Truth, Love, & Rage Bait
Thousands of amateur investigators across the interwebs are scouring the Charlie Kirk assassination case. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Many of them pose sincere questions and innocent curiosity. There should be no problem with a healthy exercise of free speech, free inquiry, and the marketplace of ideas. Mainstream narratives deserve a fair share of testing since they can’t all be trusted. But being popular, mainstream, or conventional never made anything false. Sometimes the truth is so widely recognized it becomes the majority view. Truth isn’t always sensationalistic. Sometimes it’s boring and predictable. Truth doesn’t care to entertain anyone. It just is what it is.
But not every question is a fair question either. Sometimes questions are cloaked accusation, mean-spirited insinuation, manipulative suggestion, and trick questions designed not to reveal truth but to reinforce one’s bias, Or worse, they are catty attempts to flex one’s “mean girl” credentials in a veritable coupe de tat against a prettier rival. Of course, the analogy of feminine aggression in the school yard is just an analogy here, but it does point out that we cannot safely assume that everyone who’s asking questions is “just asking questions.” We can’t assume everyone posing as a sincere investigator is acting in good faith.
Apart from thoughtful questions and good faith debate, there’s this other level of questioning. It’s not “just” questions, but more like manipulative inquisition. It’s riddled with gossip, reckless conjecture, cynicism, mean-spirited guess-work, paranoid conspiracies, and even exploitation. This manipulative posture does not reflect the grace, sincerity, love, humility, or restraint we should expect from Christians engaged in sincere investigation. Rather it operates more opportunistically, seizing upon crises as a chance to vault oneself into new levels of influence, authority, popularity, power, or to just get rich at someone else’s expense.
Christians do well to stay above the fray where possible. And if we must weigh in, we need to be gracious, discerning, truth-seekers with an eye for redeeming situations as far as we are able. That takes a lot of love and a lot of wisdom. If you’re short on wisdom and lacking love right now, then you might not be in the right head space to delve into the Candace Owens situation. Jesus summarized the right disposition as “shrewd as snakes and innocent as doves” (Matthew 10:16). That’s a good goal to aim for.
Rather than address Candace Owens directly, we can address the evidence for Tyler Robinson. If he is indeed the shooter then 99% of Candace Owen’s most popular conspiracy claims evaporate.
Regarding Tyler Robinson, when you stack up the evidence, it’s pretty impressive. Nevertheless, a lot of people have been tainted with reckless conjecture, cynicism, conspiracism, or they just enjoy gossipy guesswork a bit too much. Setting all that aside, the evidence available to the public is pretty strong on it’s own.
From some of the reports I’ve read, Tyler Robinson’s DNA was found on the purported murder weapon. The weapon was owned by Tyler’s grandfather, so Tyler had access to it and might have practiced shooting with it before. It had been fired recently. It uses reduced recoil 30-06 ammunition because of the age of the rifle and gun restrictions for Tylers age. That type of round would be consistent with a shot at about 150 yards, with or without an exit wound. Multiple witnesses testify to a single, and very loud, gunshot (suggesting it wasn’t from a mile away, for example, but was fairly nearby). The shot was within range to where a relatively amateur shooter could have made that shot. The shooter’s actions in staking out a spot, staging the shot, and his escape route – all visible to several cameras – is consisted with an amateur shooter and not very consistent with a professional assassin. Tyler had a known motive for murder – assassinating one of the most influential conservative figures in the country for preaching alleged “transphobia” to millions of people. Tyler confessed to the shooting. He confessed not just once, but at least twice, and to different people. His own family believed he was suspicious and/or guilty enough to where they turned him in, even negotiating with the police for a peaceful surrender so Tyler wouldn’t get harmed in the process. Video footage shows the approximate location of the shooter at the time of firing. Footage places Tyler at the scene, and along the escape path fleeing from the rooftop and into the woods. Video footage, police officers, and police dogs have retraced his approximate ‘escape’ route and his actions for the next 1-2 hours after the shooting including his vehicle, clothing, shoes, lunch, and where he stashed the weapon. To my knowledge there is no reported exit wound, so the bullet would have likely been recovered in the autopsy. If it matches the weapon then this seems to be an open and shut case. If there are any legal experts or experienced criminal investigators out there who care to comment I’d be interested to hear your opinions in the comments below.
There’s an additional question of whether Tyler was working alone or had help. Either way, if he pulled the trigger he is still guilty so the case against him remains relatively unchanged. Then the question is whether there is enough evidence to convict anyone else as an accomplice – when said “accomplice” has the same presumption of innocence that Tyler has in this case. If some reddit trolls egged him on, or someone said they’d help stash his gun, that sort of “accomplice” wouldn’t substantially change the single shooter narrative. Ockham’s Razor suggests that a single shooter, with the weapon, motive, and multiple confessions, is a sufficient explanation for what happened that fateful day.
I pray that justice wins out, and the gossipy conspiracists are humble enough and self-aware enough to let the truth win in the end, whether it’s boring or sensationalsitic, mundane and predictable or entertaining and surprising. We need no bias for or against Tyler Robinson to take a stand for truth.
We can however pray for everyone involved. I know at least one grieving widow and some orphans who need our prayers. Scripture says in this regard,
“Do not take advantage of the widow or the fatherless. If you do and they cry out to me, I will certainly hear their cry”Exodus 22:22-23.
There are also some opportunistic evil-doers hoping to sow chaos and confusion now that one of the gate keepers of the conservative movement has been shot down. That gate, arguably, remains unmanned. So, it’s no surprise to see eager ideological arsonists sneaking in trying to set fire to the powderkeg that is US politics. It never took very much effort to ignite it, setting the country ablaze. And for those who expect a woke left or woke right Phoenix to rise from the ashes, they are liable to set it all ablaze on purpose believing (against all reason) that the key to improving the country is to tear it to the ground first. We do well to pray against opportunistic evil-doers from whichever direction they may come. We need a lot of God-fearing, Jesus-loving, Spirit-led prayer followed-up with level-headed wisdom if we’re going to avoid reactionary and alarmist errors amidst the fog of ideological war.
Even Tyler Robinson could use some prayer right now. We can pray for justice to be served and for everyone involved in that awful day to come to a saving faith in Jesus Christ.
Let truth and love ring out louder than all the gossip, conspiracies, and rage-bait.
Recommended Resources:
If God, Why Evil? (DVD Set), (MP3 Set), and (mp4 Download Set) by Frank Turek
Correct not Politically Correct: About Same-Sex Marriage and Transgenderism by Frank Turek (Book, MP4, )
Stealing From God by Dr. Frank Turek (Book, 10-Part DVD Set, STUDENT Study Guide, TEACHER Study Guide)
Jesus vs. The Culture by Dr. Frank Turek DVD, Mp4 Download, and Mp3
Dr. John D. Ferrer is a speaker and content creator with Crossexamined. He’s also a graduate from the very first class of Crossexamined Instructors Academy. Having earned degrees from Southern Evangelical Seminary (MDiv) and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (ThM, PhD), he’s now active in the pro-life community and in his home church in Pella Iowa. When he’s not helping his wife Hillary Ferrer with her ministry Mama Bear Apologetics, you can usually find John writing, researching, and teaching cultural apologetics.
