Although Charlie Kirk was known as a political firebrand, it was his Christian faith that fueled his mission and sense of purpose. Since his fatal shooting on Wednesday, tributes for his legacy echoed across the country, reaching even unlikely places like the liberal campus of Harvard University.
On Saturday night, over 100 people gathered on the steps of the Widener Library to honor the man they admired.
The vigil, organized by students from Harvard Law School and attended by many young men in dapper suits, included messages of mourning and calls for shared humanity — and also a determined resolve to carry Kirk’s legacy of openly speaking about the beliefs that may be unpopular in places like Harvard.
“For his courage to mean anything, we have to stand out, show our faces, and be who we are,” said Mason Laney, third-year student at the law school. “All it takes is belief in the gospel, belief in the Lord Jesus Christ that Charlie himself expressed and lived out and walked.”
Laney alluded to Kirk’s sacrifice as a modern-day martyr for his faith and convictions. Kirk didn’t just build a successful conservative organization, but he also “lived a life on fire for the gospel,” Laney said. “We owe it to him, because he … paid the ultimate price for it.”
Holding the vigil in the heart of campus was in itself significant, attendees noted, even unnerving.
Stephen Sachs, the Antonin Scalia Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, said he was “apprehensive that in a place like Harvard, mourning Charlie Kirk would make one a target of opprobrium or disgust.” He continued: “I feel that no one here should feel it their burden to defend everything that other people might believe in order to mourn his unjust death."
Among the speakers was Randall Kennedy, a legal scholar and defender of civil rights, affirmative action and racial equality. “I want to acknowledge our shared humanity despite whatever differences we might have,” he said. Another speaker invoked the Bible verse from John — “the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it,” noting that Kirk embodied that light amid the dark time the nation is going through.
The young conservative movement has recently been gaining traction at Harvard. Steve Bannon attended Harvard in February, drawing a crowd of about 300 people, The Crimson, Harvard’s campus paper, reported. that general university resistance to President Trump has waned, according to The Crimson. Conservative groups on campus, such as the Harvard Republican club, have increased in numbers. “I can unequivocally say that it’s never been a better time to be a Republican at Harvard,” one student said.
Saturday’s vigil was another vivid manifestation of conservative voices, emboldened by Kirk’s legacy, getting louder and more visible.
About halfway through, a light drizzle began, and a student stood by Kirk’s portrait with an umbrella, shielding it from the rain. Then, the crowd, aglow with candlelight, bowed their heads and prayed.
Is Charlie Kirk’s death sparking a faith revival?
Since Kirk’s assassination, my social media feed was flooded with posts from people describing going through a kind of religious awakening and returning to church.
Brittany, who goes by just.a.girl.with.a.ph0ne on TikTok, posted that the Sunday after Kirk’s death, she went to church for the first time in 20 years with her husband and three sons, who had never been to church before.
Kirk’s death sparked conversations with her husband, she said, about how they wanted to raise their boys. “We are raising three boys that will one day be men and we want those boys to be as strong in their convictions as Charlie Kirk was. It is because of Charlie Kirk that we went to church today,” she said, adding she wanted to continue living a life “worthy of Charlie Kirk’s presence.”
In another video, a young man showed off his new suit, the first one he’s ever purchased, saying he bought it to go to church. “I’m going to wear this suit to church. I’m going to go to church,” said a content creator named Robby Wood. “I’m going to try to be a better father, husband, and leader for my family. They deserve that.”
“I have a confession to make… I have never felt closer to God than I am feeling right now,” Maga Scotty wrote on X. ”Charlie Kirk’s death is having an impact on me in more ways than I can even explain.”
What seems to be a wave of renewed churchgoing, at least among those already open to faith but hesitant to fully engage, may have been accelerated by Kirk’s fatal shooting.
When I spoke with several religious leaders last week — a rabbi, as well as Baptist and Evangelical ministers — they said they were already providing pastoral care to congregants who were deeply distressed. “People are looking for hope and clarity in this traumatic time,” Greg Johnson, an evangelical pastor in Utah, told me. He compared the current moment to the aftermath of 9/11, recalling that the churches were packed for weeks. “People were trying to make sense of the madness.”
Political scientist Ryan Burge wrote on X that a single event rarely leads to a “significant, durable increase in church attendance rates.” Even the surge post-9/11 faded after several months.
Kirk’s example of faith is clearly nudging some previously casual Christians back to worship. But whether this renewed enthusiasm will endure remains to be seen.
Fresh off the press
Following the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk, religious leaders focus on pastoral care, reflect on living faith in public.
My colleagues did some outstanding and courageous work reporting on Kirk’s assassination and its aftermath — from Orem and Washington, Utah, as well as Washington, D.C., and Arizona.
Here are some of the highlights:
- In southern Utah, friends and neighbors try to understand, who is Tyler Robinson?
- Gov. Cox addresses ideology of Charlie Kirk murder suspect and gives new information on roommate
- Through tragedy there is humanity.
In a CBS interview, Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett commented on the relationship — or, more precisely, its absence — between her faith and her legal decisions.
What I’m reading
- The New York Times has relaunched its newsletter on spirituality and faith called “Beliefing” and I’m really looking forward to following it. This is how journalist Lauren Jackson, who grew up as a Latter-day Saint in Arkansas, described the mission of the newsletter: “The mission of Believing is to speak about the sacred, in all its forms, in a very secular space.”
- The latest story is about believers and chatbots. “Chatbots are not seminarians, but their approach is shaping how people think about ancient religious questions, on sin, confession and death,” she writes. — Finding God in the App Store, The New York Times
- McKay Coppins had a Zoom call with Utah Gov. Spencer Cox to talk about coming to terms with the sobering reality that even Utah, dubbed “Happy Valley,” is not insulated from hatred and political violence that’s been taking hold. Coppins writes: “Cox looked exhausted; he told me he hadn’t slept in 48 hours. And though he was relieved that an arrest had been made, he also seemed unnerved by the alleged killer’s identity: a 22-year-old man who’d grown up in a Mormon family in the southern-Utah town of Washington.” — Trump Has a Warning for Spencer Cox, The Atlantic
End notes
Pope Leo turned 70 on Sunday and as part of the celebration, he received a cake from President Trump’s new ambassador to the Vatican, Brian Burch.
“There’s still a huge learning curve ahead of me,” Pope Leo said in an interview released on Sunday, according to The Associated Press, particularly when it comes to being a world leader. “On that one I had to jump in on the deep end of the pool very quickly.” He’s also the youngest pope in four decades.