The assassination of Charlie Kirk may prove to be a civilisational flashpoint, not unlike Constantine’s victory at the Milvian Bridge. Still, instead of welcoming Christianity into the heart of the West, it could mark the moment the faith was deemed expendable.
History has turning points, and one week on from the assassination of Charlie Kirk, the evidence is mounting: this was one of them. Like Constantine’s victory at Milvian Bridge in 312AD, Kirk’s death marks a civilisational flashpoint — but where Constantine’s victory welcomed Christianity into the West, Kirk’s murder may signal the moment it was declared expendable.
Read more: Charlie Kirk Dead: Faith, Politics, and a Nation on Edge
The moral response to Kirk’s assassination should have been simple: outrage, grief, and the clear-eyed conviction that no one deserves a bullet on a college campus. Instead, we witnessed hesitation, qualification, and the predictable phrase: “I didn’t agree with everything he stood for, but…” That wasn’t compassion — it was fear. Fear of being branded MAGA. Fear of being seen as one of those “legacy bigoted Christians.” The very fact that leaders, commentators, and celebrities felt compelled to distance themselves before they could condemn a murder is telling. It revealed that even grief must now pass through cultural gatekeepers.
The silence at last week’s Emmy Awards drove the point further. This was the symbolic pulpit of liberal Hollywood, a stage where one might have expected even Kirk’s ideological opponents to say plainly: violence is never the answer. Instead — nothing. No moment of shared humanity. No declaration that assassination is wrong, regardless of one’s politics. That absence spoke volumes. It was not neutrality; it was tacit permission.
For decades, Christianity in the West has been mocked, sidelined, and labelled irrelevant. Since World War II, each passing year has seen the faith appear more outdated and more alien to mainstream Western sensibilities. Yet there was still an unspoken contract of tolerance. However unfashionable Christians were, it was understood that they had the right to speak, preach, and live according to conscience without threat of the sword or the bullet. Kirk’s assassination has questioned that contract. It showed that even the most basic protection — that disagreement must never end in violence — is no longer a universally held guarantee for all Christians in the public square.
Historically, flashpoints like this have defined the trajectory of Western civilisation. Constantine’s victory at the Milvian Bridge was Christianity’s “coming out party,” the moment when the faith moved from persecution to power. The Reformation was another, an internal convulsion of the church that nevertheless reshaped politics, culture, and the map of Europe. Each of those moments, however dramatic, still assumed that Christianity belonged within Western civilisation. The debate was over how it should exist, not whether it should.
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The Kirk moment is different. His assassination, and the cultural responses to it, have exposed a deeper fault line. The question is no longer, “Which version of Christianity will shape our culture?” but rather, “Will Christianity be tolerated in our culture at all?”That is why this moment feels more foundational than even the Reformation. Luther and Rome could argue about indulgences, but neither doubted that Christianity defined the West. Today, that very assumption is up for grabs.
Charlie Kirk understood that America was at a turning point. He often said so. What he could not have foreseen was that his own violent death might embody that turning point more starkly than any of his speeches. Suppose Constantine’s triumph signalled that Christianity had a seat at the table of civilisation. In that case, Kirk’s murder may be the clearest sign yet that the West is ready to revoke that invitation.
The Bible tells Christians not to be afraid. But it also warns against naïveté. If the age of tolerance is over, then believers must not drift into denial. It is time to know our God, and to know Him well. In an era when civilisation itself seems to be turning its face against Christ, only those who are rooted deeply in Him will endure.
Drew Cordell is a business consultant who has worked alongside some of the world’s most successful businesses and their leaders in an extensive corporate career in both London and Australia. His new book Honest Christianity: Why People Choose to Believe is available on Amazon and all good bookstores.
