By Josh Hammer
Newsweek senior editor-at-large and host, "The Josh Hammer Show"
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When this newsletter came out last Wednesday at noon Eastern time, I of course had no idea what horrific tragedy would transpire out west just a few hours later. But last week's newsletter, which was about the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) and Western civilization, was in hindsight perhaps eerily relevant.
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Soon after last week's newsletter hit email inboxes, my friend Charlie Kirk was assassinated by a radicalized left-wing ideologue at a Turning Point USA campus event in Utah. And pretty much ever since that terrible day, Charlie's one-time colleague Candace Owens and a number of other grifting charlatans on the "Right" have sought to posthumously rewrite Charlie's legacy to better serve their nefarious ends—namely, the undermining of the all-important Jewish-Christian alliance to the save the West.
But the reality is simple: Charlie Kirk focused on building bridges and maintaining broad-based coalitions. He had no interest in needlessly dividing or tearing apart. He cared about unifying disparate factions to defeat a common foe. He sought to build, not destroy. And even more to the point: He was also a devout evangelical Protestant whose Christianity was the exact same Christianity as the American Founding.
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Charlie was the type of Christian who understood that the roots of his own faith, and the roots of the United States and the broader West itself, are to be found in the Hebrew Bible. He was just as fond of quoting the Hebrew Bible—for Christians, the Old Testament—as he was of quoting the New Testament. He kept his version of the Sabbath, writing a whole forthcoming book on the topic. He literally turned his phone off from Friday night to Saturday night, just as we Orthodox Jews do. Charlie and I personally discussed the world-altering importance of Genesis 1:27—the notion that God made man in His own image, the very basis of equal moral worth and human dignity for all.
Charlie Kirk's Christianity was a very, very far cry from the "Christianity" of Tucker Carlson, who recently told a guest on his podcast how he was "shocked" by the "violence" and "genocide" in the Old Testament when he read it last year (apparently, it seems, for the first time). As I noted in my recent speech at the National Conservatism Conference in Washington, D.C., Tucker's implicit contention that the God of the Hebrew Bible is not the God of the New Testament is quite literally heretical on Christianity's own terms—it is a form of Marcionism (look it up). Charlie's Christianity, on the other hand, was much closer to that of John Adams, the Founding Father and second president of the United States, who once opined that the Jewish people are the "most essential Instrument for civilizing the Nations."
Contra Owens and other opportunistic demons seeking to hijack and desecrate Charlie's memory before their "friend" has even been given a proper funeral, Charlie Kirk remained until the day he died a stalwart defender of the ecumenical Jewish-Christian biblical inheritance upon which all of Western civilization is based. I know because I experienced this first-hand—we had a Zoom call less than 24 hours before his fatal event in Utah where I helped walk him through some hostile anti-Israel questions that he anticipated hearing from students during his upcoming campus tour. He cared greatly, and he was deeply concerned about the rising tides of anti-Semitism. He was a great friend of the Jewish people and the Jewish state of Israel right up until his final moments.
Charlie was a champion of the Judeo-Christian coalition to save Western civilization from the forces of barbarism and Islamism that seek to subjugate us all. He was nothing less than a titan—a five-star general in our great civilizational clash. We will miss his leadership. And I already miss my friend. Rest in peace, warrior.
To keep up with me, follow me on Twitter/X, Instagram, and Facebook. You can listen to all episodes of "The Josh Hammer Show" at the Newsweekwebsite or on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts—as well as select radio stations across the country. Make sure to also order my book, Israel and Civilization: The Fate of the Jewish Nation and the Destiny of the West! (Signed copies are available for purchase!)
Our additional highlighted recent Newsweek op-eds include selections from Terry Schilling, Brilyn Hollyhand, and Alex Rosado.
Have a great rest of your week! I'll be off next Wednesday for the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah, but I'll see you back here in two weeks. And to my Jewish readers, I wish you a shana tovah umetukah—a good and sweet new year.
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It is difficult enough to write about the most high-profile political assassination in this country since the Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy killings of 1968. It is considerably more difficult to do so when the victim was a personal friend. The pain is profound. Charlie Kirk and I had gotten close, and we had spoken less than 24 hours before the fatal bullet struck to discuss his upcoming campus tour. But if there is one thing that I know about Charlie, the quintessential public square warrior, it is that he would not have wanted us to sit on the sidelines.
The stakes are too high. We have a nation—and a civilization—to save. So, we fight back our tears and we summon the fortitude to plow ahead. We do so not because it is easy but because it is right. An assassin may have permanently silenced Charlie, but we won't let him silence us too. As it says in the Book of Psalms, one of Charlie's favorite books of the Bible: "Hope for the Lord, be strong and He will give your heart courage, and hope for the Lord." We must all now channel that courage—Charlie's signature trait.
+ More Views From The Right
- Remembering My Friend Charlie Kirk—Silence Is Not an Option
- Gen Z Conservative: What Charlie Kirk Meant to My Generation
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