From South Asia to America: A Bishop’s Plea to Defend the Language of the Free

Pic: Charlie Kirk speaking with attendees at the 2025 Student Action Summit at the Tampa Convention Center in Tampa, Florida (WikiMediaCommons)

Though I'm still reeling from jet lag, love compels me to write these words to offer some grounding to your open and sensitive hearts. These thoughts are for those who represent us. Dear ones, the tragic, cold-blooded murder of Charlie Kirk while he exercised his right to freedom of conscience and the values he represented is once again a reminder of why the New Testament is the only solution for today’s world’s crisis.

How does one nation under God, which led the way for us in the East to aspire, foster such tragedy? Two hundred and fifty years of the gospel being preached, people filling the pews, countless revivals never witnessed in other lands, and still, many flounder in the faith. Few nations have had their soil as saturated by the Holy Spirit as America, yet today, Charlie Kirk was slain for his faith.

In our parts of the world, peaceful yielded martyrdom remains a frequent high call for the price of the freedom that we aspire to have, to believe and profess our faith. What hope does it give us in the East to see a nation drenched in Churches of every denomination at every street corner still suffer the consequences of our gentile lands? I remind myself and you, my brave friends, that a seed falls to the ground and dies to produce many who can profess the words of a blood-washed conscience.

This is your time – left or right! Truth and the language of the free (boldness –, parrhesia) must prevail in the USA, the beacon of liberty and land of the brave.

Many times I have watched Charlie Kirk use his apologetics for religion, race and creed, masterfully defending his stance. Many times my pastoral heart has felt that he could have handled things a bit better, represented Christ and His compassion a bit more gently. Many times, I have thought maybe I would have handled it a bit differently. But in all those times, I never saw a Charlie Kirk who hated, nor one who was bitter, nor one who worked through a spirit of violence. He was firm and resolute in his response a character forged by understanding political spin. I have been in political situations myself and had a fair share where a little compromise (for the sake of compassion for the one) was exploited and twisted for the defamation of the whole cause. Leviathan and Jezebel are real principalities that use the knave, who is blinded to the actual battle beyond flesh and blood.

My dear leaders, what has happened in this brave nation today is a martyr’s blood crying out for truth and righteousness.

Whether you are from the left or the right, the cry is for truth to prevail. Whether you believed in his values or not, Charlie Kirk represents the boldness to speak, parrhēsia.

“Unlike Moses, we have great boldness, (parrhesia) to speak”.

- 2 Corinthians 3:12 -

This word epitomises the challenge then and now: the sophists who articulated their thought through strict constructs, and those who, like Paul, defended the freedom to speak as conscience demanded.

Parrhēsia, the boldness to speak, and conscience work together. The end of their cooperation begets justice. The word parrhēsia is used thirty-one times in the New Testament as the very method of the New Covenant. Without it there is function over relationship, both with God and with man. This is what Paul emphasised against the sophists, heirs of Aristotle, who prized rhetoric and man pleasing in the name of victimisation and sensitivity. Paul hammered on the need to come to God with boldness, parrhesia, to speak as conscience and Spirit compel, whether right or wrong in the world’s eyes, for only such speech is truly free. It is the voice of a heart sprinkled clean. It is the language of the free!

Our congregation has both Democrats and Republicans. So what was slain today when Charlie Kirk fell was not a party’s voice, but your boldness, my brave Americans.

What you lost today was not Republican nor Democrat, but boldness itself.

I come from a country where media freedom is a far cry from your liberties. What you must guard is Paul’s urgent exhortation in Hebrews 10:35:

“Do not cast away your confidence [parrhēsia], which has great reward.”

What is being lost is not politics, but the very power to exercise conscience and the language of the free.

As we grieve the loss of Charlie Kirk, let us remember him as he wished, for his faith. True freedom is not found in any party, platform, or ideology, but in Christ Himself.

Yet here on earth, freedom of speech is a sacred trust, and when it is silenced, we are all diminished, whether left or right. Still, let us not allow pain to harden into hate, nor anger to spill into violence. For the way of Jesus is higher: to overcome evil with good.

May we honor Charlie not by echoing bitterness, but by carrying forward a voice of truth, spoken in love. May the Spirit comfort you, and may His peace guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Bishop Kirby Sinclair de Lanerolle is a spiritual leader, social reformer, and advocate for reconciliation with over two decades of cross-sectoral impact in Sri Lanka. Bishop Lanerolle is a Senior Fellow at SAFN in Washington, D.C.