NEW YORK POST—The murder of Charlie Kirk has left a gaping wound in the conservative movement and in the hearts of millions of Americans who admired his courage, his clarity and his conviction.
It’s also left behind Charlie’s sixth and final book, set to be released this December — “Stop in the Name of God: Why Honoring the Sabbath Will Transform Your Life.”
That title now reads less like a prescription for individual renewal and more like a legacy, a call to carry forward one of the most essential lessons he wanted to impart: the need to stop, rest and return to God’s rhythm for life.
Charlie was a Christian, and he was candid about how abiding by a traditionally Biblical Sabbath observance — namely turning off his phone, detaching from the frenetic pace of politics and dedicating 24 hours each week to faith and family — transformed his life.
At a recent Turning Point USA event, he and his wife, Erika, spoke about what this practice meant for their marriage, their sanity and their faith.
“Turn your phone off for one day,” Charlie urged. “No contact, no social media, no work. Your mental health will improve dramatically. Every Friday night, I honor the Sabbath,” he continued. “Turn off my phone, Friday night to Saturday night. The world cannot reach me; I get nothing from the world. It will bless you infinitely.”
Erika explained what that looked like in practice,
“When he turns his phone off and it goes in that drawer, he’s all on for the family. There are no distractions. He finally gets to reset his brain. He finally gets to breathe. As a wife, there’s nothing more precious than my husband’s sanity … I have seen it change him and impact our family in the most beautiful ways.”
Their testimony was profoundly countercultural.
In a society that glorifies busy-ness, constant connectivity and the illusion that we must always be available, Charlie and Erika preached rest. Not laziness, but intentional rest.
The circumstances of Charlie’s murder give this message even more urgency.
He was killed by a young man radicalized by the internet, someone “terminally online,” whose world had been distorted by algorithms and digital echo chambers until his mind turned violent. Tyler Robinson immersed himself in doing the very opposite of what Charlie modeled.
Logging off, spending time in prayer, going outside, talking face-to-face with family and friends might have saved the alleged killer’s sanity, his soul and his future.
It certainly preserved Charlie’s.”
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“It is good to give thanks to the LORD, to sing praises to your name, O Most High; to declare your steadfast love in the morning, and your faithfulness by night, to the music of the lute and the harp, to the melody of the lyre. For you, O LORD, have made me glad by your work; at the works of your hands I sing for joy” (Psalm 92:1—4).
