Today, somebody shot Charlie Kirk dead. A suspect is in custody, and his motivations remain to be explained. But it’s safe to infer he hated conservative commentator Kirk enough to kill him.That, in itself, is tragic. But what makes it worse is that this is not an isolated incident. It’s one more sad example of how the idea has become popularized that it’s acceptable to kill people you don’t like, or to make a political point by taking another human being’s life.In December of last year, a University of Pennsylvania graduate by the name of Luigi Mangione was charged with murder after Brian Thompson, the CEO of United Healthcare, died in a targeted attack… shot in the back. .WATCH: Charlie Kirk Assassination.But, the attack wasn’t random. Mangione believed Thompson represented everything wrong with the American healthcare system, and he believed that killing him was a legitimate way to express that rage.You’d think people would be horrified at his presumption. Who made him prosecutor, judge and executioner? However, it turned out many people thought his actions were justified and the prosecution is seeking the death penalty to deter copycats..In July of this year, another gunman, Shane Tamura, walked into the foyer of a New York high-rise building, intending to visit the NFL offices. He didn’t get to the NFL, but he shot dead four people who happened to be in range. Again, some voices in the cultural wilderness rationalized his crime.And now, Charlie Kirk is dead and there is no shortage of people who are not conservative, not pro-life, not cis, and hated what he said, who are applauding his death.Is this how it’s going to be? Not that politicians, even presidents, haven’t been attacked and killed before in the US — and in Canada — but in the past, the condemnation has been loud and sincere. Now, there’s a growing habit of applauding the killer. Not universal… but growing.We live in dark times. There is actually a constituency that supports killing people you don’t approve of, that it is a form of justice or payback. In Mangione’s case, his actions were excused because he lashed out against the healthcare industry. In Kirk’s case, there will no doubt be those who dismiss his murder as the silencing of a loud conservative voice they hated.With this lot, there's none of that silly Voltaire nonsense about disagreeing with what you say, but defending with my life your right to say it..This is what the world looks like when everybody does what is right in their own eyes.That phrase comes from the Old Testament book of Judges. It describes a time of social chaos in ancient Israel, when the people had abandoned God’s law. The result was horrifying stories of violence, corruption, and depravity that still shock readers today. Without a shared respect for God’s word, society fell into self-destruction. National decline followed, interrupted only briefly by the rise of leaders such as Gideon and Samson who called as they were to divine purpose, nevertheless were far from perfect. Once they died, ‘everybody’ started once more to do what was right in their own sight, and the cycle of decline, defeat, suffering, restoration and moral decay rolled on.The lesson of Judges is clear: when morality is defined not by God’s word but by whatever seems good to the individual, chaos ensues. Violence replaces debate. Power replaces persuasion. Killing becomes an acceptable form of political expression.Is America now experiencing its own season of Judges? Inasmuch as there remains authority to prosecute law breakers, not yet.However, we live in a culture that increasingly rejects the sanctity of life. We see it in the debates over abortion and euthanasia. We see it in the glorification of violence in entertainment. We see it in the way political opponents are demonized as enemies to be destroyed, rather than fellow citizens to be persuaded.The idea that it is somehow permissible to kill someone you disagree with politically is the rotten fruit of this moral decay. And unless it is stopped, there will be more Mangiones, more Tamuras — and more Charlie Kirks.The return to civility, to a politics in which people don’t get killed for their opinions, will not come from better gun laws or more security guards. It requires a return to God.Only when life is seen as sacred, given by God and not ours to take, will the tide of violence recede. Only when people once again believe that each human being bears the image of God and has much value and worth, will we stop rationalizing murder as political action.Only when we decide not to do what is right on our own eyes, but what is right in God's eyes, will we have politics where at least people don't actually get shot.
