At Sunday morning church services around the country, conservative religious leaders found the same word to describe Charlie Kirk, the podcaster and political activist killed on Wednesday: martyr.
“Today, we celebrate the life of Charlie Kirk, a 31-year-old God-fearing Christian man, a husband, father of two, a patriot, a civil rights activist, and now a Christian martyr,” said Rob McCoy, the pastor emeritus of Godspeak Calvary Chapel in California.
Kirk, a prominent ally of President Donald Trump who attracted an ardent conservative following and criticism for his anti-feminist, anti-immigration views, was fatally shot Wednesday at Utah Valley University. He was speaking to a crowd of thousands as part of “The American Comeback Tour,” which featured Kirk’s signature event: debating college students about culture war topics.
Several evangelical megachurches – which Kirk often visited on weekends to pitch his vision of conservative politics – dedicated their Sunday services to the assassinated political commentator, complete with video compilations of the viral moments that helped propel Kirk to fame. Pastors mourned Kirk both as a friend who built close personal relationships with evangelical leaders and a bombastic advocate for conservative Christian causes, who openly mixed politics with religion.
And although authorities haven’t announced a motive in Kirk’s shooting and he was speaking at a secular university when he was shot, several religious leaders framed his killing as an attack on the Christian church.
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