We've NEVER Seen Something like This in America... - YouTube
Transcripts:
Let's close with a prayer. Heavenly Father, God, Lord Jesus Christ, our savior, Holy Spirit, we pray for the abundant grace that you have provided to be exhibited as we go out from here tonight. Lord, we honor in particular those directly affected by the murder of Charlie Kirk, his widow, and his children, and the people at Turning Point who were there and witnessed it that day.
And to the young people here who looked up to him and admired him. Lord, we know that as a servant of yours, Charlie Kirk was aware that all of us are on our knees shoulderto-shoulder before you. And Lord God, your principles and your values and what you have bestowed upon us. It's by your sacrifice that we will know eternal life.
It is by your life and your teachings that we know the direction that our faith should head in. Thank you, God, for giving me the opportunity to be with these beautiful people in Oklahoma. Thank you, Lord, for the conversation that's pursued. Lord, I would ask for divine inspiration. I would ask for new conversations that pursue the lines that Charlie Kirk was pursuing in earnest.
open discourse, love for me as a Christian. Lord, I follow you faithfully. Show me where I can honor you more greatly. Show me how we can interact with lovingly people of different faiths and different dispositions. And show us, Lord, how the miracle of new technology might be used to create maximal freedom in your name. May your kingdom come until your return.
Lord, we'll serve you in faith. In the name of Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen. As you mentioned, more than 6,000 people turned out to see British movie star, controversial comedian, and now devout Christian Russell Brand. Between quoting scripture and making jokes about his wild times in Hollywood, Brand led a kind of campus revival, talking about his own religious conversion and the need to fully embrace faith.
Questions from audience members like this one also focused on Christianity. As Paul said to Peter, it took the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus, his crucifixion and resurrection, for them, his peers, to be saved. Therefore, the point I want to illustrate is that I was dedicated to the law of our culture, which seems to me to be a hedonic law based on self and selfishness.
Now, power these days doesn't tell you that it's power. It tells you that it's normal. And words like normal change every day. Principles like free speech seem to change pretty regularly too. And what I will say is that we each of us has a part of eternity within us. And we must guard against that ever being corrupted or co-opted or misdirected.
And the only way that I know for that to be achieved is by surrendering and yielding to our holy one, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. It didn't work for me to live in crazy promiscuity. It didn't work for me to make movies or hang out with Diddy. That's a story. It didn't It didn't work for me to stroke the furry wall or host MTV, VMA awards.
None of them things worked for me. So, that's just my personal testimony that the culture is able to use and deploy you as an artifact that represents ideas that it's keen to convey. And I'm sorry to admit that in my case what it was conveying to you all was decadence hedonism a kind of easy luch rebellion. But now I am a rebel for him.
I am speaking for his kingdom. And whilst I will rebel against worldliness. I will be obedient to the same God as you. To the same Jesus Christ as you. We're all on our knees before him shouldertosh shoulder saved by his blood. and the rest of my life as best as I can, I will devote to honoring him and serving him.
And I'm very grateful that we have platforms like this one set up by brave and brilliant men like Charlie Kirk in which his message and word can be spread. Thank you. Death is like kind of a wakeup call for everybody and I think it's important to come to things like this now. It's important to see all the views. I believe that we just need to be united.
Um we're all going through the same struggle. No matter what side of the spectrum you're on, you can be red or blue. We're all going through the exact same things. All right, so those were some University of Oklahoma students, part of the big crowds that lined up outside the Turning Point USA event on campus last night. Over 6,000 people showed up to honor Charlie Kirk, forcing the event to move to a larger venue.
Claudia Cowan is live. She's got more on all that for us. Hi, Claudia. Good morning, Sandra. That's right. This Turning Point event became so popular really at the last minute that they had to move it from a small fieldhouse to a much larger arena and the headliner last night did not disappoint. What would you say to pastors who are scared to like speak out, who are trying to walk the line cuz they don't want to offend either side? There's a revival happening.
This isn't the time to be frightened. This is the time to no longer deny his holiness and his greatness. That not only is Jesus Christ real, the devil is real. And the devil has his hands on the levers of power and we must be mindful of that. Along with brand, conservative influencer Savannah Chrysley and Oklahoma Governor Gon Stit also took to the stage to carry on Charlie Kirk's mission of bringing open dialogue and political conservatism to college campuses.
The This is the Turning Point tour has played to packed houses ever since Charlie Kirk's assassination in Utah 5 weeks ago, starting with a rotating cast of conservative luminaries who say Kirk's message has only been amplified by his death. Tour stops in the weeks ahead include more high-profile speakers. Erica Kirk and JD Vance will headline at Miss on October 29th.
The day before Kirk's accused assassin, Tyler Robinson, makes his next court appearance in Provo, Utah, Sandra Robinson, faces the death penalty, and he has yet to enter a plea. Number of uh the speakers at the memorial on Sunday um in Phoenix made reference to the fact that, you know, the the uh assassin who uh who killed Charlie uh thought that he was going to silence him, and it's exactly the opposite.
He's given Charlie's voice a wider range than it ever could have had uh in his lifetime. It's an extraordinary thing and uh a demonstration that people who use violence to pursue political means uh um should among many other things apart from the fact that it's evil um not do that because the consequences may well be ones that they cannot foresee.
I thought it was extremely uh moving. Uh it was a remarkable demonstration of solidarity and support from tens of thousands of people. Um of course dominated by uh Charlie Kirk's widow Erica and her remarkable uh speech. But I also think Rita as you you've noticed as well that really one of the striking things was the prominence of the Christian message at the heart of it all.
Um many of us are used to sort of uh watered down forms of Christianity particularly in in in the western democracies and this wasn't that it was uh it was literally preaching of the gospel uh by you know secretary of war Pete Her by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and others and I think I think that that legacy is going to be one of the most powerful uh that Charlie Kirk has not just left behind but started.
head. Do you see that as important in fighting back for Western values and uh reaffirming those Judeo-Christian values? Well, you know, it's it's something I wrote about a lot in the strange death of Europe a decade ago, as you mentioned, uh, which is that we are in a complicated place in the history of the West because what we enjoy and our rights and our liberties and much more come from our Judeo-Christian roots.
There's no doubt about that. And anyone who says otherwise is simply trying to retrofit the multicultural model onto our societies. uh our our liberties and our rights and much more. Our freedoms come from a very specific and unusual in many ways uh religious theological tradition.
And uh the question as the former Pope Benedict then Cardinal Ratzinger pointed out was whether or not Western civilization can survive if it cuts itself off from the roots that gave it birth. That's a question which many people have mowled over in recent years and in some ways it's uh been answered which is no that if you completely cut yourself off from your religious roots in the Judeo-Christian West you end up with weird new wacko religions being founded whether it's Palestinianism or or transgenderism or or all of these look at me isisms and you just sort of
create this vacuum into which strange new heresies and beliefs uh wander. Um so it's it's an open question in the west whether uh there is another way or whether the way back is the one that Pope Benedict talked about, the one that Charlie Kirk obviously believed in, which is the west should return to its roots.
That's a very complicated uh um issue for society, but it's certainly one that we should think about and engage in. Um and and that is a challenge for everyone I think believers, non-believers alike, which is whether or not we can recognize uh the source that has given us what is good in our societies or whether we just repudiate it, reject it, and see where the winds blow us.
