Hate vs. Heroism After Charlie Kirk - Sean Lynn and André Regnier Discuss
A Turning Point for Men of Faith: Responding to the Death of Charlie Kirk
When tragedy shakes the world, men are forced to wrestle with more than just headlines—we’re confronted with our own courage, faith, and integrity. In this conversation on Heroic Hotline, Sean Lynn sat down with André Regnier, founder of Catholic Christian Outreach, to process the shocking assassination of Charlie Kirk.
André came into the studio with a raw honesty, speaking as a man who had admired Kirk’s courage and boldness on campus stages. His tone was part grief, part challenge, and entirely rooted in a deep conviction: men of faith cannot afford to slip into despair or hatred. Instead, we are called to rise with prayer, love, and a focus on eternity.
André carried the voice of a seasoned leader who has walked with young men for decades, while Sean grounded the discussion with stories from his years of peer support training with police. Together, they named the confusion, the anger, and the temptation to lash out—but insisted that Christ asks us to choose another way.
Shock, Grief, and the Weight of a Loss
The first wave that hit many of us when news of Charlie Kirk’s death broke was disbelief. Was it fake? Some AI-driven hoax? André admitted he thought so at first.
“What passed my feed very quickly was ‘Charlie Kirk shot,’ and I thought it was another one of those AI-generated, false stories. But then the texts started coming in, and I realized it was true. By the time I got the story, everyone was already saying he died. I was so upset.”
André described the loss as personal, even though he’d never met Kirk. “It’s almost like someone I knew died… How can we go through life without Charlie Kirk?”
Sean stepped in with a reminder from his years of police work: “Those feelings you had are normal—sadness, anger. That’s what people go through in grief. We need to acknowledge that.”
This acknowledgment matters. Too often, men suppress grief, converting sadness into cynicism. André instead modeled what it means to sit with sorrow, to let it sharpen rather than harden the heart.
Courage or Hatred: The Choice at the Crossroads
But grief can’t be the final word. André was clear: this moment is a turning point.
“I knew there was something extraordinary about this moment. I knew his faith. Everything he did was for the greater glory of God. He loved Jesus. He exalted His name. He was willing to live—and even die—for Him. God will use this for His greater glory.”
The danger, André warned, is responding in the wrong spirit. “We can respond with the same courage Charlie had—or we can go to a darker place and respond with hatred. Christian hatred. Conservative hatred. But that’s not the way of Christ.”
Sean brought in the Gospel reading from that very week: Jesus telling His disciples to love their enemies. The timing was no accident.
“It’s easy to love those we agree with. But what are we saying here? We’re called to love our enemies. Not to have nice feelings, but to desire their salvation. To want them in eternity with us.”
André added that this was Charlie’s true mission: “He said many times, ‘I want you to go to heaven. I want you to know Jesus.’ That’s how we return mercy for hatred.”
In a culture that feeds on outrage, this is a radical call. It’s the call to be men who fight ignorance not with rage, but with relentless love for the eternal destiny of every soul.
The Cross, the Next Generation, and the New Springtime
As the conversation deepened, Sean and André tied Kirk’s death to the larger story God is writing in history. The Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross had just been proclaimed in Mass, reminding Christians that hope comes not from avoiding the poison of the serpent, but from gazing at the Cross.
Sean put it plainly: “We all have poison in us. It’s easy to focus on the mud of this world. But if we keep our eyes elevated towards the Cross of Jesus Christ, that’s the game we want to win.”
André agreed, but added a challenge. “We in the Church dropped the ball. We forgot it’s about lives transformed by Jesus, about eternity. But now it’s time to pick it up again.”
That means guiding young people back to Jesus, not just into culture wars. “Teach that dad who’s worried about his sons to tell them about Jesus, not just the battles of the world. That’s what will restore families.”
The irony, André observed, is that young people today may be more open to Jesus than older generations. “They’re looking for a firm foundation. Our job is to point them to the Rock, not to a radicalized, angry Christianity. Jesus isn’t right or left—He’s at the center.”
Both men recognized that we are not only in an age of crisis but also in an age of renewal.
“We’re living through a time of restoration. John Paul II called it a new springtime, a threshold of hope. And Charlie’s death—tragic as it is—may be part of that turning point.”
The Call to Heroic Men Today
This conversation wasn’t a eulogy for Charlie Kirk. It was a challenge to every man listening.
Stop feeding on the negative. Stop scrolling through hate-fueled videos. Stop letting anger shape your spirit.
Instead, choose prayer and love.
As Father Larry Richards once put it, “I did it my way is the theme song of hell. I did it God’s way is the song of heaven.”
André closed with clarity: “The Christian life is simple. Believe in Jesus. Give your life to Him. Learn to pray. Spend time with Him every day. And then point others—especially our young—to Him. That’s the revolution of love our world needs.”
Sean echoed that call with a cop’s grit and a father’s hope: “It’s time for men with gray hair to set the example. To show the next generation what heroic love looks like.”
Final Word
Charlie Kirk’s death was a wound. But as Sean and André reminded us, wounds are where Christ’s power breaks through.
Every man now stands at a crossroads. One road is bitterness, anger, and despair. The other is faith, courage, and love—the way of the Cross.
The choice is ours.
“Turning Point USA wasn’t just about politics. It was prophetic. We’re at a turning point. And what this world needs right now is a revolution of Christian love.” —André Regnier