The murder of Charlie Kirk, who co-founded Turning Point USA (TPUSA) with Bill Montgomery, a retired businessman and Tea Party activist, continues to draw polarizing reactions online, resulting in real-life consequences. Comments on social media both marked his death with praise of his Christian witness and mocked it due to his inflammatory rhetoric, most notably shared on college campuses and his podcast.
It even carried over into pulpits on the Sunday following his death with Pastor Howard-John Wesley of Alfred Street Baptist Church in Alexandria, Virginia offering a rebuttal to honoring the dead. “How you die does not redeem how you lived,” Wesley said in his sermon, which has since gone viral.
In 2023, on The Charlie Kirk Show, Kirk said, “Happening all the time in urban America, prowling Blacks go around for fun to go target white people, that’s a fact. It’s happening more and more.”
Kirk’s alleged killer, described as “a former straight-A student from Utah” by USA Today, is 22-year-old Tyler Robinson. After surrendering under “gentle” conditions for fear of being shot, Robinson said Kirk “spread too much hate.”
Persons have also cited Kirk’s statement on gun deaths that are “worth it” for the right to bear arms, as well as his last words as justification for not speaking well of the dead. “After Charlie Kirk’s assassination, employees of airlines, schools and hospitals have faced firings and discipline over online posts mocking or celebrating his death,” NBC News reported.
Most recently, Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show, “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” was suspended indefinitely over remarks he made about Kirk’s death, including that “many in MAGA land are working very hard to capitalize on the murder of Charlie Kirk.” This leads me to my questions about the different responses to grief we’ve all witnessed, particularly those of his widow, Erika Kirk.
She made her first public statement two days after her husband was shot and killed while addressing an audience on the campus of Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. Mixing the personal and the political, she thanked first responders, President Donald and Vice President JD Vance but also warned “evil doers.”
“You have no idea the fire that you have ignited within this wife, the cries of this widow will echo around the world like a battle cry,” she said during the livestream. “They should all know this: if you thought that my husband’s mission was powerful before you have no idea, you have no idea what you just have unleashed across this entire country and this world.”
A battle cry? Yes, the bereaved are often mad at their deceased loved one, God, and death even. Still, of all the funerals I’ve attended and officiated, I have never heard a widow say that.
On September 13, she shared photographs and video clips of her weeping over her husband’s casket and kissing his hand. On her Instagram account, she wrote, “The world is evil. But our Savior. Our Lord. Our God. Не…Не is so good. I will never have the words. Ever.”
On September 18, Erika Kirk was named CEO of Turning Point USA and that’s when it hit me. Because her husband had not even been buried yet.
Isn’t someone supposed to say, “It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of…” and “Please, no calls at this time”? Where is the statement that begins, “With heavy hearts”?
Isn’t someone supposed to ask for the family’s privacy during this difficult time? Where are the calls for prayer for his friends, family and colleagues?
Who is providing the casseroles so she doesn’t have to cook? Who is volunteering to help around the house and with the children so that she can grieve?
Where are the requests for her to forgive her husband’s alleged killer? To pray for the Robinson family? Why does she get to speak so vengefully?
On the official funeral program and in addition to the words “building a legacy” and “remembering Charlie Kirk” is a website: FIGHTFORCHARLIE.COM. Type it in and the website lists details for his funeral, including a dress code: “Sunday Best: Red, White, or Blue” and a no bag policy. So, even in death it’s a fight?
The five stages of grief are denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. It makes me wonder what this added stage, fight, sets the stage for?
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Director of The Raceless Gospel Initiative, an associate editor, host of the Good Faith Media podcast, “The Raceless Gospel” and author of Take Me to the Water: The Raceless Gospel as Baptismal Pedagogy for a Desegregated Church.
