Charlie Kirk’s memorial service in Arizona put Christian nationalism centre-stage
WASHINGTON DC – If any lingering doubts existed about where the Republican Party’s centre of gravity now resides, Charlie Kirk’s memorial service on Sunday provided a moment of clarity.
As more than 100,000 people gathered at the State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, to pay tribute to the conservative activist who was killed on a Utah university campus on 10 September, seemingly the entire pantheon of Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement was present to honour Kirk’s memory. The event also seemed to place Kirk’s Christian nationalist ideological message at the very heart of Republican politics.
The memorial was a place for true believers to express their agony over the slaying of the Turning Point USA founder. The slogan “I Am Charlie” was emblazoned on signs, shirts, bumper stickers and vehicles as thousands queued from dawn for a chance to attend the memorial event.
As he left Washington to attend the ceremony, Trump told reporters that Kirk “had a tremendous influence. He had a hold on youth because they loved him, they respected him”.
Trump, who likely would not have secured the keys to the Oval Office without the support of Kirk’s followers, argued that his fallen friend had changed politics in America by taking uncompromising conservative messages to university campuses, which were previously considered no-go areas by the right.
“Our whole administration is here, but not just because we loved Charlie as a friend … but because we know we wouldn’t be here without him,” Vice President JD Vance said.
Those in attendance included Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson and scores of other prominent Republicans on Capitol Hill.
The event reflected the fusion of right-wing ideology with the evangelical Christian faith that Kirk epitomised. Right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson told Fox News – which provided live coverage all day from Glendale – that Kirk was a “true martyr in the true Christian sense”. Johnson also said that Kirk’s critics “wanted a funeral … and what they got was a spiritual awakening and a revival”.
Trump equated the memorial with “an old-time revival”.
As the service got under way, Elon Musk – also in attendance – posted on X that “Charlie was murdered by the Dark for showing people the Light”. Speaker after speaker embraced that imagery, arguing that Kirk was in the vanguard of a battle between good and evil, with nothing less than the fate of humanity hanging in the balance.
Stephen Miller, the deputy White House chief of staff, warned Republicans’ opponents that “you have no idea the dragon you have awakened. You have no idea how determined we will be to save our civilisation, to save the West, to save this republic”.
Hegseth described Kirk as “a citizen who wore the biblical armour of a soldier”.
Kirk’s widow, Erika, seemed to shift the event’s tone by saying she is ready to forgive Tyler Robinson, the 22-year-old accused of murdering her husband. “I forgive him because it is what Christ did,” she said. “The answer to hate is not hate. The answer, we know from gospel, is love and always love. Love for our enemies and those who persecute us”.
But moments later, Trump branded Kirk’s killer a “radicalised, cold-blooded monster”. He said he disagreed with Kirk’s philosophy of loving even your opponent. “He did not hate his opponents, he wanted the best for them,” Trump said. “That’s where I disagreed with Charlie. I hate my opponent and I don’t want the best for them,” he said, while apologising to Mrs Kirk and indicating he was open to efforts to change his mind.
Some speakers amplified Kirk’s call for an America in which the separation of church and state should be over-ridden in order to allow Christianity to influence law-making.
Kirk envisioned Christian nationalism at the centre of American life, with the church instructing the public on who to marry, how to manage their finances, and who to vote for.
Erika Kirk may now be poised to become a significant political figure in her own right. The White House views Kirk’s assassination as a crossroads in America, with the President pledging to root out the “radical left Democrat lunatics” that he blames for funding and supporting political violence against the right.
Trump and Vance are also trying to galvanise Republican voters, urging them to deliver the party a massive win in next year’s mid-term elections in honour of Kirk’s memory.
For moderate Republicans – the Bushes, the Romneys, the Cheneys – Sunday’s memorial likely served as final notice that their days in the party’s firmament are over. It is now Trump’s party, with Kirk assisting him first in life, now in death.
From Arizona, the word went out on Sunday that even more radical faith-based change is needed in America, and Kirk’s followers fervently believe that his legacy will be the deliverance of it.
