In this heartfelt episode, Sean reflects on the profound impact of Charlie Kirk and his mission to engage young people on college campuses. Joined by Erica Kirk, Sean dives into Charlie's last book, "Stop in the Name of God," which emphasizes the significance of honoring the Sabbath and disconnecting from the relentless pace of modern life. Erica shares personal anecdotes about Charlie's dedication to this practice and how it transformed their lives, encouraging listeners to embrace rest as a strength rather than a weakness. Join Sean and Erica for a touching tribute that highlights the importance of faith, family, and making mindful choices in our busy lives.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
If you want to be a part of the program, I'm in New York today, only the second day this year, and I'm here for a really important reason.
Turning point and Charlie Kirk and Erica Kirk have created something that is so phenomenal that it played a huge role, in my opinion, in the 2024 election.
And what was the mission is that they went into hostile territory, college campuses, and they would talk to young people.
And all of a sudden, they would talk about rejecting hookup culture.
Not exactly the most common thing that you hear on a college campus.
They would talk about maybe you don't want to be the kid that goes to the frat party and you're throwing up in the bushes later on that night.
Maybe you want to make different choices in your life.
Maybe, you know, we are mind, body, and spirit.
And maybe we're all into work now.
We're all into maha and getting healthy.
Maybe you need to nurture the spiritual side of your life.
And it also became a movement.
And the sad part is, is kids were not hearing this message on a college campus, you know, which is supposed to be a bastion of learning and where the free, open exchange of ideas and ideals and principles and opinions take place.
We lost Charlie too young.
And when he passed, I said that was the magic of Charlie.
And then I spent a lot of time with my fiancé.
We were watching a lot of tapes of Charlie and Charlie and Erica and their relationship and the things that they did to strengthen their partnership.
And we're just very honored to have in the studio Erica Kirk is with us.
Charlie's last book, and he finished it about a month before he was assassinated, is called Stop in the Name of God, Why Honoring the Sabbath Will Transform Your Life.
And if you watch The Chosen, which I've watched start to finish probably six times because I get more out of it every time I watch it, I'm obsessed with it, you know, Shabbat Chalom, right, which is a big part of it.
But anyway, Erica, it's great to see you.
Thank you for being here.
I'm glad you did publish Charlie's last work.
He had just finished it.
He did.
Thank you for having me, Sean.
You are such a blessing and such a dear friend to myself, but also to my husband.
He loved you.
I loved him.
Loved you.
I respected him.
I told the story on the air that I was so after all this happened.
And I thought back, I was so glad I got to call.
I ran into him while I was going into the White House to interview the president, and he was at the same gate that I was at.
I'm like, Charlie, I hadn't seen him in a while.
And I got to pull him aside.
I said, I want to thank you for all that you did because he motivated all these young people to want to get involved in politics.
And both of you did that.
Yeah, I was so proud of him.
And I will never forget the day that it was election night and how nervous but cautiously optimistic he was.
He was so prayerful that whole day.
And we were actually talking about this last night, how when it was just about to be announced, it was radio silent.
And then Cliff on the live stream was freaking out because he was streaming it.
And he's like, this is not normal.
You're not supposed to have silence on radio or on anything.
And he just went right in.
And I ran over to Charlie, wrapped my arms around him, gave him the biggest kiss.
I was so proud of him because everyone can see him on his radio show.
And I know Ainsley knows this too with you.
Everyone can see you working so hard and during the day.
But when you get home and it's just you and your love of your life and they see how hard you work and you come home and you're just able to bear it all and be like, I just need to rest and breathe for a second.
And they're in that place where they can do that and share their heart.
I got to see it amplified even more so during that season of time.
And I was so proud of him because he worked so hard.
All the campus visits, the whole team, everyone worked.
There was not a nine to five.
It was just full mission focused.
We have to deliver the youth vote.
Everyone else can focus on everything else.
Charlie's mission.
I delivered the grandma-grandpa vote.
Or the older people vote.
I wanted everybody to.
Takes a team.
My message was simple.
Assume that your vote, especially in all the swing states, would be the deciding vote in that state.
Correct.
And that was my message even going into the Tennessee Congressional Seven race.
It was the same thing.
The thing that I regret, I have a regret in terms of my relationship with Charlie is I did not talk to him about the things that the two of you often talked about in front of children.
And that is your faith, your deep abiding faith.
And if I was going to have a last word, and I've been doing this since before you were born, 198, were you born before 1987?
I was 88.
88.
I started in radio before you were born.
Okay.
So that's how long everyone in there is dying.
They're laughing.
But I have a passion.
And the minute this silly light went on, it transformed my life.
And that's all I wanted to do.
And I did it for free.
And then I did it for next to no money.
And it happened.
But if I had a last breath, I'd want it to be Charlie's message in this book.
And I, because what you're saying here is you both adopted the Sabbath.
And that means Sunset Friday, all the phones are off.
All the connection to the world is off.
And you wouldn't put it back on until the next night when the sun went down again.
That's like 24 straight hours.
And Charlie addresses all of this in the book.
And as you can see, I like tore this book apart.
I read every page.
And I want you to explain to people how you practice it, how it impacted your life, because the idea of disconnecting, especially among young people, is like unimaginable.
It's foreign.
It's totally a foreign concept.
So Charlie is the type of person where when he is all in, he is all in.
He will, if he finds a topic he's fascinated about, he will research it till there's no other book that's left to read about it.
And so we probably have 50 plus books at our home in on our bookshelf about the Sabbath.
He wanted to learn everything he could.
And it's because when prior to honoring the Sabbath, he knew that he was on the precipice of burnout.
And that horrified him because he, that's not, he, there is no stopping for my husband.
And so he went on a total deep dive and realized after reading the Bible multiple times, honoring the Sabbath, honoring the Sabbath.
And in Exodus and Deuteronomy, one is about honoring the Sabbath because it'll set you free.
And the other is because God rested as well.
So rest isn't a weakness.
And our culture views rest as a weakness, but it's a productive rest.
It's not a rest.
And I go and watch, you know, Seinfeld all day.
Love Seinfeld.
Charlie's favorite.
two TV shows were Seinfeld and Frasier.
I thought I was going to guess curb your enthusiasm.
I have no idea.
Seinfeld and Frazier.
And so for him, he'd come home.
He started off very slow.
At first, it was a half hour a day, a half hour for the weekend.
But every single time he would turn his phone off and he would put it in the junk drawer, close the junk drawer and say, Shabbat shalom.
The reason he said that was not because of that's what you're supposed to say.
Charlie was also very fascinated with brain health.
And to him, especially since both him and I played sports, we understood this.
And for anyone out there listening who's played sports, you get this.
There's a sports psychology method of when you're at the free throw line or you're about to start a game, you have a trigger word within yourself of to get focused.
I don't care if that's game on and or if let's go.
Like you have that one word that gets you in that mental state of it's go time.
And so for Charlie, he had those words.
And so for him, Shabbat Shalom, go time.
I'm with the Lord.
That was almost like a declaration to the enemy.
You cannot enter my brain space.
I am here to make a declaration with vocally, with my heart and soul, that I am going to take X amount of hours.
Again, it started off, which is a half hour, an hour, to full days, which then eventually went to turning the phone on on Sunday morning.
But he did that because it was a declaration to the enemy.
You will try and come after me.
You'll try and come after my brain.
You'll try and come after my heart.
But I am disconnecting from this echo chamber in this world.
And I'm focusing on God, my family, my children.
And that was it.
That was it.
He would read.
He would research.
He would spend time with the Lord.
He would go hiking with the kids.
It was special to him.
It was his time to reset.
And I know that he told this to the team all the time.
He would say, if you refuse or if you decide not to honor the Sabbath, it is you who is missing out on that gift that God is giving to you, not the other way around.
He was a really good salesman in the book in this way.
He's like, he overcame every objection, every excuse that everybody could come up with.
And I'm like going through the list.
I'm like, guilty, guilty, killed.
I'm too busy.
I don't have time.
I can't do that.
What if the president tries to call me?
That's a valid thing for him.
It's valid for me, too.
Right, exactly.
It's a real thing.
You get it.
And the president, I have talked to him every hour on the 24-hour day clock.
And he talks, he said he loved to sleep.
I'm like, I love to sleep more.
Leading into that election, I was sleeping maybe an hour and a half, two hours a night for six months.
I mean, I just threw my heart into it.
We're all doing our part.
We're all like spokes on a wheel.
Exactly.
I want to stay on this and go back to this, but I don't want to be negligent either.
And it really broke my heart when I saw what happened.
I know you've answered a lot of the questions.
I'm not going to ask you questions.
I know you've been asked before.
But what I want to know is, how are you doing now?
Because all of a sudden, everyone's in your life.
Then slowly but surely, reality begins to set in.
You find a few nights where you're alone and it's you and the kids.
And then it dawns, it really reality strikes.
And everyone mourns differently.
And how are you doing?
How are the children doing?
I appreciate that question.
It's interesting because my situation is beyond a one-of-one.
There is no blueprint for this.
My husband's murder was so public.
The analysis of my reactions by the world has been so public.
It has been one of the most humbling, fascinating, painful, interesting moments of my life.
And you're absolutely right.
You really do see who's in your corner.
But you also find people in your life that you never even knew existed that are reaching out, trying to just tell you that this has really humanized them.
And I have been, that side to me has been very fascinating because who am I to judge someone's road to Damascus when something like this, as it should, rock people to their core?
Political violence is never a solution.
It's never the answer.
And if they thought that they were going to silence my husband, they did the exact opposite.
Not even just awakening a side in me that will become absolutely relentless on making sure my husband's message is never forgotten and Turning Point USA becomes something this world has never even seen before.
But it also has sparked this incredible revival of people that are realizing, okay, this is not right at all.
And it has humanized me in a way where I am starting to know more about the Lord.
I am buying a Bible.
I am curious about what Charlie had to say.
And so for me, when you ask, how are we doing?
You can say, well, you know, how is she doing it?
She's a mom, and now she's running Turning Point USA.
And now she's running Turning Point Action.
How is she able to do this?
Easy, quick answer, God.
Of course, my faith.
We do not mourn like the rest of the world.
I don't have time for that.
But Turning Point USA is not just an organization to me.
They are my family.
Those students, they're like an extension of children for me.
Even Mikey?
Even Mikey.
He's in the studio with us.
Family.
Mikey McCoy is Pastor McCoy who married you.
We're going to take a break.
We'll come back on the other side.
We'll pick up.
We'll talk more about how this impacted you personally.
We'll talk about your children.
But more importantly, I'm just urging everybody: this should be a must-read book.
And I'm speaking from my heart here.
We don't nourish our spiritual side enough.
And if you could practice what Charlie, the message that Charlie's relaying in what really is his final book, his final message to us, stop in the name of God, why honoring the Sabbath will transform your life.
When you're finished reading it, it will be very real to you.
And maybe you don't do it completely, but if you take some of the advice, it will transform your life.
Anyway, you can go to 45books.com or you can go to Hannity.com.
We'll link to 45books.com.
Also, Amazon.com and bookstores now all across the country.
We'll continue on the other side.
Erica Kirk is with us.
Charlie's last book, Stop in the Name of God, Why Honoring the Sabbath Will Transform Your Life.
A lot more with Erica as we continue.
941 Sean, if you want to be a part of the program, Erica Kirk is in studio with us.
Charlie's last book that he finished one month before he was sadly taken from us and assassinated and murdered, maybe his most important message that he's ever given anybody.
And he talked a lot about politics.
He talked a lot about life and dating and would go into hostile territory.
And he had an amazing impact on young people, along with Erica, who's in studio with us.
It's called Stop in the Name of God, Why Honoring the Sabbath Will Transform Your Life.
I urge all of you.
Look, you can find it everywhere.
You can go to 45books.com, 45books.com to get your copy.
And Erica remains with us.
We're not going to rush through this interview.
We're going to really take our time if it's okay with you.
Great.
So we were talking about how you're doing.
You have two beautiful children.
Unbelievable.
You said in a recent interview, you would hope maybe, you know, after this, that you were going to have a third.
We were praying for that.
Yeah.
We were praying for that.
I find things like that heartbreaking.
There are two moments after this assassination that stand out in my mind about you.
One is when you said, I have to listen to my creator and our savior.
And, you know, this guy that assassinated Charlie was the type of kid that Charlie was trying to reach and that you forgive him.
That may sound easy.
And that's what our faith teaches us.
I don't know if I would be so quick to want to, I'd probably still want to, you know, snap their neck.
No, I understand.
You know, I understand.
Because of what they did to such a bright, intelligent, vibrant, you know, young man.
He did not deserve this.
No, it's pure evil.
It's evil.
Pure evil.
And you said that.
And then you said, you had to explain this to your children.
And that killed me.
And I know you've addressed it a couple of times, but how are they doing?
My son is still a little bit too young.
Obviously, children can feel the absence and presence of people in their life.
My daughter is, I've been teaching her how to talk to daddy, if you will.
So she will look up during her prayers or she'll just say, you know, daddy, do you like my dress?
Or daddy, I miss you.
And so whenever she asks about how daddy's doing in heaven, what did he do today?
I'm always like, baby, you tell me.
What do you think he did today in heaven?
I try to make it, which it is.
Heaven is exciting.
Heaven is our home.
That's not something that's supposed to be scary or sad.
Charlie is more human and fully himself now than he ever was down here.
He is fully complete.
And the irony in this with the book, too, is that he spent so much time writing and learning about the Sabbath that now he is truly living the ultimate Sabbath with our Lord.
And so my daughter is doing the best to be expected, but her and I are very close.
And she knows it as long as that she can always talk to Daddy and he's always there for her.
You know, when I think of the mystery of heaven, because we can only imagine, right?
Remember the song?
I know.
If you ever watch the movie, I can only imagine.
It's a great movie.
It's a Christian movie.
And if you know the band Mercy Me, the lead singer, it's a story of his life.
And his father was a monster, but this monster transformed himself and became a different man.
It's really worth watching.
And I love the song.
I probably have listened to it a million times in my life.
But in those quiet, introspective moments of my life, when I think about heaven, well, you go to the Bible, it says the eye has not seen, nor has the ear heard, nor has it entered into the hearts of men what God has in store for those that love the truth, or Jesus on the cross saying, this day you will be with me in paradise, or at the end of my TV show every night, I said, let not your heart be troubled.
It's not an accident.
I say it on purpose.
And the verse goes on to say, let not your heart be troubled.
In my father's house are many mansions.
And I go to prepare a place for you so that where I am, ye shall also be.
And those, that that is the promise to me of heaven.
And I believe with all my heart, and this book affirms everything that I believe that Charlie is there.
Does that give you comfort?
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
I talk to him all the time, every day.
Do you ever feel him?
Always.
You do.
Always.
Always.
He is such.
I believe in that type of.
When you make a covenant with the love of your life with God, that doesn't just disappear.
That love is so, such a burning fire and such a burning fire of passion in your heart that no man will ever separate.
Yeah.
When you both adopted Shabbat, okay, which I think is amazing, and that is disconnecting or what is it called?
We have the lore of busyness, right?
The way you spell it in the book.
Correct.
And I thought, and it's a declaration that a man's value is not measured by his output and productivity level, but by his surrender.
You wrote those words in the forward to this book.
And then I'm going to go to a lot of what Charlie said in it.
But you practice it, practice it.
So the idea of all of us turning off our phones and computers and every device we have, but most people listening to us is probably alien.
It's like, okay, Hannity, you know, you've taken this extremism of yours way too far, but it's not.
No.
I find when I am still is when I'm closest to God.
Correct.
And how are you supposed to hear what the Lord has to tell you?
How are you supposed to break down and understand the issues of the day, the issues of your life when you're being inundated nonstop with the noise and the chatter, whether that's social media, whether that's your cell phone?
How are you able to fully just disconnect so you can hear and be human and just understand that there is a bigger world out there?
There's a bigger world and you are supposed to be so focused on heaven and everything else can just wait.
Just for, just for, again, start with a half hour.
Start with a half hour.
I tell people, you know, the Lord's Prayer is the most powerful to me.
And I'm sure you feel the same way.
But if you ever catch yourself, and this is, I used to be a Catholic, I won't give you the long chapter, you know, the long story, but things that happen in the hierarchy of the church at the local parish level, all the way to Rome that really turn me off.
But if you say the Lord's Prayer, and a lot of times a lot of churches, oh, father, no, you know, you're not saying it with heart and meaning.
But when I slow myself down, I try to get through the whole prayer without me thinking about, oh, I've got to go and I've got to call and I've got to do this.
And just, I have to get through the whole prayer with full focus.
That has helped me a lot in my life.
That's something you can do daily and then add it to what you and Charlie practice.
Exactly.
And this is not something where, again, if you can't do a full day, build it into your schedule.
Charlie was meticulous about time management.
He was down to the half a second on some days.
So if you can only build it into, you know, a half hour or, you know, at home, we would have Bibles open all throughout our house.
You could just walk right past it and be able to read just a quick Bible verse on your way.
As long as you're able to incorporate the Lord within your quote unquote schedule, which should be the opposite.
Your schedule should revolve around the Lord, you're in a good headspace.
But Charlie knew that this was almost a secret weapon.
The Sabbath, honoring the Sabbath was a secret weapon because it unlocked something inside of you that the Lord knew would elevate you in a way that no self-help book would.
I'm going to hand you the book.
And as you can see, I destroyed it and I write in ink all over it, but I did have you autograph it and I'm very grateful.
I only want, these are Charlie's words.
And this is kind of a summation because it would take me a month to go over every detail of the book, but it's a nice summation about it.
And just read what you feel comfortable, what you think.
And you can see where I start on that page.
And because I'd rather you read it than me.
I would be honored.
The Sabbath is not just a nice idea.
It's not just a rest day for the religious or the nostalgic.
The Sabbath is God's answer to a culture spinning out of control.
It is his ancient rhythm of sanity planted like an anchor in a world swept away by currents of chaos.
Six days we work, build, create, engage.
On the seventh day, we stop, but not because we're weak.
We stop because we're human.
We don't rest because we're lazy.
We rest because we're obedient.
The Sabbath is God's resistance against the machine.
It is his weekly reminder that your worth is not in your productivity, that your soul cannot be sustained by screens, and that your body was made not just for motion, but for stillness, reflection, and worship.
You weren't made to go 24-7.
You weren't created to be reachable at all hours, flooded by headlines, marketing emails, and the endless scroll of digital noise.
The coming age will promise freedom through technology, but what it will actually deliver is exhaustion and enslavement.
Everything will be on demand.
Everything will be customizable.
The Sabbath cuts through that fog.
It calls us back.
It rehumanizes us.
It's beautiful.
It's so, I read this book and I feel my husband so alive.
Talk about putting this into practice as a couple.
I have a couple of clips of you guys that I'm going to get you to react to.
You're going to hate me after this interview.
But I think they're so powerful.
I want to just play because you and Charlie, some of the most beautiful moments in his life were times he spent on stage with you.
And I want to play you and Charlie and your notes and asking each other, how can I better serve you?
I've adopted this and I'm a lousy servant, but I try, but the practice is beautiful, and I think everybody could learn from it.
Someone once asked me how Charlie and I kept our marriage so strong when he was busy traveling in our little secret.
There was love notes.
Every Saturday, Charlie wrote one for me and he never missed a Saturday.
And in every single one of them, he'd tell me what his highlight was for the week, how grateful he was for me and our babies.
And always at the end, he would always end it with asking the most beautiful question.
He'd always end it by asking, please let me know how I can better serve you as a husband.
Charlie perfectly understood God's role for a Christian husband.
A man who leaves so that they can serve.
I mean, how can I better serve you?
Now, if you look at the divorce statistics in the country, and this is the talk show host to me, I read all the bad news every day.
And how many marriages would be saved if each partner would ask each other, how can I serve you?
What do you need from me?
I completely agree.
And that's what's so, that's what's so fascinating is that a marriage is not a competition.
A marriage is the most beautiful, designed by God love format, if you will, that embodies God's love for us.
And I've loved being the wife to my husband.
I loved knowing that I was submitting under my husband because he was submitted under the Lord.
That's a beautiful, beautiful thing.
That is such a powerful relationship.
And when you have a relationship like that and you have a love like that, nothing can take you off course.
We were a partnership.
We were in lockstep with the Lord.
There was no daylight between us.
We shared everything together.
I did not resent him on anything.
I was so proud of him.
And anytime he had to work or go travel, I always wanted to make sure that he had a landing place when he came home that he could just, and he would say it to the team.
He would tell Mikey and everyone all the time, this is fine.
Great.
All right.
Got to go.
Got to get back home.
Erica and the kids got to go.
And that to me was so special because I wanted to create a life for him that he always wanted to come home to.
And he would always ask, yes, how can I serve you?
I would ask him the same thing all throughout the day.
It wasn't just in the letters.
It was always constantly throughout the day.
How can I better serve you?
How can I love you?
What can I do for you?
And if we all have that type of heart posture, regardless of outside of marriage, but if we have a servant's heart, this world would look a lot different.
It's pretty amazing.
And I think that there's, I love the fact that you guys bravely, and that means everybody with Turning Point and Charlie in particular, that you go into this hostile environment, college campuses.
I've been to one or two.
I didn't get the exact warmest reception when I went there over the course of my life when they're hissing and booing and silencing you, but would bring the message that sadly, you know, how often do you hear on a college campus, maybe you don't want to go to the frat party, as I said at the beginning of this interview.
Maybe you don't want to be a part of hookup culture.
Maybe that guy does not really have your best interests at heart.
I remember the conversations I had with my kids when they were going off to college.
They're so raw, I cannot repeat them on air.
I know.
But it was like to my son, they are not this, and you're there to serve them.
Right.
And they are human beings with feelings, emotions, a heart, and a soul.
That was, that's the cleaned up version.
And to my daughter, is respect yourself.
And they might say all the right words, but they don't mean them.
No, that's I'm going to grab the book back.
But listen, I'm, I'm, first of all, you're going to, this conversation's continuing because you're going to join us tonight on TV.
We're honored to have you both in radio, in our studio here at radio and on TV tonight.
Hannity on the Fox News channel, 9 o'clock Eastern.
You can set your DVR.
Erica Kirk will be with us.
I think what a final message.
The final book.
Charlie finished it.
Charlie Kirk finished it just before he was assassinated.
Stop in the name of God why honoring the Sabbath will transform your life.
It's at 45books.com and everywhere else you'd find books.
And I'm glad you're doing well.
I pray for you, Charlie, the children.
Thank you.
Turning point and everybody associated with you.
And may God bless your great mission because it's important to the country.
Thank you.
God bless you.
And we appreciate you coming by.
Erica, thank you.
Thank you, Sean.
Next time, maybe not bring Mikey, but I'm just saying.
I'm kidding.
Mikey's actually a friend.
I'm totally joking.
All right, quick break, right back.
We'll continue.
Final hour roundup is next.
You do not want to miss it.
And stay tuned for the final hour free-for-all on the Sean Hannity Show.
All right.
We'll see Erica.
She will join us tonight on Hannity.
Don't forget, you just go to 45books.com.
It is Stop in the Name of God, Why Honoring the Sabbath Will Transform Your Life.
Charlie Kirk, his last book that he just finished about a month before he was assassinated.
Erica will join us tonight on Hannity when we come back.
Over $1 billion in Medicaid fraud.
The person that knows more about this than anyone else in the country is Dr. Mehmet Oz.
He will join us coming up on the other side as we continue.