What is a #Christian #martyr
#Trump allies cast Charlie Kirk as a martyr’ whose legacy can shape GOP future Tens of thousands gathered in Arizona to extol the faith and political acumen of a 31-year-old activist whom Republicans say helped deliver the White House. 3 minutes ago from #Washington #Post President Donald Trump hugs Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk, after speaking at the memorial service for conservative activist in Glendale, Arizona, on Sunday. (Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images) no image but I will share the link 🔗 By Cat Zakrzewski, Yvonne Wingett Sanchez and Michelle Boorstein PHOENIX — Republicans extolled conservative activist Charlie Kirk at a memorial Sunday as a religious leader of almost biblical stature who transformed the party and was critical to delivering the presidency to Donald Trump. More than a dozen of the party’s most powerful leaders predicted that Kirk’s slaying will galvanize their political movement for generations to come. “He’s a martyr now for American freedom,” President Donald Trump said after walking onstage to a fireworks display while country singer Lee Greenwood performed “God Bless the USA.” “I know I speak for everyone here today when I say that none of us will ever forget Charlie Kirk, and neither now will history.” Supporters of the 31-year-old co-founder of Turning Point USA packed into the Arizona Cardinals’ stadium, which had been transformed for the service with posters of Kirk and his family. Packets of tissues had been placed on the seats. Thousands of people who could not fit into the venue spilled into a nearby arena. Religious worship and gospel music played as people waved “Never Surrender” signs, invoking one of Trump’s campaign slogans made popular in 2024 after he survived an assassination attempt. Vice president JD Vance, five Trump Cabinet officials, Charlie Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, and other speakers delivered at times emotional remembrances of Kirk behind bulletproof glass, a doleful reminder of the shooting on Sept. 10 that had brought them here in the first place. Many of the speakers invoked religious warfare in response to the widely viewed killing in the middle of an outdoor appearance on a Utah college campus. But the crowd rose to its feet in applause when Erika Kirk announced, dabbing tears from her eyes, that she forgave the shooting suspect. With Super Bowl-level security and most of the presidential line of succession in attendance, the event marked an extraordinary memorial for an influencer who never held public office and was not known to broad swaths of the American public before the attack. Many of Trump’s political opponents have criticized the level of resources and time that the administration has devoted to Kirk, who made polarizing and offensive remarks about Black people, women and transgender individuals in his podcasts and college campus debates. Vance said that so many Trump administration officials had traveled to the service because Kirk was a friend and also because “we know we wouldn’t be here without him.” Susie Wiles, White House chief of staff, credited him with turning out young voters central to Trump’s victory, calling them “Charlie’s Army.” The five-hour event blended religious fervor with militant politics, as Trump’s allies invoked Kirk’s legacy to position the conservative movement as a near-apocalyptic clash of truth and goodness against enemies they mocked as “evildoers” determined to destroy a nation that has been ordained by God. With imagery of religious and political war, they signaled that they would leverage Kirk’s memory as an organizing principle for the party moving forward. “They cannot conceive of the army that they have arisen in all of us, because we stand for what is good, what is virtuous, what is noble,” White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller said, framing the fight as a battle between “goodness and evil.” “You thought you could kill Charlie Kirk,” he said earlier. “You have immortalized him.” The fiery remarks come as the Trump administration has unleashed a wave of political retribution in the wake of Kirk’s death, promising to punish liberal institutions that they say contributed to Kirk’s shooting. Earlier this week, Miller said that the last conversation he had with Kirk was about the “left-wing organizations that are promoting violence” in the United States. In the Oval Office later Monday afternoon, Miller alleged without providing any evidence that unnamed left-wing groups had organized attacks on Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, enabled doxing campaigns, and provided weapons and gas masks to promote riots. Tyler Robinson, 22, was charged with aggravated murder in Kirk’s death. Prosecutors say Robinson had confessed to the killing and had written to his roommate about his hatred of Kirk. As the event opened, Kirk’s friends and other influencers with whom he frequently collaborated focused on Kirk’s Christianity and the role he played in spreading that message to his young followers. “I see it now that Charlie Kirk was a prophet,” said his friend and longtime Turning Point USA spokesman Andrew Kolvet. “Not the fortune-telling kind that could predict the future, but the biblical kind. He confronted evil and proclaimed the truth and called us to repent and be saved.” The religious rhetoric of the memorial was presaged by a pilgrim-like journey of the conservative movement to Arizona, where Kirk built his political movement. The White House sent two government planes of staff to the event, with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) joining the president on Air Force One. Many members of the Trump family also attended the event, where Kirk’s friend Donald Trump Jr. delivered remarks. And a prodigal son even returned: Tech billionaire Elon Musk was spotted chatting with Trump on the sidelines of the event — their first public appearance together since the acrimonious public breakdown in their relationship in June. Matthew Boedy, an assistant professor at the University of North Georgia who focuses on religious rhetoric and who has a new book on Kirk and religious nationalism, said the event “was not a message of expanding the tent, of reaching out to people with whom you disagree, but [instead] a deepening of the base, of people who agree with them but may not be politically active.” Boedy said this reflected Trump’s longtime strategy of solidifying White and religious voters, “and going after that well again and again.” Sporting Turning Point and Trump gear, throngs of Kirk’s supporters also traveled from out of state to pay their respects to the slain political organizer. On one flight into Phoenix, passengers broke out singing “Amazing Grace” in honor of Kirk’s legacy, according to video on social media. Some flew from across the nation to honor him, lining up overnight or arriving hours before doors opened. They wore shirts emblazoned with, “I am Charlie Kirk,” “Freedom” and “Pray America.” They were of all ages — pushing strollers and carrying canes. They donned church clothes, shorts and flip-. flops, cowboy boots and “Make America Great Again” hats. Soon after doors opened in the early morning, tens of thousands had filled the seats for a worship service that started at 8 a.m. Julia Jorgensen, of Orange, Texas, 87, carried a cane that doubled as a portable chair. A Republican, she has listened to Kirk’s radio show since 2020, seeing him as a powerful voice who could kindle a spiritual and political awakening among young people. “I’ve been praying for this to happen for years,” she said. “And Charlie Kirk — his death — is the ignition point. We’re going to see our young people turn to the Lord in great numbers … We’re going to have our nation back.” She brought her 17-year-old great-nephew, Kade McLemore, who said he discovered Kirk years ago. He said he was devastated by the killing. “I’m here to find answers,” he said. Some attendees began arriving as early as 1 a.m. to get ahead of the long lines and gridlocked traffic that surrounded the stadium. As temperatures topped 90 degrees, medics responded to people suffering from dehydration and exhaustion as they waited outside. While they waited, they were approached by dozens of Turning Point volunteers carrying clipboards and reams of voter-registration forms. Over the past several years, the group has made an effort to oust local, county and state Republicans they deem disloyal to the MAGA cause while working to install MAGA-friendly officials. Mikki Bizak, of Tucson said she was honoring Kirk by helping people register to vote. “When he was assassinated, you didn’t see looting, you didn’t see violence,” said Bizak, 70. “You saw a group of people that were very concerned, sorry for his death.” She said Turning Point #USA and the Republican Party will grow stronger — especially with Kirk’s widow, Erika, presiding over the organization The memorial service marked the largest event that Turning Point had ever hosted, as the its leaders scrambled to fill a stadium without the man who was the group’s face and co-founder. At times holding back tears during her remarks, Erika Kirk said her husband died with “incomplete work but not with unfinished business.” Now, she promised, “his mission is my mission.” After a 45-minute speech that covered everything from Kirk’s biography to political issues like crime in Washington, Trump summoned Erika onto stage for a final image of them, arms around each other. Boorstein reported from Washington. Mariana Alfaro, Daniel Wu, Praveena Somasundaram and Cleve R. Wootson Jr. in Washington also contributed to this report. Cat Zakrzewski is a White House reporter for The Washington Post. Send her secure tips on Signal at cqz.17. She previously covered tech policy and was the founding anchor of The Technology 202 newsletter. Before joining The Post in 2018, she was a venture capital reporter for the Wall Street Journal. Yvonne Wingett Sanchez writes about voting issues in Arizona for The Washington Post. She previously covered politics for the Arizona Republic. I've been a religion reporter since 2006. She has covered the shifting blend of religion and politics under four U.S. presidents, chronicled the rise of secularism and nature-based spirituality in the United States, and broken financial and sexual scandals from the #synagogue down the street to the Mormon #Church in Utah to the #Vatican
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