By Foster Nicholas | Editor-in-Chief, Mackenzie Grizzard | Assistant News Editor & Marissa Muniz | Social Media Editor
In preparation to memorialize the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, hundreds of miniature American Flags surrounded more than 150 Baylor students gathered on Fountain Mall Wednesday night. With prayer and worship, students reflected on the assassination of Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist, who was killed earlier in the day at a Utah Valley University event.
Castle Rock, Colo., sophomore Ellie Bradford and Eagle, Colo., sophomore Grace Armstrong organized the gathering, which lasted for one hour, posting information on as many social media platforms as they could.
“Jesus called on me,” Bradford said. “And I was like, [if] I can do something to influence someone, even if it’s one person, something to call Jesus to live in love instead of hate and dividing people, then I want to do it.”
Bradford and Armstrong stood atop the Rosenbalm Fountain, hands joined in prayer as the students in front of them huddled in their own prayer groups.
“[If] we can come together and not be divided by political party, but come together and be one nation under God – that’s what we’re called to be,” Armstrong said.
Worship continued to ring out under the night sky, uniting the Baylor community amid the tragedy. For Tacoma, Wash., freshman Johnny Dickie, being surrounded by this community was “truly miraculous.”
“Obviously, the events from today are horrific,” Dickie said. “Prayers go out to him, but just seeing the Holy Spirit, the unity, the brotherhood, the sisterhood and all brothers and sisters of Christ coming together, being of different denominations or different political views … is truly wonderful.”
West Harrison, N.Y., junior and Turning Point USA at Baylor President and Treasurer Peter Fernandez attended Kirk’s Student Action Summit in Tampa Bay, Fla., in July. While there, Fernandez won the opportunity to have breakfast with Kirk.
“One of the things that he said — sure, he can be controversial sometimes — but he said we need to keep having those conversations,” Fernandez said. “We need to keep setting up those tables and having people with differing opinions come up and converse with them. It’s when we stop having those conversations that we start thinking evil things and ignorant things about the other side.”
For Fernandez, the message echoed on Wednesday afternoon displayed the damage of fighting over policy instead of having conversations surrounding it.
“If we continue to do that over and over again, we’re going to end up in a situation like we have today, where somebody thinks that the most evil person in the world is a guy just using his First Amendment right,” Fernandez said. “When we pose questions … it’s not about yes or no. It’s about finding that common ground with that person, and if we don’t have these conversations, we don’t realize that we share so much more with these people than we don’t.”
Kirk stopped in Waco in 2021 as part of Turning Point USA’s “Exposing Critical Racism Tour.” Following the event, Kirk told Lariat TV News that he almost attended Baylor and fulfilled his goal of having “good discussion and dialogue” during his visit.
“So many people are here are not here because of a political movement, they’re here because of Jesus,” Fernandez said. “This is a God driven movement that’s going on in this crowd right here. This is not because a political figure died. It’s because a man of God died, and people of God came together to mourn.”
Fernandez said he was unsure if Turning Point would return to tabling on Fountain Mall this week, but plans to focus on the rest of the events this semester from a religious perspective.
“I really do think it’s ironic to even use the term ‘turning point,’ but I feel like it is a turning point in our country’s history, not just from a political standpoint, but I feel like there’s going to be a lot of people who come to Jesus because of this,” Fernandez said.
