Someone isn’t telling the truth. I’m talking about the details surrounding Charlie Kirk’s murder. If you’ve been following the unfolding narrative(s), very little is adding up. Maybe that’s the plan.

“Plan, you say? Are you a conspiracy theorist, Sister?” 

Before we devolve into easy, uninformed name-calling, let’s examine the official talking points that are being put out across all media platforms. One of the main problems is that the most basic data regarding the capture of the alleged gunman, security camera footage, alleged weapon, profile of the suspect(s), and timelines/timestamps are not making sense. There is no smooth, cohesive picture. 

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“But it’s still early and there’s lots of investigating to be done!” Yes and no. 

Authorities are very careful before they release anything to the public. Gun experts and amateurs alike are rejecting every bit of the story about and photograph(s) of the rifle. They’re the only ones right now with a 100 per cent consensus.

Here’s the astonishing heart of what’s going on right now with the story of the Charlie Kirk shooter. Right-leaning media tell you the young man was radicalized by the violent far-left during the past four years and lived with his male-to-female transgender “furry” partner. 

Left-leaning media tell you the young man was radicalized by the violent far-right during the past four years and was an incel (involuntarily celibate). These are not just slightly differing accounts, they are polar-opposites. 

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I have never in my not-so-young life seen such a high-profile news event with such antithetical stories of what actually happened, by whom, and why. We have reached a zenith of algorithms separating us into echo chambers to the extreme that we are now living in parallel universes. Are we witnessing the old “divide and conquer” applied to our new digital lives? 

The misinformation, disinformation, mal-information, whatever you want to call it is reaching dizzying heights. So many versions of each little detail. But isn’t this the perfect propaganda tactic? Floods of conflicting information causing mass confusion can push people to either dig in to one story or “side,” or give up trying to figure things out all together. 

Let’s not forget that the average Joe or Jane who spends significant time online can also possess a kind of media sophistication that makes it hard to pull the wool over their eyes. And, what if we have a higher Good News source that can always be trusted and instructs us what to do, how to think, and how to react in every situation—even if we can’t fully discern, try as we might, what the heck is going on?

Charlie Kirk’s assassination has sparked an apparently genuine Christian revival, a fearless truth proclamation revival, a civil discourse revival. It has been so refreshing and hopefully illuminating to Charlie’s enemies that his fans and followers have not responded with violence, anger and hate. However, I have yet to see even one TikTok, one article, one post saying that we Christians must “love our enemies, do good to those who persecute you,” which was the Gospel Reading the very day after Charlie’s death. I have yet to see someone declare: “We forgive whoever did this!” That would be one of the most potent Christian witnesses, even as justice must be sought and administered.

I was pleasantly surprised to see one musclebound, tatted-up, patriotic, cowboy-hat-wearing influencer not falling for the gender-bender-baiting-and-hating narrative. He was much more circumspect. He refused to jump to premature conclusions or jump on any condemnation bandwagon until we have all the facts and solid proof. I fear this is not as open and shut a case as it is hastily and sloppily being made out to be. Who should we listen to? Reputable independent journalists are doing a great job exposing glaring inconsistencies and impossibilities within the official narrative.

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Anything media-wise can be faked today. Anything. We are living in a world of smoke and mirrors and deep deception like never before, because we have powerful tools of deception like never before. We need not fear the shambolic state of the news media. Jesus told us that “everything hidden will be revealed,” eventually, in God’s perfect timing. Keep discerning, keep praying.

Sr. Helena Raphael Burns, fsp, is a Daughter of St. Paul. She holds a Masters in Media Literacy Education and studied screenwriting at UCLA. HellBurns.com  X/Twitter: @srhelenaburns  #medianuns MediaApostle.com Instagram: @medianunscanada