The assassination of Charlie Kirk was an evil, vile and pernicious act that targeted not merely one man, but also our republic—our basic freedoms. It was an attack on the vision our founders had for freedom and democracy, a direct assault on life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Yes, it was also an attack on one man, whose death left ripples of grief, made a widow of a young wife and robbed young children of their father. It was the devil’s own work. It isn’t merely important for free men and women to say these things, it is necessary that we do.

It is also necessary to speak plainly about the political violence that threatens all our freedoms, and who is to blame. There are most definitely two sides to this—‘them’ and ‘us’—but it is not a partisan political divide.

On one side are those who commit, support, wink at or even fail to condemn all types of political violence. On the other are those who hate and condemn it. This is not a right-or-left, Antifa-versus-Nazi divide. It is between those who hate our democracy and those who love it.

The murder of Kirk is no different from the murder of Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman, on June 14. It is the same evil that led to the slaying of Brian Thompson, the CEO of United Healthcare in December. It is the same vileness that led to the murder of two Israeli diplomats in Washington, D.C., this spring, and the attack on the Centers for Disease Control that killed police officer David Rose.

This same evil led to the shooting of then-candidate Donald Trump last summer, the firebombing of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s residence on Passover, the shooting of U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise in 2017 and the attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul, in 2022. It is no different from the Black Lives Matter riots or the attack on our Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021.

All were violent attacks on our democracy—on each of us. They were a rejection of our Constitution and an abandonment of the principles of our Declaration of Independence.

If you laughed at any of these attacks or thought, “well, they had it coming,” or believe their cause was sufficiently righteous for violence—you are part of the problem, part of the violence, a party to the desecration of our Constitution. Repent and ask forgiveness.

I suppose we should be a bit relieved that these attacks have nearly all been perpetrated by lone actors, broken and highly delusional men, often profoundly mentally ill. Even the organized attacks on the Capitol on Jan. 6 were mostly carried out by troubled men and women with, it must be said, marginal intellectual gifts.

We do not currently have an organized violent faction. We must guard against that.

Assassinations are always exploited for political advantage. It’s human nature to amplify the voice of the victim and to deny the assassin the last word. It is normal and healthy to do so. One need not agree with much of what Charlie Kirk said to acknowledge that his strength was speaking openly and freely. Denying that right to others dishonors his most public success.

If there is anything hopeful on that front, the most vocal voices exploiting Kirk’s murder, including many that are openly calling for more violence, are themselves the softest of men. They wish to be thought of as hardened and tough. They are not.

Those calling for violence, even a civil war, are people who’ve never trained for battle, slept in a fighting position or seen a man die violently. They’ve never been to a country where political violence, rather than free expression, is the law of the land. They’ve never been to war. They are pretenders—unschooled and untrained, meretricious in thought and action, devoid of a moral compass.

Ignore them and their calls for more violence.

Instead, let’s summon the moral suasion to oppose that violence. Most importantly, work harder to police those with whom you agree rather than those with whom you do not. Also, speak to the young people in our circles. Tell them clearly why this is wrong, and what we must do about it.

I don’t pretend this is easy, but we have no better option than to do these hard things. Much is at stake. Abraham Lincoln tried in 1861 to make this point, speaking so crisply that his words bear rereading in these dark times:

“We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies,” he said. “Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."

We need today, not merely better angels, but also braver ones. We need everyday people to reject the call to political violence—to vote against it, protest against it, to speak and pray for it to end. We must also pray for its victims, living and dead, no matter our differences of opinion.