What Was the Message Shared by Charlie Kirk?

The liberty principle for this freedom Friday concerns freedom of speech. The First Amendment to the United States Constitution states, “Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech.” This amendment tells us that the government does not have power or authority to interfere with freedom of speech. It protects the right for Americans to express ideas and share information without interference from the government.

Yet, Charlie Kirk was shot last week because he said words that some people did not like. Those same people claim that words are the same as violence. They do not understand that words are words, and violent actions are violence.

The assassination of Charlie Kirk on September 10, 2025, is the first political assassination since those taking place in the 1960s – John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr. Kirk’s assassination was traumatic for most Americans as well as people in other countries – particularly those who watched it happen. This assassination will be to high school students and college age young adults much like 9/11 or JFK’s assassination was for other generations. They will remember where they were when they learned of the assassination and what they were doing. Most of them will understand that Charlie Kirk was killed for his words of love, patriotism, and peace.

Since the assassination of Charlie Kirk, numerous politicians have amended how, when, and where they will express speech BECAUSE they are afraid that they will be assassinated. Some people believe that fear of expression of speech was the purpose behind the killing of Charlie Kirk. However, Kirk’s widow and other people believe that his assassination has only created a million more Charlie Kirks.

The message carried by Charlie Kirk, his widow, and Turning Point USA was all about patriotism and love of country, marriage and family, faith, and love of God. He was telling college age young adults to get married, have children, and go to church. Since this was his message, what sort of people would want to have him killed?

Was Joe Biden Mentally Fit to Service as POTUS?

While much of the news continues to be about the assassination of Charlie Kirk, civil rights worker, there is other big news in America. One bit of continuing news coverage is former President Joe Biden’s mental fitness for office.

Various members of the Biden administration have testified before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, while others plead the Fifth Amendment. According to Fred Lucas, Biden’s White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, testified before a House panel last Friday and said that various White House advisers created talking points for her press briefing binder. Lucas reported that Jean-Pierre claimed that senior level advisors handled points about Biden’s mental acuity. Jean-Pierre stated that “she never spoke to anyone in the White House who was personally concerned about Biden’s health. 

The committee is investigating the Biden administration’s use of the autopen, and whether Biden was aware of presidential actions staff took on his behalf, such as executive orders, pardons, and clemencies….

Jean-Pierre – who also worked in President Barack Obama’s White House during his first term, when Biden was vice president – told the panel she did not see  change in Biden’s competency from 2009 to 2025. She acknowledged that Biden is not the same speaker now that he was when she first met him, but did not know why his speaking changed and never asked him. She also did not recall hearing him stutter.

House Oversight Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., noted that Jean-Pierre has a forthcoming book, as does former Vice President Kamala Harris. Initial published excerpts of Harris’ book showed her to be critical of the Biden White House.

“One reason we delayed Jean-Pierre is, we knew she had a book coming out. Kamala Harris had a book coming out. The books are going to tell the story, I think, of what we’ve been hearing in the depositions,” Comer told The Daily Signal. “It’s counter to what many people have been reporting over the last year or so.” …

As chief White House spokeswoman, she repeatedly defended Biden’s mental acuity, claiming she couldn’t keep up with him and that videos critical of Biden were “cheap fakes.”

Jean-Pierre was not under oath, but lying to Congress is a crime under federal statute

            18 U.S.C. Section 1001….

The committee had transcribed interviews with more than a dozen former White House officials in Biden’s inner circle about his mental fitness for office. Three others had to be subpoenaed and invoked their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination. Most notable of those were Dr. Kevin O’Connor, the Biden White House physician. Anthony Bernal, former senior adviser to first lady Jill Biden, also pleaded the Fifth, as did Annie Tomasini, former deputy director of Oval Office operations.

“What’s at stake are all of the legal documents that were signed by the autopen, especially the last nine months, which by all accounts, President Biden was checked out of office,” Comer told The Daily Signal.

The Kentucky Republican talked about the excerpts from Harris’ book, “107 Days,” published in The Atlantic, about her abbreviated presidential campaign in 2024 that she lost to Donald Trump. Harris called Biden’s decision to run for reelection reckless and criticized Biden White House officials.

“What you were seeing from Kamala yesterday, I thought, was an admission of a huge lack of respect for Joe Biden when she said, ‘We should have never let Joe and [then-first lady Jill] Biden make that decision,’” Comer said. “That’s a pretty bold admission of lack of respect. I think that’s the kind of trend we are seeing in terms of excessive use of the autopen.”

 

Why Should Americans Commemorate Constitution Day?

The topic of discussion for this Constitution Monday is Constitution Day, a day commemorated every year on September 17. American patriots love and appreciate the U.S. Constitution. However, some of the people who appreciate the Constitution the most are those who have lived without it. One such person is Shima Baradaran Baughman, professor of law at Brigham Young University. She “studies the constitutional rights of defendants.” She also wonders why so many Americans “have an allergic reaction to celebrating the Constitution.” 

Baughman shared a personal experience that happened when she was a toddler sitting on her mother’s lap. Men came to other home and took her mother for the crime of “rising money for an organization that believed in free speech and freedom of religion.”

She was taken to a small, bare room where her “trial” lasted only minutes. A few men red the charges against her. She had no lawyer, no chance to present evidence, no jury of her peers. Her only option was to plead guilty.

She was sentenced on the spot to 10 years in prison with no appeals possible. She was then transported to the infamous Evin Prison, a place notorious for crushing the human spirit. She had no bed – only a dirty floor crammed so tightly with other political prisoners that she could only sleep on her side. Hygiene was nonexistent and despair hung in the air.

The most horrific part came at night, when she and the other women would lie awake, knowing that guards would select a random number of inmates to be executed by firing squad as an intimidation tactic. Imagine trying to rest, not knowing if your name would be called before dawn.

This was not justice. It was the brutal face of unchecked power, where a government endured little due process or opposition.

My mother was miraculously released two years later. But that experience seared into me the difference between  system ruled by humans and a system ruled by law. And that is why Constitution Day is not just symbolic for me; it is a celebration of the very principles that guard against the nightmare my mother and I once lived through.

In America, the Constitution was designed precisely to prevent such abuses. The founders, aware of the abuses of human ambition and corruption, built a system where power was never meant to rest unchecked in one person, one faction, or one council. By design, power is separated into three branches – legislative, executive, and judicial – each with the ability to check the other. No president can govern without some degree of consensus, no legislation should step beyond constitutional constraint and be enforced by a court, and no judge should rule outside the bounds of the law.

The Constitution does more than create structure, though; it enshrines rights that shield individuals from government abuse. Rights that my mother would have dearly benefited from when I was young. The Bill of Rights guarantees that the government cannot silence speech, dictate religion, or invade the privacy of one’s home.

The Fourth Amendment has been interpreted to require that officers “knock and announce” their entry for an arrest, except in exigent circumstances. Other amendments ensure the accused have the right to counsel and a jury of their peers, that punishments are not cruel or arbitrary, and that the accused maintain the right to appeal in the courts. Contrast this with my mother’s “trial” in Iran: no lawyer, no witnesses, no jury, no hope for protections.

Baughman explained that she understands the fear that immigrants have – particularly undocumented ones – because “[her] own parents knew that fear.” She continued by explaining that her parents joined “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints” and were “undocumented for a time” while they applied for asylum, “terrified of returning to Iran and facing political and religious persecution.”

Baughman’s parents “were blessed to obtain legal status quickly, but it came at great cost: they surrendered all their land and possessions in Iran to pursue opportunity and freedom in America with nothing but hope.” She continued by explaining that her parents, after becoming “U.S. Citizens in 1999,” sponsored “many of their family members who left behind homes and successful careers in Iran in pursuit of U.S. constitutional protections.

My relatives who immigrated are grateful for the reliability of living under the rule of law: in America, an architect or engineer’s work ends in payment every time – back home, half the clients might never pay.

Here, property rights are also real; what you build and own is protected, not potentially seized by the government on a whim. And the American dream is still alive as education and entrepreneurship can move families forward in ways that are often impossible elsewhere. This is why, even with its imperfections, people across the world still yearn to come to America.

There is much more to Baughman’s paper that is interesting and that I recommend studying. She concludes her paper by describing why American students and all citizens should receive a constitutional education.

A Constitutional education does not require loyalty to a party, but to a framework that tempers power, protects rights, and secures liberty for all.

For someone who grew up in a system without those safeguards, the difference is a land people will risk losing everything to call home. And for every American it is a reason to celebrate a day set aside to honor it.

The Constitution does not benefit one party over another; nor is it the property of a faction – it is a covenant that protects us and those with whom we most deeply disagree. It remains our common inheritance, the shield of liberty that guards every American, no matter their conviction – promising that freedom and dignity are not granted by rulers but guaranteed by law and divinely appointed rights.

We honor the Constitution best by understanding and defending it – not only for ourselves, but for those like my cousin still waiting patiently in line to taste its promise.

Who Is Charlie Kirk?

My VIP for this week is Charlie Kirk (age 31 years) – husband, father of two small children, patriot, and founder of Turning Point USA. He was instrumental in getting young adults out to vote for President Donald Trump.

Kirk was shot in or near the neck on Wednesday, September 10, 2025, while speaking at a Turning Point USA event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. He was rushed to the closest hospital where he passed away a brief time later. According to Tyler O’Neil an unknown shooter opened fire as Kirk was “conducting a question-and-answer session with students.” 

Kirk was shot while “debating with a student about mass shootings involving people who identify as transgender when the shooter opened fire.”

Political assassination is not new to the United States, but it is the first successful assassination of a prominent person since the 1960s when John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr. were killed.

In a separate article O’Neil noted that the assassination of Kirk “marks one more in a list of violent attacks against prominent conservatives.” He also noted that the assassination “came less than five months after the Southern Poverty Law Center … put Turning Point USA on a ‘hate map’ with chapters of the Ku Klux Klan.” Even though the group condemned the shooting of Kirk and all violence, this is not “the first time conservatives have been targeted for violence after the SPLC criticized them.” 

Conservatives have faced many kinds of hostility, including 96 attacks on pro-life pregnancy centers and 356 attacks on Catholic churches since the leak of the Supreme Court opinion overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022. Democrats, too, have faced attacks – most recently the horrific shooting of former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman.

This article, however, focuses on physical attacks on Republican leaders or conservative groups.

A 2012 Terrorist Attack

In 2012, [shooter] opened fire at the Washington, D.C., headquarters of the conservative Christian think tank the Family Research Council.

… He later told the FBI he targeted the Family Research Council because he found it on the SPLC “hate map.” He said he intended to shoot everyone in the building….

The Congressional Baseball Game Shooting

In June 2017, 66-year-old [shooter] opened fire at a Republican practice for the Congressional Baseball Game. He shot and wounded four people….

[Shooter] specifically targeted Republicans in the shooting. He had volunteered for Sen. Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign in 2016 and “liked” the SPLC on Facebook. The SPLC had repeatedly attacked Scalise….

Rand Paul Attacked

Also in 2017, then-59-year-old [shooter], a neighbor, physically attacked Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., from behind while the senator was mowing his lawn….

Minnesota Republican Sucker-Punched Before Election

In October 2018, 53-year-old [assailant] punched Shane Mekeland, a Republican candidate for the Minnesota House of Representatives….

 

 

A Would-Be Kavanaugh Assassin

In June 2022, 26-year-old [would be assassin] staked out near the home of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, with weapons in an assassination attempt….

Butler

On July 13, 2024, 20-year-old [would be assassin] shot then-former President Donald Trump in the ear in Butler, Pennsylvania….

A Second Assassination Attempt

In September 2024, 58-year-old [would be assassin] aimed a rifle at Trump at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beah, Florida. Secret Service arrested [would be shooter], who is standing trial in Fort Pierce this week….

How Important Is Religion to National Sovereignty?

The topic of discussion for this Constitution Monday concerns faith, religion, and freedom. There are two underlying principles for this discussion. Please keep them in mind as you read the following information.

The first principle comes from the Book of Mormon – Another Testament of Jesus Christ. It is: The prayers of righteous people protect righteous and unrighteous people alike. (See Alma 10:22-23.) The second principle is that citizens of all nations should have religious liberty and be allowed to worship God as they choose. (Article of Faith 1:11.)

An article written by Mariya Manzhos and published in the Deseret News shared some interesting profiles about how religion and culture intersect. 

When researchers study people’s relationship with religion and faith, they cast a wide net of questions that get at both inner beliefs and outward practices.

Some questions focus on attitudes and identity: Do people see religion or spirituality as important? Do they identify as Christian? Do they believe animals have spirits – or do they believe in God? Other questions explore lived practices: How often do they pray, attend church, meditate, light candles or read scripture?

Together, these answers sketch the contours of how individuals, and entire nations, experience religion and spirituality.

Pew Research Center asked some of these questions in a recent study about the religiously unaffiliated, or “nones,” held across 22 countries. The findings show that many people who don’t identify as religious still hold different beliefs or engage in spiritual practices, but the strength of those ties varies widely.

In Brazil, for example, 92% of the unaffiliated say they believe in God, compared to just 10% in Sweden. Similar divides are seen between Latin America and South Africa on one end of the spectrum and much of Europe and Australia on the other.

According to Manzhos, researchers found that countries are individual in their stages of secularization. There are three stages of religion decline: Participation-Importance-Belonging.

First, religious practices like service attendance decline, often among younger generations….

In the second stage, people are questioning religion’s personal importance and weakening their sense of belonging….

The final stage marks the shedding of religious identity altogether for the younger generations….

These religious transitions show that secularization isn’t a single story of religious decline. It also reveals the many ways faith lingers through belief, identity and practice.

Tracing these patterns may help us understand how faith still influences broader values, culture and politics – even as religious affiliation fades.

For leaders of congregations, understanding how secularization works may point to a central challenge in halting it – how to create religious communities where more young people feel that they belong.

In her article, Manzhos indicated that the United States is in the second stage where people are questioning the importance of religion to them personally. “The United States fits this pattern today: younger adults attend services less often and are 45% less likely than older generations to claim a religious affiliation, although a recent report from Barna Group challenged this pattern with its finding that Gen Z and millennials now go to church more often than older adults.” Other nations placed in this stage are Mexico, Brazil, Thailand, Greece, Italy and Canada.

Why Does the Lord Counsel Us to Seek Peace?

My Come Follow Me studies for this week took me to Doctrine and Covenants 98-101 and a lesson titled “Be Still and Know That I Am God.” The lesson was introduced by the following information. 

For the Saints in the 1830s, Independence, Missouri, was literally the promised land. It was “the center place” of Zion (Doctrine and Covenants 57:3)—the city of God on earth—and the gathering of Saints there was an exciting prelude to the Second Coming. But their neighbors in the area saw things differently. They objected to the claim that God had given the land to the Saints, and they were uncomfortable with the political, economic, and social consequences of so many unfamiliar people moving in so quickly. Discomfort soon turned into persecution and violence. In 1833, the Church’s printing office was destroyed, and the Saints were forced from their homes.

Joseph Smith was more than 800 miles away in Kirtland, and this news took weeks to reach him. But the Lord knew what was happening, and He revealed to His Prophet principles of peace and encouragement that would comfort the Saints—principles that can also help us when we face persecution, when our righteous desires go unfulfilled, or when we need a reminder that our daily afflictions will eventually, somehow, “work together for [our] good” (Doctrine and Covenants 98:3).

The scripture block taught numerous important concepts, including the following principles: (1) My trials can work together for my good (Doctrine and Covenants 98:1-3, 11-14, 22; 101:1-16, 22-31, 36); (2) The Lord wants me to seek peace in His way (Doctrine and Covenants 98:23-48); (3) The Lord takes care of people who serve Him (D&C 99-100), and (4) Following God’s counsel helps keep me safe (Doctrine and Covenants 101:43-65).

This essay will discuss Principle #2 “The Lord wants me to seek peace in His way.” Not everything taught in this scripture block will apply to yours or my personal interactions with others, but each of us can probably find something to guide us to ending personal conflicts in our individual lives. First, we will look at the scriptures.

23 Now, I speak unto you concerning your families—if men will smite you, or your families, once, and ye bear it patiently and revile not against them, neither seek revenge, ye shall be rewarded;

24 But if ye bear it not patiently, it shall be accounted unto you as being meted out as a just measure unto you.

25 And again, if your enemy shall smite you the second time, and you revile not against your enemy, and bear it patiently, your reward shall be an hundred-fold.

26 And again, if he shall smite you the third time, and ye bear it patiently, your reward shall be doubled unto you four-fold;

27 And these three testimonies shall stand against your enemy if he repent not, and shall not be blotted out.

28 And now, verily I say unto you, if that enemy shall escape my vengeance, that he be not brought into judgment before me, then ye shall see to it that ye warn him in my name, that he come no more upon you, neither upon your family, even your children’s children unto the third and fourth generation.

29 And then, if he shall come upon you or your children, or your children’s children unto the third and fourth generation, I have delivered thine enemy into thine hands;

30 And then if thou wilt spare him, thou shalt be rewarded for thy righteousness; and also thy children and thy children’s children unto the third and fourth generation.

31 Nevertheless, thine enemy is in thine hands; and if thou rewardest him according to his works thou art justified; if he has sought thy life, and thy life is endangered by him, thine enemy is in thine hands and thou art justified.

Basically, these verses tell us that we should seek peace even when an “enemy” “smites” us more than once. The Lord promised rewards for patience. President Russell M. Nelson of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been urging members of the Church to be peacemakers. In the April 2022 General Conference, he said: “Followers of Jesus Christ should set the example for all the world to follow. I plead with you to do all you can to end personal conflicts that are currently raging in your hearts and in your lives” (“The Power of Spiritual Momentum,” Liahona, May 2022, 97). 

In his April 2023 General Conference address, President Nelson said, “As disciples of Jesus Christ, we are to be examples of how to interact with others – especially  when we have differences of opinion. One of the easiest ways to identify a true follower of Jesus Christ is how compassionately that person treats other people” (“Peacemakers Needed,” Liahona, May 2023). 

Four days prior to his 101^st birthday, President Nelson shared two “enduring truths” in an op-ed published in a Time magazine op-ed on Friday, September 5. Here are the two “enduring truths” that he learned in his life, as reported by Church News. 

1. ‘Inherent worth and dignity’

“Each of us has inherent worth and dignity. I believe we are all children of a loving Heavenly Father,” President Nelson wrote. “But no matter your religion or spirituality, recognizing the underlying truth beneath this belief that we are deserve dignity is liberating – it brings emotional, mental and spiritual equilibrium – and the more you embrace it, the more your anxiety and fear about the future will decrease.”

2. ‘Love your neighbor … with compassion and respect’

“Love your neighbor and treat them with compassion and respect,” he wrote. “A century of experience has taught me this with certainty: Anger never persuades, hostility never heals, and contention never leads to lasting solutions. Too much of today’s public discourse, especially online, fosters enmity instead of empathy.”

 

 

 

Do Marriage and Motherhood Lead to Happier Women?

Families are stronger when mothers are happy with their situation and circumstances, and strong families strengthen their communities, states, and nations. Jenet Jacob Erickson, a fellow of the Wheatley Institute and a professor in Religious Education at Brigham Young University, authored an article about women, mothers, marriage, and happiness. 

Erickson explained that a young married woman about to graduate spoke with her about careers, motherhood, the effects of motherhood on careers, and how children affect the marital relationship. Erickson authored her article to share information with others who have similar questions. She gave the following key points for her article.

·         A growing number of young women look upon parenting warily, while 74% see job and career as a source of a fulfilling life.

·         Yet national surveys repeatedly show that married women with children are happier – up to twice as much – compared with women who are single or childless.

·         Married women also report high levels of physical touch (e.g., kissing, cuddling, holding hands), more than double the rates of other women.

·         Even as motherhood transitions women into greater exhaustion and less “me time,” this often corresponds with an increase in meaning, purpose and happiness.

·         Only 1 in 5 single mothers say they are connected with a local community group, compared with 38% of married mothers – highlighting a need to provide additional support.

Erickson closed her article with good counsel. She first explained that nothing in her article “should obscure the realities that make motherhood difficult” and it “takes a village to raise a child.”

Yet many mothers today find themselves without that village and social connections. This is especially true for single mothers….

These findings shouldn’t obscure the importance of women’s personal development and essential contributions in spheres outside of nurturing children. Cultural narratives that define mothers as needless, wantless, desireless humans whose lives are defined by others’ needs undermine the agency and power of women to choose the privilege and sacrifice of giving and nurturing life, and the unparalleled development that comes with it.

Our study also confirms the critical role of marriage in motherhood. Many of the health benefits of motherhood for women, such as less loneliness and better mental health, apply primarily to married mothers. Marriage to a caring spouse offers the stabilizing and supportive context that lifts the burdens of motherhood and strengthens mothers’ experience of happiness, connection and meaning.

Single mothers are often the unsung heroes among us and should be strengthened in every way within our communities.

We really are relational beings. The cultural narrative shaping our perceptions may lead us to believe that happiness is found in pleasure-seeking autonomy. But the core relationships of life – marriage and parenthood – are designed to enable the flourishing we yearn for.

Motherhood offers an unparalleled opportunity for connection, meaning and intimacy. Believing that in today’s culture may take faith. But it is a faith worth acting on.

Happy mothers and fathers lead to happy families in most cases. Happy families are stronger families, and strong families make stronger communities, states, and nations.