The killing of Charlie Kirk on the Utah Valley University campus in September shocked the nation and made painfully clear what happens when political hatred is allowed to metastasize on our campuses. Conservatives and patriots rightly demanded answers as officials raced to find and bring the killer to justice, and the assassination became a grim symbol of the left’s culture of intimidation. The violent silencing of a young leader who devoted his life to speaking truth and mobilizing young Americans must never be normalized.
Into that dark moment stepped Pastor Greg Laurie, who accelerated a Harvest Crusade originally planned years away and brought the message of Christ to UVU on November 16 to comfort a wounded community. Laurie and his team moved with urgency, insisting the light of the Gospel must meet the darkness of this hour instead of leaving college campuses to be spiritual battlegrounds for radical ideologies. That decision to come sooner than planned showed leadership and moral clarity when so many in media and university leadership chose silence.
The night itself was a rebuke to the cynics: several thousand packed the UCCU Center, tens of thousands tuned in online, and Harvest’s own recap reports more than two thousand professions of faith. Harvest’s post-event recap listed venue attendance near 7,800, livestream views over 210,000, and more than 2,100 people publicly turning to Christ—a tangible, measurable answer to those who think America’s youth are lost. What politicians and pundits could not accomplish with speeches, the Gospel produced with boldness and clarity on a university stage.
Laurie himself called what happened nothing short of miraculous, telling listeners he almost thinks of it as an “Utah miracle” and even reaching out to Charlie’s widow to remind her of the eternal perspective Christians share. That pastoral compassion—linking the grief of a family to the hope of heaven and the conversion of thousands—was exactly the steady, principled response Republicans and conservatives should admire and emulate. In a season of brokenness, the church stepped forward where so many institutions had failed.
This episode offers a lesson for every American weary of the campus cancel culture that breeds contempt for free speech and breeds violence by normalizing hatred. The answer is not more censorship or the hollow platitudes of university administrators; it’s the unapologetic proclamation of truth and the rebuilding of moral and spiritual institutions that form good citizens. Conservatives who love America must double down on supporting places of faith, defending free expression, and holding campus leaders accountable for the safety and ideas they foster.
For Erika Kirk and for every family scarred by political violence, the Harvest Crusade was a reminder that grief can be met by consolation and that evil does not get the final word. Charlie’s work with young people mattered, and the conversions and renewed hunger for God on that campus are part of the legacy he left behind—proof that courage, conviction, and faith still change hearts. Now is not the time to retreat into private sorrow but to mobilize churches, families, and communities to reclaim our culture for life, liberty, and the faith that built this country.
