If this newsletter has been forwarded to you, I write on what it’s like to build a startup Venture with God. This post is different. It’s longer and me writing more about current events.

I've got a lot I want to say.

I'm frustrated that it took the death of Charlie Kirk for me to speak my mind. I've felt the Lord lead me to do so for the last couple years but have refrained for whatever reason. Primarily insecurity.

If you prefer a video response. I left one here:

Forget political affiliation. I am not interested in that. It's clear something is bad in the water at the moment. Catholic school shootings, Minnesota government officials murdered, stabbing and murder of a Ukrainian refugee.

I want to be as honest as I possibly can be. As truthful as I possibly can be.

I appreciate Charlie Kirk so much. Dare I call myself a fan. In fact, it wasn't until yesterday when a friend of mine said "I didn't know he was such a hero to you." Hero? I'm not quite sure... but I highly respected Charlie Kirk, his values, and his boldness to say what he truly believed.

Disagree or agree, the one thing Charlie Kirk was is honest. You didn't have to guess what he believed. He told you what he honestly felt and processed irrespective of the heat it'd take.

I believe his assessment on the state of our culture here in the west is correct.

Charlie Kirk was not just murdered. He was assassinated. More specifically, he was martyred.

My heart breaks for his family. For his wife and children.

The problem with short-form content

Charlie Kirk is hard to talk about in a lot of ways. Politics, religion, these are the most polarizing of topics.

But why? Why is it so polarizing? Why is it so hard to have discussions? To put forth our ideas into the arena, develop them, learn to speak about what we believe in and critically think?

This is why I appreciate Charlie Kirk greatly. You do not have to agree with him, but he was an honest man.

His forum of discussion and platform on YouTube doesn't lead to much elegance for both himself and those that find the courage to debate. In a world of creating content for the algorithm, most consumed Charlie Kirk through YouTube shorts and reels. Or they'd watch the first 10 seconds of an EPIC LIBERAL TAKEDOWN instead of watching the already shortened 15-minute recap of the time he'd spend at a University.

I may not have always agreed with his tact, but hey, the public debate forum was his platform. The nature of his platform invites confrontation.

I feel like I'm gushing about Charlie Kirk because beyond being an honest man, he was a true brother in Christ. Anytime he spoke about Jesus he represented Him well. Charlie Kirk had an authentic faith.

Matthew 7:3-5

I'm reminded of this verse as I write about Charlie.

I'm also reminded of the speech "The Man in the Arena" by Theodore Roosevelt. It's so easy to criticize Charlie as a spectator. In moments I'd watch his video and cringe, I knew, deep down inside, he's doing something I wish I had the boldness and courage to do. Which was saying the thing he honestly believed to be most true irrespective of feelings that would be hurt from it.

It's very important to note that the vast majority of people condemn this violence. I appreciate my own California state Governor Newsom's response.

My heart also aches for those that are apathetic and are even happy about the outcome. Again, a tiny minority. Where have we gone so wrong in society that we'd allow bitterness to seep so deeply into our hearts?

"You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous." - Matthew 5:43-45

We pray regularly as a team on Seedling. When we heard about the Charlie Kirk tragedy we prayed for the Kirk family, his wife, his kids. My good friend and co-founder Dustin prayed. He is an incredible man whose relationship with Christ I look up to and trust so much. During his prayer he ended up praying for the shooter. My spirit jolted. The shooter?!

It quickly quelled when I remembered Matthew 5:43-48. Love your enemies, pray for those that persecute you.

We do not curse. We pray for. We bless. We ask for the love, mercy, and truth of Christ to beam over their lives.

Forgiveness

This is, in fact, one of the absolute greatest testimonies of faith in Jesus Christ. That it can take the most broken and evil of men and transform their lives to good. Jesus Christ gives us the ability to REDEEM OURSELVES. We are not always right.

During WWII, Corrie ten Boom and her family hid Jews in their home in Holland. They were betrayed, arrested, and sent to concentration camps. In the brutal conditions of Ravensbrück, Corrie and her sister Betsie somehow kept their faith alive, holding secret Bible studies even among the fleas and lice.

Betsie died in the camp, but Corrie survived. Years later, while speaking at a church in Germany, she encountered one of the former guards from Ravensbrück—a man who had been particularly cruel. He had become a Christian and approached her after her talk, extending his hand and asking for forgiveness.

Corrie later wrote that she felt nothing but coldness and couldn't bring herself to forgive until she prayed for help. When she took his hand, she felt God's love flow through her: "I forgive you, brother, with all my heart."

Then there's the story of Emmanuel from Rwanda, who participated in the 1994 genocide that killed over 800,000 Tutsis. After years in prison, he encountered Jesus through the Alpha Course. He wrote letters asking for forgiveness from the families of people he had murdered.

The most powerful part involves Vincent, whose mother and grandmother Emmanuel had killed during the genocide. With his pastor's help, Emmanuel went to find Vincent to ask for his forgiveness. Vincent said: "For the sake of unity and reconciliation, I told Emmanuel that he should not be embarrassed to come meet me... I realized that when one puts the Lord at the center, everything is possible, so I decided to forgive and learn to live together."

Today, Emmanuel and Vincent live in the same village together in a unity and reconciliation village built for genocide survivors and perpetrators.

Spiritual war is the battle for the soul

So when Dustin says pray for the shooter... there is a spiritual war raging in my soul. The justice we desire unless taken to Christ will breed resentment, bitterness, and a vengeful spirit. And in the case of some it'll make you cheer for Charlie Kirk's death, holding you hostage and unable to develop feelings of empathy for a situation that deeply needs it.

This friends, this is the redemptive nature of Christ Jesus. Instead of allowing Satan to ensnare us with bitterness, trauma, and abuse, Christ endures and provides freedom and peace from the evil of the world.

He gives those of us who have done wrong true soulful transformation. The power of the cross brings a mercy and grace that only the Living God can supply. There is no other experience, no other God, no other religion that can deliver this promise.

Extremes on both sides and we’re more accustomed to identify problems on the right

I started with key tragedies up top, but left out things like Israel/Palestine and the immigration riots happening in the US. For me, they're more complex. I'm not saying there aren't injustices because there are, but they are not as easy for me to parse as someone being assassinated, government officials being killed, or someone minding their own business on a subway and then being brutally stabbed to death as people just looked in horror and did nothing.

For some of you, you've sorted your thinking in a comprehensive and elegant way around the topics I left out.

Where I feel strongly at this moment is that our nation... our world needs to pray. I want more honesty out of our leaders.

Make no mistake, we ALL do things that are unrighteous and unpleasing to God. In our work, in the way we parent, in how we conduct ourselves as students on a high school or college campus. If God is perfect love, it is easy to understand how we ALL fall short of the glory of God.

I say this because in a lot of ways we have seen what happens when ideologies on the right get taken too far. Xenophobia, racism, lack of justice.

With that said there are clear evils on the left. Being a Bay Area California native, we are hella liberal out here. It has not always been as easy for me to understand the evils of progressivism because often it's guised under the banner of compassion and justice. Though, the last 10 years have begun to give us a lens of what it looks like. Abortion, the breakdown of the traditional family, the controlling of speech.

These are huge topics, meant for another time.

I bring them up because in the environment I grew up in I never once questioned whether or not sex before marriage was a bad thing. Nor did I ever really think much about the idea of abortion. It seemed totally fine to abort a baby with Down syndrome. Or abort a child if the mother so chooses not to carry it.

I also bring it up because I believe we can have strong opinions about things, hear one another out, agree or disagree and move on with our lives.

In fact, I find it infuriating that even the idea of changing your opinion can hold a stigma. You see this so easily with families and cultures where religion is so intertwined in your identity that the idea of exploring or questioning your beliefs is taboo.

Crucial conversations are needed

Another thing we need to talk about is the intersection of politics and faith.

I do believe it's very difficult to pry the two apart. Politicians are to represent the people. What the people want is often times grounded in their values and beliefs. And for those that have a faith their values and beliefs are very much shaped by who/what they worship.

We've got to get better at having crucial conversations. They are high stakes and high emotion. They should be. They are a core part of our identity and our beliefs.

We must be able to grow to have these conversations and not hate each other. There are components of unified culture that is required for our nation to quite literally progress.

Only Jesus can bring true reconciliation

Finally, I am in the camp that believes that this is not possible without Jesus. Humans are capable of some incredible things without God. Look at technology, empires, and institutions that we may build that go off to do some world-changing things without God's blessing ever being explicitly included.

However, if you want to see reconciliation the way you see with Corrie Ten Boom and the Rwandan genocide... things of this nature can only happen when we anchor our ethic and morality in something that is greater than what we can create ourselves.

Charlie Kirk was martyred for speaking truth in love. The question isn't whether we agreed with every word he said. The question is: Do we have the courage to speak truth at all?