Just a few months before being killed on September 10, Charlie Kirk – Turning Point USA, conservative activist in University Campus and declared evangelical Christian – said that, when he died, he wanted to be remembered for his Christian faith.
“If everything disappears completely, how do you want to be remembered?” Asked Jack Selby, driver of The Iced Coffee Hourat the end of a Interview on June 29.
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“If I die?” Kirk replied.
“If everything simply disappears,” said Selby. “If you could be associated with one thing, how would you want to be remembered?”
“I want to be remembered for the value of my faith. That would be the most important thing. The most important thing is my faith,” Kirk replied.
Kirk was killed Wednesday afternoon while talking with students at the University of Valle de Utah as part of his tour The American Comeback Tour. I had installed a tent with a poster that said “Prov Me Wrong” (“Show me that I am wrong”), inviting those who did not agree with their political, religious or philosophical positions to discuss with him.
The event began similar to their other visits to Campus, with students and assistants forming a row to ask questions. Some 3,000 people came to see or discuss it.
Just 20 minutes after starting, an assistant asked him about transgenerism and violence with weapons. After a brief exchange, someone located on a near roof fired a single projectile with a bolt rifle, which crossed the left side of Kirk’s neck and took his life.
A witness, Brandon Russon, told CBS News That shortly before receiving the shot, Kirk was talking with another assistant about his Christian faith. According to Russon, Kirk proclaimed the public that “Christ is the Lord” and that the Son of God had “defeated death.”
This was common in his university activism.
At the beginning of this year, Kirk debated with an atheist student who asked him about collaborating with atheist conservatives. Although he said he is willing to work with anyone who supported good causes, he warned that atheism cannot generate adequate moral code.
“You must be an honest atheist and recognize that morality is, by definition, subjective without a belief in God. You cannot be atheist and believe in an objective moral. It is impossible, and true atheists recognize it,” he said.
Kirk noted that atheists make statements of “duty”: they suggest that certain things should be in a way, such as “the murder should be wrong”, but they cannot proclaim moral standards objectives “if there is no divine and eternal power over you.”
“It is a very important statement because, when you do not have the objective truth anchoring your society, it becomes a struggle of power,” he warned. “If you do not have the truth, then the power will reign. Who manages to accumulate more power will end up having greater influence on society. We believe that what is objectively correct, true, good and beautiful must transcend in society.”
Kirk used to talk about his faith in interviews, including one with atheist Bill Maher in the podcast Club Random This year, where he explained the Christian doctrines of grace and atonement.
“We believe that (Christ) … suffering the death he suffered on the cross, he was atone for our sins, the sins of humanity,” Kirk told Maher. “… In the background, it is an affirmation of human equality: we are all sinners, we are all broken, we all have problems and vices … We all fall short of the standard of God and Jesus restores us.”
During his career, Kirk encouraged young people to marry and form families, opposed abortion and gender ideology, and inspired university students to follow Christ.
Charlie Kirk’s relationship with the Catholic Church
Although Kirk was a Protestant, he often talked about theology with Catholics. His wife, Erika, is Baptized Catholic, and the couple with their two children has been seen in a Catholic Church in Scottsdale, Arizona.
In a Podcast this yearKirk told an listener: “Catholics are fabulous in many senses.” “They fight for life, fight for marriage, fight against transgenerism,” he added.
When asked about Catholic mariology, Kirk said he believes that Catholics are “too far” in that aspect, but that he would be “delighted to discuss it” and that the evangelicals could “do a better job remembering, studying, speaking and pointing to Mary, because it was a glass chosen by the almighty God who brought our Lord to this world.”
“We, as Protestants, evangelicals, undervalue Maria,” he said. “She was very important. It was the glass of our Lord and Savior. I think we have … overwhelmed. We are not talking enough of Mary, we did not venerate her enough. Mary was clearly important for the first Christians. There is something there. In fact, I think that one of the ways to correct toxic feminism in the United States is: Mary is the solution.”
Kirk also talked about the tendency that “many young people are returning to church” in an interview with Tucker Carlson this year. He called the church “a lifeboat in this tsunami of chaos and disorder” and said that many attend Catholic Mass because “they look for something that has endured” and “something that is old and beautiful.”
Vice President JD Vance, Catholic, wrote in x that Kirk “genuinely believed in Jesus Christ and loved him” and that “he had a deep faith.” Vance stressed that Kirk was his friend and that theological issues used to discuss.
“We used to discuss Catholicism and Protestantism and who was right about minor doctrinal issues,” he wrote. “Because I loved God, I wanted to understand it.”
Bishop Robert Barron, from the Diocese of Winona-Rochester (Minnesota), published in X that he had breakfast with Kirk about four years ago and talked about theology. Kirk had scheduled to appear on his program Bishop Barron Presents In less than two weeks.
“It was, without a doubt, a great debate and also one of the best defenders in our country of civil discourse, but, first of all, he was a passionate Christian,” said Mons. Barron.
“In fact, when we had that breakfast in Phoenix, we don’t talk much about politics,” he added. “We talked about theology, in which I had a deep interest, and of Christ. I know that I join millions of people around the world to pray that now rest in the peace of the Lord.”
Kirk He also joined the duel for the victims of the shooting In the Church of the Annunciation last month in Minneapolis. In his program, he reflected on how you can believe in God even in the midst of tragedy.
“The cross is God’s response to evil,” Kirk said. “… The question should not be ‘Why does evil exist?’, But ‘what has God done about it?’
Translated and adapted by ACI Press. Originally published in CNA.
Tyler Arnold
Tyler Arnold is a reporter of the National Catholic Register. He previously worked at The Center Square and has published in various media, including The Associated Press, National Review, The American Conservative and The Federalist.