school boards. Who set curriculum and teach teachers how to teach kids, getting on social media and making statements, celebrating the the assassination of Charlie Kirk. I really would love to believe that the majority of people, like if you’re conservative, you would be just as upset if a superintendent for a school that are forming the future minds of America would’ve come out and celebrated the death of Melissa Hortman.
Who is the Minnesota law lawmaker who was murdered. I really would hope that there would be that same vitriol and repercussion for that person if they, if they were gonna do the same thing there. I don’t know. This is tough. Yes, I do. I do see some hypocrisy with it. However, first Amendment rights.
Your right to free speech doesn’t give you the right to [00:25:00] keep your job in the private sector.
Conner Jones: Correct.
Micah Tomasella : So these private institutions get to make their own decisions about who they want representing their company. I would say practice some. I don’t know, think twice before you post it on social media, especially if it’s controversial, whatever the topic might be.
Because you do not just represent yourself, you represent your family, you, you represent your faith. And in a lot of times with these companies, you’re representing that company. You’ve got in your bio where you work. If you’re gonna say something like that, no matter what it might be, you might be subject to being let go.
So I, I don’t know, man. It’s tough. Maybe
Conner Jones: it is a tough one. I will say a lot of people are just saying this is, you know, you get fired from a company that, that’s just the free marketplace. Like companies have that decision people have the decision to unfollow you for saying things. There is no legal thing which has gotten now Attorney General, Pam Bondy in trouble.
’cause she suggested there is a, a ability for the government to clamp down on people who are saying these hateful things. Even the Office Depot employee employee who went viral over the weekend for refusing to [00:26:00] print out Charlie Kirk Memorial posters. She’s saying we could come after that person. I do not, no.
I’m not a legal expert. No. But based off things I’m reading, I do not think that that is true. She’s getting flack from the left and the right should for her statements this past week. She should,
Micah Tomasella : she should retract that. They, they their you, the First Amendment protects hate speech, but that employee who works for Office Depot, their job is not protected because they didn’t do their job.
So therefore they can be let go of their job, but we don’t want the Justice Department going after somebody, I mean, come on, man. That’s, that’s too far. Everybody’s just riled up right now. Really hoping things calm down.
Conner Jones: Yeah. Even right-wing commentator Matt Walsh, he, he sent out this tweet about the whole thing.
He said, we need the attorney general focused on bringing down left wing terror cells, not prosecuting Office Depot employees. That’s golly,
Micah Tomasella : yeah. Kind of a weird one there.
Conner Jones: Yeah. I just wanna hit on one last thing here of the cultural response, Micah, before we dive into kind of a spiritual application.
And that’s just that Kirk is having an impact even after his death, right? He, he has seen immense growth [00:27:00] in his popularity. His wife Erica, had that speech and she’s gotten more popular. His Instagram accounts have. TikTok, Facebook, YouTube. He’s gained millions of followers across the board. There were 3,500 chapters of Turning Point USA on high school and college campuses last week.
This week there are now 54,000 requests to start new chapters on campuses across the country. Wow. His life goal was 20,000. There are 54,000 now after his death requests. So this could get close to 60, 70,000. Wow. You know, by the end of it. But even more importantly, I think we’ve seen a spiritual movement.
Yes. And I, I’m sure many of you listening to this have seen stuff on social media and online of people saying they were gonna vigils. There were worship moments at these vigils. It was beautiful. Moments, even in the midst of tragedy, the gospel is being heard. Lots of clips of Charlie and those around him sharing the gospel have been shared all across social media, and they’re getting millions and millions of views and go going viral again, which is really cool.
Even the White House posted a video. It’s [00:28:00] 62nd video. They’re kinda memorializing him, and then at the end of the video is literally him presenting the gospel like it’s. An incredible video coming as day from the White House, plain as day social media accounts, plain as day. It was cool. 8 million views on that video on ExOne.
I don’t even know where else gospel they posted it.
Micah Tomasella : It’s the like when, when he explains his faith journey. It is biblical. It is the Romans road to salvation. It is. Not of our works, but what, what God’s done for us. Jesus’. Death, burial and resurrection and our trust in that changes everything when we put our faith and trust in Jesus.
I mean, it’s just I mean it was there was a convolution there, there was no addition there. It was spot on every time,
Conner Jones: and I think it’s having a grander impact. I don’t know if you’ve seen this as well, Micah, but for sure there were lots of people on social media saying that they, for the first time last week.
Either their lifetime or in many years we’re gonna go back to church. Yeah. And they felt yeah. And churches were
Micah Tomasella : packed this last weekend. Too packed. There’s a lot of churches were packed. Is so crowded. Yeah.
Conner Jones: I, I drive the parking lot golf cart on Sundays at my church. Yeah. And love to pick people up that are parked out far [00:29:00] away.
Lemme tell you what, our park church parking lot was full. I do not know that that is fully because of this event. But either way, there is a movement happening in America. And I do think that this spurred a lot of people to turn back to their faith. They’re seeing incredible videos and they’re seeing the response of Christians who are saying.
Man, our hope is not in this world. Yep. And when a tragedy like this does happen, we have so much more that we can cling to. And Charlie and his family said that, I mean, when Erica can stand up on Friday night, two days after her husband has been killed, and say, I have a faith and I’m gonna move forward because one, that’s what Charlie would want us to do.
And two, that’s what we are called to do. And we have a grander hope and we know where Charlie is at. That changes your perspective on life and everything and purpose and all of that. So I think a lot of people felt that this past week.
Micah Tomasella : Yeah, absolutely. I, to wrap this up with a more spec specific spiritual application and challenge from this you know, guys, this has been a heavy week and I think that you’ve all felt it.
I have definitely felt it. It’s been just, [00:30:00] I’ve just had different waves of emotions through this process where I have been just very discouraged. A few moments where I felt very encouraged, but ultimately the point that I want to drive home today is that I, I really do pray and I pray that you would all join us in praying for this, that this would not mean a bigger movement where the left would get more votes, that Democrats would get more votes, that Republican would get more votes like.
I just really want the response from this to not be more policy and legislation. I’m not saying that those things hurt. I want this to be a true spiritual awakening. We’ve already touched on all of these different things of how Gen Z is turning to Jesus and how there’s a hunger for the spiritual nature at which Jesus brings, and then this happens and it’s wow this could really be something, but that’s the only thing that’s gonna change.
Anything is the eternal, the eternal that Jesus offers, the truth that’s offered through his word. So I believe there’s a crisis in our soul, not [00:31:00] just in our politics, because when a person like Charlie Kirk, who is so public, who is so influential, so polarizing, even is taken in such a beautiful not, not a beautiful is, is, is taken, the response has been beautiful, but his life was taken in such a tragic way, a brutal way in front of the whole world to see it reveals how much we have drifted spiritually.
It’s almost like this happened and then you see the responses and then you’re like, the veil is lifted. Anything that you, any, you know, rose colored glasses you had on about the state of where we are in our country. I think it’s gone. There’s more of a recognition of things are not so great right now.
We’re more divided than than we should be, right? Yeah. And so I wanna point us back to scripture, Proverbs 1434. Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin as a approach to any people. We keep trying to patch our problems with political fixes, with better laws, with stronger rhetoric, with different leaders, but none of that heals the human heart, which is where division bitterness, fear and hate begins.
These are spiritual issues. What [00:32:00] this moment shows is that revival is not optional right now. It has to be urgent. It has to be urgent on the heart of every believer. We keep talking about all these new believers going to church, these people who are interested, it’s time to rise up Christians. Understand your call to love and to serve to love God, and to love others and open your life and your heart to what God is doing clearly in our nation right now.
Let’s turn this evil for good. Let’s partner with God in transformation and revival that could take place from this. Ezekiel 36 26 says, I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you. I will remove the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. Only God can do that. Only God can do that, and it’s a beautiful thing when Erica.
Charlie’s wife when she said she will keep his legacy alive and that the tour will go on, that, that movement is not going anywhere. She was not just talking about politics when she was talking about a movement. She was testifying that there’s a spiritual fire lit in her, a conviction that the work is bigger than this moment that.[00:33:00]
What Charlie stood for, whether you believed in him or not, touched something eternal in people. I think that’s why so many people felt it and are feeling it so deeply. It’s not merely that killing a voice silences him Often. It magnifies the message, and that’s exactly what’s happening. It forces us to reckon with what we believe.
That with this kind of nation and community that we want to be. It also reminds us of our own mortality. I think when something like this happens, unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Psalm 1 27, 1. So here’s what revival might look like. Conner, people who stop trusting their party first and start trusting God.
Communities who care less about winning arguments and more about loving people, serving people. Churches full, not just have already committed, but of those who are coming back asking for help, wanting peace and purpose in their lives. A faith that is not comfortable, but a faith that is costly. A willingness to call out injustice, but [00:34:00] also just love our neighbor who disagrees.
Love people. Give them grace. Jesus said in John 1335, by this, all people will know that you are my disciples. If you have love for one another, that is the test. Are we gonna love one another through this? Because at the end, what lasts is not who controls the Senate or the ballot box, or who’s president, right?
It’s, it’s really, it’s about the man’s soul. It’s about our soul. The world and its desires pass away. But whoever does the will of God lives forever. One John two 17, and our only hope is revival in our hearts, our communities, our nation, and that anchor is. The eternal in Jesus. It’s eternal. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul firm and secure.
Hebrews six 19. So here’s the challenge as I wrap up. The momentum is already here. Churches are filling up as we’ve talked about. Worship is breaking out. People who have not prayed in years [00:35:00] are praying for the first time they’re turning to God. That is not a coincidence. This is the moment to share Jesus like never before whatever was holding you back.
Whatever was, whatever fear was controlling you, it’s time to let that go and trust in faith and share the gospel with somebody this week. I’m taking that challenge too. Share the gospel with somebody. Tell your neighbor, tell your coworker and your family where true hope is actually found in this, because the answer is not another politician or another platform.
The answer is Jesus. It always has been and it always will be. So let me leave you. With the marks of a true Christian from Romans 12, nine through 21, this is from nearly 2000 years ago, guys, and the application could not be any more relevant, and I really believe it’s a blueprint for how we need to be operating as believers in this time.
Marks of the true Christian, let love be genuine. Poor. What is evil? Hold fast to what’s good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. [00:36:00] Do not be slothful and zeal. Be fervent in spirit. Serve the Lord, rejoice and hope. Be patient in tribulation. Be constant in in prayer.
Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. Bless those who persecute you and bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own eyes.
Repay no one. Evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all if possible. So far as it depends on you live peaceably with all if possible. Sorry, beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God for it is written. Vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord.
To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he’s thirsty, give him something to drink. For By doing so, you will [00:37:00] heat burning coals on his head. Do not overcome evil by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Conner Jones: Yeah, that’s good stuff. That’s a great playbook. And man, there’s so much for every Christian in this society to take this week and go and live out the gospel, live out like Jesus did, and that includes you and me.
That includes all of us. So hopefully we can and we can carry on a legacy first and foremost of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And we do that. And then also do what Charlie was doing and, and share the gospel and do it lovingly.
Micah Tomasella : Yep.
Conner Jones: Okay. That’s a lot to take in. That’s a lot of heavy stuff. The culture will continue to respond, but I kind of think we need a little palate cleanser.
Yeah. And let’s, let’s jump into some other cultural things happening this week. Okay. Mike, I, I got a question for you, and I’m sure you have no context for this and that’s okay. But I’m just gonna ask you something and I’m sure some of our listeners will know and they’ll have opinions. Are you team Jeremiah or Team Conrad, maybe Team Belly.
Does, did any of [00:38:00] those teams stick out to you and are you on one of those teams?
Micah Tomasella : Maybe team Jeremiah, you know, there’s, there’s a biblical basis for that. Okay. Team, team Conrad, team Belly. I can tell you I have no clue what I’m talking about here. I have no idea what you’re talking about.
Conner Jones: Perfect. I did not know what this meant until 24 hours ago.
Oh, okay. When I was, okay. I have been talking to some of our female listeners and they have been asking why we aren’t talking about the show. The summer I turned pretty, apparently that is just, there’s teams. This feels the Twilight Series all over again. Remember Team Jacob and Team Edward in our middle school days.
This show is like the biggest show happening right now. Everybody seems to be watching this at least. In the female population of the United States, which Micah and I, you know, we don’t watch everything. We try to watch a lot, but I haven’t bridged this gap. My wife is watching it and she was filling me in on this, who the team, Jeremiah and Team Conrad are like, why you should be on each team.
All that to say, if you’re watching the show, let us know what team you’re on. ’cause maybe, maybe it’d be helpful for us to know but I don’t know, Micah, if you’re even into these [00:39:00] kind of romance shows that are like it’s, it’s not like. Yeah, I don’t know, like Juicy Romance, it’s like Teen Romance that are falling in love and growing up together or whatnot.
But it’s not really my cup of tea.
Micah Tomasella : I feel like oftentimes if I am, it’s because my wife gets into it and I, I love hanging out with my wife. If she gets into it. I, I am not too big a man, too strong a man to get into something like that. Yeah. But as far as this goes, I have no idea about it.
Conner Jones: I did sit down last night, I was eating dinner and my wife had it on in the background, and so I, I caught about five minutes of the show and I was like, I could see why this is appealing, but Oh, okay.
I, I still don’t think it’s my cup of tea, you know? You know. Hey guys, we also wanna keep hearing from you all and we got some cool comments this week on social media. Posted a clip last week of, it was honestly Micah, it was you sharing about everything you were saying about hope and mindset and everything from last week’s episode.
We got some cool comments. I just wanna read a couple of these. Yeah. Michael commented in terms of having hope and Jesus, he said, I spent years thinking the world was against me Once I figured out I had the power to change. Everything changed. I went from homeless and [00:40:00] addicted to homeowner and father.
There is a way, my goodness gracious. Then Ward Praise commented God, brother. Yeah. Praise God for that. That’s so cool. That’s
Micah Tomasella : amazing. What an amazing comment. Thank you for leaving that comment, Michael. Amen, brother. I.
Conner Jones: And then Ward said, the devil wants you to be alone and tired. He wants you worn and weak.
He can defeat you that way, but together we can be strong. He won’t be able to wear us down and amen to that. Yeah, that’s good. That’s good Ward. And that that’s goes to what we were just talking about. Unity. If the church can come together and unify the devil can’t take us down. Alright, we got got several things happening this week in culture.
Micah, you wanna kick us off and check in here about some stuff happening around the world?
Micah Tomasella : Yeah, let’s jump into checkin. All right. So Israel has launched another ground offensive in Gaza City. And I say another because they’ve done small things. This is truly, they’re rolling in. This has drawn a lot of international backlash.
There’s a lot of different reporting about the starving in Gaza and who’s actually causing the starving in Gaza. It’s really hard to kind of get a [00:41:00] clear picture. But what I do know is that Israel is in a tough place because they want to ensure their safety, get the hostages to back as they’re surrounded by enemies, but they’re kind of losing in the court of public opinion around the world.
Mm-hmm. So that’s just something that they’re having to, that’s just something that they’re having to balance. But I. Goodness gracious prayers that that conflict would end and people can live peaceably and innocent people can stop dying on both sides there. Another thing, the US performed another drone strike on a Venezuelan drug boat in the Caribbean killing three men.
So this, they did it a couple weeks ago, killing 11. They release the video. There’s people who get upset about it. I don’t think, I haven’t seen as much of a firestorm about the second one as, as I did the first one. It seems to be a gray area if they can just do this or if they’re just supposed to arrest ’em and, you know, all this stuff.
Who knows on that front. But they did it again and they took out another drug boat. Yeah. Alright. Russian drones were shot down over Romania this past week. This is another aggressive step that Russia has taken specifically against NATO member [00:42:00] countries. So they did the same thing to Poland about a week ago.
So this is not an accident. Russia’s trying to be more aggressive. Obviously Ukraine wants to join NATO and Ukraine and Russia are, are at war right now. This is very unique how this is going to play out. But that, that, that has been very interesting. Any thoughts on that one, Conner?
Conner Jones: Yeah.
They’re just trying to push their, the buttons of NATO and NATO’s had a response and jets up and shoot missiles down and stuff, and that’s not what you want. When somebody dies. In one of these countries that’s a NATO country, then it becomes a whole nother ballgame. And that’s
Micah Tomasella : yeah,
Conner Jones: that’s supposed to technically drag nato, including the US into the war.
I don’t know what will happen if that actually happens. And if the US will fulfill its end of the bargain, but we’ll see. Hopefully it doesn’t happen. We need to continue to pray for a peaceable ending in this conflict as well. You know, Lord. Yeah.
Micah Tomasella : Lord willing. Yeah. Okay. And then we lost a good one. Robert Redford died Tuesday, this past Tuesday at age 89.
Truly a Hollywood legend. I mean even, even young people, even Gen Z Conner and I [00:43:00] are millennials, but I mean, I, even very young people seemed to know who Robert Yeah. I mean he, he was
Conner Jones: in Marvel movies. Yeah, true. Like just a few years ago. True
Micah Tomasella : legend who stayed famous throughout star of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid and all the president’s men.
Classic movies. Yeah, movies, great movies. Won the Oscar for Best Director in 1981 for ordinary people and founded the Sundance Film Festival himself. He was also an environmentalist. Mm-hmm. And he was very passionate about that. Rest in peace, Robert.
Conner Jones: Yeah. Hey, just so y’all know, the last week Elon Musk was not the richest man for a few hours.
Yeah. He got overtaken for a little bit by Larry Ellison, which is not a name as familiar as like Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos and stuff, but Larry Ellison was the richest man on the planet for a few hours there, and that’s because his stock. Just took off. And he’s the founder of Oracle Software. If you did not know, he’s also the owner of an entire Hawaiian island, so if that tells you about his wealth, there you go.
He owns island and Hawaii, which is just insane.
Micah Tomasella : Yeah.
Conner Jones: Last Wednesday, that stock took off. It shot up $101 [00:44:00] billion in his net worth because Oracle stock just was having a day. It pushed him past Elon Musk. To a $382 billion net worth. It’s gonna continue to grow. And he’s having a big week because he’s also supposedly the guy who’s about to buy TikTok.
Yeah, at least a big chunk of TikTok. Him and several other people, he’s gonna be a part of the TikTok purchase that’s being saved. There’s a deal that’s been worked out with China. Trump’s talking to President Xi this week, so we’ll see what happens there. And his son is apparently gonna try to, his son’s the one who just bought Paramount CBS, we talked about that a few weeks ago.
David Ellison. Yeah. And he’s also gonna try to take over Warner Brothers discovery, which. There’s a whole lot of Hollywood entities including CBS being part of the whole thing. And speaking of CBS, the Emmys were this past week, we kind of previewed that last week, right? We were excited to see Nate Bartzi host because he’s a good cream clean comedian.
He’s actually really funny. He was not funny on this broadcast. In fact, it fell really flat and it was kinda sad to see. I was a little disappointed either way. You
Micah Tomasella : watched it, like you actually watched it live. [00:45:00]
Conner Jones: I was wa I had the, you know, I had the split screen going. I had the Sunday night football on the left side, Emmy’s on the right side.
Nice. When one was on commercial, I’d go back and forth. But yeah, I, I did watch it and part of that’s ’cause a lot of the shows that won, I’d seen the studio, severance Penguin. Yeah. The Pit. They all won most of the awards. Not surprising Adolescence was a big winner, including Owen Cooper, the kid in that show, man.
He won Best Supporting Actor and Noah Wiley. Hollywood stalwart. He just finally got his dues by winning Best actor for the Pit. Just an incredible performance on that show. I would suggest watching that show if you have not. And then, hey guys, tune into something. Last week Micah was on Faith and Clarity, the podcast the other dentist informed podcast we had.
He got the chance to interview what? Darren Babcock, is that his name? Mm-hmm. Over at Bonton Farms in Dallas, over at
Micah Tomasella : Bonton Farms. Yep. At an incredible mission, an incredible guy. Please go and listen to the Faith and Clarity podcast with Dr. Mark Turman, the latest episode, going and visiting Bonton Farms and hearing his [00:46:00] story and how transformation’s taking place in the lives of people who are so disenfranchised and struggling.
Was just an, an absolute pleasure for me. And Darren’s just the kind of guy that you talk to, little, his story’s incredible a little bit. Yeah. You talk to him for a little bit and you’re like, what am I doing? I mean, this guy is the hands and feet of Jesus and is mobilizing so many others to do the same exact thing, and to change not only a neighborhood, but like a community.
I mean, what, what he’s doing is being replicated in other places. So yes, go listen to that episode. It was incredible.
Conner Jones: All right. And we’ll link that. We will link that in the show notes. Yes. So you can see that and the articles that we’ve mentioned today as well.
Micah Tomasella : Yep. Absolutely. So thanks for joining us for this week’s episode of Culture Brief, a Denison Forum podcast.
I know we went a little long today, but thanks for hanging in with us. A lot going on and we’re, we’re very grateful for the place that we have in your life to be able to bring you the biggest topics and working it all out together, submitting it to God and saying, what would you have me do about this as we think?
[00:47:00] Critically through the news and we do not take that trust lightly. So thank you for spending every week with us. All articles and videos mentioned will be linked in the show notes. If you enjoyed today’s episode, please please subscribe and rate and review the show and share it with a friend. We’ll see you next Thursday.
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