Charlie Kirk increasingly seen as martyr not just for his politics, but for his faith
Some evangelicals come close to recognizing him as a modern-day saint
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When I first heard the news that Christian-right political activist Charlie Kirk had been shot, I knew instantly, even before his death was announced a short time later, that the incident would be big news.
But I never expected anything this big.
The New York Times has reported that in the time shortly after the shooting, it was getting twice the web traffic than it did after President Donald Trump was grazed by a bullet. The shooting and its aftermath were at the top of the headlines for more than a week, longer than for any other news story this year not directly involving Trump, longer even than for any of the mass shootings, longer than for any natural disaster.
All this was for a person who wasn’t a household name, who has never held political office, who has never played a role in a movie or broadcast TV series, who has never done anything for a career other than be a political activist. So unknown was the 31-year-old Kirk that he didn’t even appear on the most recent YouGov compilation of the most famous people in the United States, a list of thousands1, showing that most Americans had never heard of Charlie Kirk before his death.
I’ve been a journalist or freelance writer for more than four decades, and I’ve never seen anything like this. In terms of news events, 2025 has already been a crazy year, thanks to the continue norm-breaking U.S. president and his crew of, shall we say, unconventional public servants. But the rise of Charlie Kirk in the public consciousness is something I hadn’t anticipated.
What has me most intrigued now is how Kirk — despite making a series of ugly remarks that can most charitably be described as intolerant of racial, sexual and religious minorities as well as of anyone with a smidgen of wokeness or a deficit of privilege — would be on the verge of being anointed for sainthood if such a thing existed in the Protestant world.
For millions of evangelicals, apparently, the fact that Kirk was outspoken about his Christian faith is more notable than his substantial political accomplishments.
Just look at some of the praise that Kirk has garnered from Christian leaders in recent days:
Franklin Graham, son of the late evangelist Billy Graham and head of evangelicalism’s largest humanitarian organization, said that Kirk “is going to be remembered for his faith” and that “Charlie's death put a huge spotlight on this truth: that Jesus Christ is God's Son.”
Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, put Kirk in the same league as three of history’s best-known preachers: Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield and Billy Graham. He said of Kirk: “His life, his voice, his relentless drive to call a generation back to God were not born of ambition but of consecration. He stood where others bowed. He proclaimed truth where others stayed silent. He reminded us that spiritual courage is not optional in an age of moral compromise. It is essential.”
Said pastor Greg Laurie of the Harvest Christian Fellowship: “He was not only a bold and unwavering voice for biblical truth in our culture, but also a devoted follower of Jesus Christ, a husband, and a family man. ...[W]e can take comfort in knowing that Charlie is now in Heaven.”
Jackson Lahmeyer, pastor of Sheridan Church in Oklahoma and founder of Pastors for Trump said: “The attack on Charlie Kirk was much deeper than a political attack on the First Amendment. ... The attack on Charlie was spiritual in nature and an attack on the very institution of the church.”
Even one prominent Roman Catholic, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, known for his conservative views, joined the chorus of praise, comparing Kirk with St. Paul: “He was a missionary, he's an evangelist, he's a hero. He's one I think that knew what Jesus meant when he said the truth will set you free.”
And I don’t know whether this really happened, but the right-wing news site One America News reported that there was a surge in church attendance last Sunday, four days after the assassination. What I do know that happened was that there was a flurry of posts on X (formerly Twitter) and Threads this past week by people complaining when Kirk wasn’t mentioned in their church services.
More accolades will certainly come today as tens of thousands are expected at a memorial service at a sports stadium near Phoenix. Trump is scheduled to be one of the speakers.
This Kirk-as-saint phenomenon is so new I don’t know what to make of it. I don’t know how much of it coming from the evangelical grass roots of America, or if most of it comes as a result of the MAGA political machine’s decision to capitalize on Kirk’s death.
I suspect that great deal of the veneration is an outgrowth of the fact that many evangelicals have promoted the narrative that they are the objects of persecution. That’s a strange claim to make for a group that is numerically overrepresented in Congress and is a powerful force among presidential appointees. But the feeling is real, and it’s easy to see how MAGA evangelicals might revere someone such as Kirk, who comes without the behavioral baggage of the president and radiated confident decency.
How long will this veneration of Kirk last? I have no idea. But for the time being, it’s a force within American evangelicalism that can’t be ignored.
The least-known Charlie on the list, former baseball outfielder Charlie Blackmon, ranked in 3,550th place, and only 31 percent of Americans have heard of him.