America has lost more than a man this week. We lost a voice that embodied one of the most quintessentially American acts imaginable: peacefully debating ideas in the public square.

Charlie Kirk was not engaged in violence. He was not plotting destruction. He was doing something that has been at the very heart of our national identity since the founding of this Republic — exchanging perspectives with fellow citizens in spirited conversation.

That is why his murder cuts so deeply. It was not simply the silencing of a conservative or an assault on a Christian leader. It was an attack on the very principle of free speech — the cornerstone of liberty.

"Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord," reads Isaiah 1:18. That invitation is both divine and democratic. God Himself invites us to bring our disagreements and differences to our brothers and sisters peacefully. In the same way, our nation was built on the premise that we can come together, challenge one another's ideas, and remain neighbors, citizens, and fellow Americans.

When I speak to my congregation on Sunday morning,........

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