America pays tribute to Charlie Kirk

In an exhilarating, often exhausting and unprecedented moment in American history, hundreds of thousands of people gathered in an Arizona football stadium on Sunday afternoon to honor slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Attendees included dozens of members of Congress, half the Cabinet, President Trump, Vice-President Vance and the former shadow President, Elon Musk.

They remembered Kirk as a husband, a father, a friend, a true believer in the American way, a devotee of freedom of speech and civil discourse, a lover of classical Greek and Roman philosophy, and, perhaps most significantly, a warrior for the Christian God, belief in whom animated Kirk’s every utterance and every action.

Kirk’s memorial, or, as many speakers, including Vance, called it, “revival,” was perhaps the most Christian event in American history to take place outside a church setting. Devotional music augmented every minute of the proceedings, with many members of the passionate crowd singing along. In one of the most stunning and beautiful moments of grace in memory, Kirk’s widow, Erika, fought back tears as she said that Kirk wanted “to save young men, just like the one who took his life. I forgive him, I forgive him because it’s what Christ did and it’s what Charlie would do.”

Erika Kirk’s redemptive words and composure, somewhat muted a few minutes later when President Trump implied he would seek the federal death penalty for Charlie Kirk’s accused killer Tyler Robinson, stood in direct contrast to the cruel, graceless left-wing celebrations that occurred online in the days after Kirk’s death.

The revival proceedings included a predictably unhinged, vengeful rant by Trump advisor Stephen Miller, a rambling address by Tucker Carlson, combative MAGA thumping from the extremely online Jack Posobiec, and classy remarks from Tulsi Gabbard and a clearly grieving Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. As always, though, President Trump’s appearance, which came at nearly the five-hour mark of a very long ceremony, was the highlight.

Trump appeared on stage surrounded by sparklers as an aged Lee Greenwood, facing him like a lover in a duet, crooned “I’m Proud To Be An American.” The President, never one to stay entirely on message, talked about sending federal troops into Chicago, about declaring war on Antifa, and called Jimmy Kimmel an “anchor with no talent and low ratings.” He also reiterated that he was going to be awarding Kirk a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom and called the assassination “an assault on our most sacred God-given liberties and God-given rights. The gun was pointed at him but the bullet was aimed at all of us…The assassin failed in this quest because Charlie’s message has not been silenced, and now is bigger and better and stronger than ever before.”

It was a vintage Trump performance with something for everyone, unless you are a “radical left lunatic.” On political violence and freedom of speech, he had this to say: “No side has a monopoly on disturbed or misguided people, but there’s one part of our political community which believes they have a monopoly on truth…If speech is violence, then some are bound to conclude that violence is justified to stop speech.”

When it came to religion, Trump said, “We have to bring back religion to America because without borders, law and order and religion you really don’t have a country anymore.” But though Trump invoked God a number of times, and expressed admiration for the Christian faith of the Kirk family, his presentation was not overtly religious. In fact, at one point he said Kirk “did not hate his opponents, he wanted the best for them. That’s where I disagree with Charlie. I hate my opponents and I don’t want what’s best for them. I’m sorry, I am sorry Erika.” That was very non-Christian of Trump, but you cannot say the same thing for the Kirk revival as a whole.

It’s one thing if Charlie Kirk’s pastor, coworkers, friends, widow, or Benny Johnson say things like “Charlie looked at politics as an onramp to Jesus” or “Charlie was a prophet…not the fortunetelling kind, but the Biblical kind.” It’s another when the Secretary of State publicly preaches the Gospel truth about Christ’s resurrection in an event broadcast to countless millions around the world, as Marco Rubio did. JD Vance called Kirk a “martyr for the Christian faith”, as did many other speakers. He said, “The assassin expected us to have a funeral but instead we have had a revival in the celebration of Charlie Kirk and his Lord Jesus Christ.”

Vance also said, “Charlie brought the truth that Jesus Christ was the King of Kings and all things flowed from that,” while also calling Kirk a lover of history, defender of the West, and the foremost practitioner of the Socratic method. “I have talked more about Jesus Christ the past two weeks than I have my entire time in public life,” Vance said.

He’s not the only one. This is the most Christian moment in America that I can recall, and I’ve been alive since the Nixon Presidency. On the one hand, Charlie Kirk was a devoted Christian, and is obviously a hugely influential figure in modern American political history; you can’t ignore the reality. And when you look at the shining, optimistic faces in the arena, or at the many spontaneous prayer gatherings that have sprung up since his murder, it’s far preferable to the bitter, angry, mendacious violent woke race Communism or whatever it is that modern progressives are offering. Kirk offered a message of faith, family, patriotism, and love, and a soul-sick nation, thirsty for optimism, responded.

On the other hand, some of us will never accept Jesus Christ as our personal savior. I’m Jewish, so that’s right out for me, and there are other religious and non-religious people who sit in the same kettle. Not every spiritual journey ends with “He Is Risen.”

The Kirk assassination is going to have deep reverberations throughout American history for a generation, and possibly beyond. I just hope that free and open dialogue and turning the other cheek end up being part of those reverberations.