Charlie Kirk was a Christian conservative speaker who famously debated college students and anyone who wished to step up to the microphone at Turning Point USA events. His assassination on September 10, 2025, sparked a variety of reactions around the world.
William Toll is a Christian folk artist who took Kirk’s death to heart, and it has inspired him to act, galvanizing his commitment to Jesus Christ and specifically to stand against the atrocity of abortion.
“I personally vow to begin taking the issues of our time more serious,” William Toll wrote in a recent Substack newsletter. “I want to make a real difference with whatever influence I have.”
“I don’t want to let life drift by without putting up any sort of fight against the evils of our time,” he said. “I want to take seriously the calling to glorify God every day.”
[Click here to subscribe to Pregnancy Help News!]
Toll is grateful for God’s blessing on his music career as he recently was able to commit exclusively to it as a full-time pursuit. William Toll has over 160,000 listeners monthly on Spotify with his presence on other social media outlets also growing.
“The issue of abortion is important to me because of my Biblical conviction to hold back those who are stumbling toward slaughter, as it says in Proverbs, to protect the innocent,” William Toll noted in an interview with Pregnancy Help News.
“God isn’t interested in excuses about how we didn’t know it was happening, or we can’t see it happening, like out of sight out of mind,” he added.
Growing up in the suburbs of Madison, Conn., Toll’s family did not espouse Christian faith, but he was very drawn to folk music. Sports were what he described as the “center” of his life all the way through college as he played lacrosse at the University of Michigan.
After college, when the one thing – lacrosse - that provided him community, purpose, friendships, and his sense of worth was no longer part of his life, William Toll struggled.
“I was left empty, wondering, who am I?” he said.
Observing his dad and then his brother’s conversions to Christianity gradually led Toll to open his heart to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
“Ultimately the Lord drew me to Himself to answer those big questions, and I was born again,” Toll revealed.
At this time William Toll started writing songs. His love for folk music naturally drew him into the Christian folk genre.
So, while he has had a Christian focus in his music from the start, Toll had yet to stand on issues such as abortion on any of his platforms.
Toll recalled various encounters where individuals have compared abortion to slavery and certainly there were people who knew it was happening and ignored the evil. Yet something more sinister than slavery is taking place every day in the U.S.
“Killing the innocent is worse than enslaving the innocent and we do it at a magnitude they didn’t have in slavery days,” he said.
“It always has been an underlying conviction but something that I hadn’t really put serious action towards,” Toll admitted. “The big moment that gave me the conviction to start putting action into my convictions was the Charlie Kirk assassination.”
The way Charlie Kirk embodied actions on behalf of that which is good, true, and beautiful affected William Toll deeply.
Quoting Proverbs 24:11-12 in a Substack newsletter, William Toll added, “Instead of just ranting about it on the internet like so many do - and power to them - I want to build a real coalition of music fans and artists committed to boldly confronting the evil that is the abortion industrial complex, and to provide young mothers facing crisis pregnancies with good, healthy, God-honoring, pro-life options.”
With a passion ignited in his heart, William Toll actively is seeking opportunities to use his platform to speak out on behalf of the unborn and encourage moms to choose life.
William Toll hopes to collaborate with pro-life ministries, pregnancy centers, and other Christian folk artists to fundraise. One specific vision is to establish an annual Christian folk music festival in support of life and highlighting the work of various ministries.
As the momentum builds, William Toll continues to reach out to draw more musicians and pro-life advocates into the vision of honoring the Lord, fighting the evil of abortion, and being more like Charlie Kirk in being a faithful steward of the opportunities God has given.
Tweet This: William Toll is reaching out to draw more musicians & pro-life advocates into the vision of honoring the Lord, fighting the evil of abortion
Reading William Toll’s Substack provides insight into the faith journey of the man:
“The music can become an idol that takes God’s place on the throne of my heart. It happened to me and started to seriously harm my marriage. I had to be willing to sacrifice it. Lay it down. Leave it behind. God needed to make sure I worshipped him above all else and prioritized my wife over my music.”
William Toll goes on to explain how God broke his heart and helped him reset his priorities. What a great place to start as this renewed warrior seeks to serve God in everything he does.
To follow William Toll and hear more about his ministry and his music use this link: https://linktr.ee/williamtoll.
