Church Officials Respond to Charlie Kirk Death

Turning Point USA Founder Charlie Kirk’s assassination has exposed a politically polarized response in the U.S. population, including among some church officials. Kirk’s alleged killer has alternately been accused of being right-wing, left-wing, or part of a foreign conspiracy. Panic World podcast host and former BuzzFeed editor Ryan Broderick identified Kirk’s assailant as an “accelerationist,” a new form of nihilism that seeks to “push politics and political violence to such an extreme that the order of the country would fall apart.”

Many statements from church officials maintain neutrality on Kirk’s political witness even as they decry his assassination, and almost all agree on several things. Life is sacred, and the murder of another is to be deplored as a slight against God himself. Some church officials characterize Kirk’s death as a blow to democracy and the foundation of America, and many offer and solicit prayers on the behalf of Kirk, his family, and society at large.

A statement released by the United Methodist Council of Bishops follows this general pattern. It expresses urgency to address political violence, quoting Isaiah 2:4 to remind readers that, one day, all the nations “will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.” Continuing, it urges an end to divisiveness that “fractures community” and calls to “reduce the easy access to guns.”

Archbishop Steve Wood of the Anglican Church in North America and Bishop Elizabeth Eaton of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America similarly concur. Wood urges parishioners to pray for peace and to “resist the spirit of the age that delights in division and cultivates suspicion.” Eaton recalls other recent acts of political violence. After listing the assassination attempts on President Trump and the murder of two Minnesota lawmakers among others, she declares that “God calls this church to say a definitive ‘no’ to political violence now and in the future.”

Archbishop Elpidophoros from the Greek Orthodox Diocese of North America labels the assassination as “a wound upon the very soul of America” and declares that democracy itself has been injured by it. In a Facebook post, the Coptic Orthodox Diocese of Los Angeles, Southern California, and Hawaii similarly declares that “in our democracy, we express our ideas with ballots and not with bullets when we disagree.” 

General Superintendent Doug Clay of the Assemblies of God focuses upon America’s “polarization,” asking God to heal America from it “tearing at the very seams of our country.” 

“Where there is hatred, bring love. Where there is fear, bring comfort. Where there is division, bring unity. Where there is confusion, bring truth. May Your radiant light shine on us in this dark hour; may it penetrate the darkest corners of our society,” Clay pleads. 

Other statements divested themselves from political neutrality. The Southern Baptist Convention released a statement, signed by a significant number of leading pastors, that declared Christians as “rightly grateful for Charlie Kirk’s public witness to Christ” and that “We rightly appreciate the profound impact Charlie Kirk has had on our young people, inspiring them to live with bold conviction and take righteous action.” The statement has met with controversy within the SBC, where some black members claim that Kirk made racist remarks that have been a poor example to young people. Kirk’s defenders characterize these remarks as lacking sufficient context and point to his relationships across racial and ethnic lines.

Similarly, Lutheran Church Missouri Synod President Matthew Harrison defends Kirk in his statement, insisting that Kirk was not racist. Harrison also claims that the alleged murderer was associated with trans ideology and devotes a paragraph to decrying Marxist thought. This paragraph draws a parallel between Kirk and Hermann Sasse, a contemporary of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in being unjustly murdered. Harrison was also the first top denominational official to categorize Kirk’s murder as not just political violence, but religious.

Interestingly, some Roman Catholic clerics also followed this tendency. Pope Leo was vague, allegedly saying only that he was praying for the Kirks and concerned about political violence, but other clergy had more to say, including Diocese of Winona-Rochester Bishop Robert Barron of Word on Fire and Archdiocese of New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan. Barron described Kirk as a “man of faith” and a champion of civil discourse. Cardinal Dolan went further, calling Kirk a “modern-day St. Paul” and a “hero.” Given Kirk’s religious background as a Pentecostal Christian, it is noteworthy that a Catholic cardinal would compare a non-Catholic to a saint or apostle.

In contrast, Bishop Andrew Doyle from the Episcopal Diocese of Texas says that “Even if Kirk’s own words incited violence and sought to harm others,” his death is still inexcusable. Doyle spoke of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s philosophy of nonviolence, perhaps as implicit reproof to derogatory remarks Kirk made about King. Doyle claims that the same voice that cries for “our LGBTQ+ siblings and their deaths,” immigrants “abused and killed by ICE,” the January 6, 2021 attack, and the murders of former Minnesota State Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark Hortman, also cries for Kirk.

Unique among the larger denominations that released statements, the Presbyterian Church (USA) statement focuses mainly on gun violence and calls upon American leaders to enact gun control policies. Only the concluding two sentences mention prayer and Christ, with prayer an action step for Presbyterians in their struggles against gun violence.

No doubt, many of these more political concerns hold weight. As Christians, we know that Kirk was imperfect and sinful, and his wrongful comments or actions should not be ignored. We also know that Kirk professed our Lord as his Savior, and an injury to part of the body is an injury to all. In this world that seeks division, let us find unity in each other and in Christ. The Lord alone, not we ourselves, is the Judge. 

As Anglican Archbishop Wood wrote, “Beloved, the world needs to see in us the reality of the Kingdom that cannot be shaken. May we be diligent in prayer, bold in witness, and tireless in doing good. May the Lord use us as instruments of His peace, until that day when swords are beaten into plowshares and Christ reigns over all the earth.”

More from IRD:

Martyrdom and Sterilized Saints

In the Light of Christ: Southern Seminary Reflects on Charlie Kirk’s Death