The memorial service for Charles James Kirk (October 14, 1993 – September 10, 2025) was a powerful testament to the unity and strength of the conservative community. Held on Sunday, September 21, in Glendale, Arizona, at the State Farm Stadium and overflow arena outside Phoenix, the event drew an overflow crowd of 100,000, with millions more tuning in from around the world. Charlie Kirk's memorial was a unique blend of religious gathering and political rally; a reflection of the massive influence he had on conservative America and his ability to mobilize young people.
Charlie was an American
conservative political influencer and media personality. He sought to challenge
the secular culture, and became noted for his Christian testimony as he went
centre stage on many university campuses with his dialogue of ‘question and answer’
sessions under the banner 'Prove Me Wrong', where he invited students to
challenge his conservative views.
In addition to espousing
typical conservative political views, Charlie said he wanted to reach the lost boys
of the west -the young men who felt they had no direction, purpose, without faith,
were wasting their lives on distractions, living with resentment, anger, and
hate. Charlie wanted to uplift them, and he offered a social home with his
organization 'Turning Point USA', a platform that provided mentorship,
resources, and a sense of community to these young men.
Widow Erika Lane Kirk (36 yrs)
said: “My husband Charlie wanted to save
young men, just like the one who took his life. That young man. That young man
on the cross. Our Savior said,
"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." That man; that young man. I forgive him. I
forgive him because it was what Christ did in his. What Charlie would do. The
answer to hate is not hate. The answer we know from the gospel is love and
always love -love for our enemies and love for those who persecute us. The
world needs ‘Turning Point USA’. It needs a group that will point young people
away from the path of misery and sin. It needs something that will lead people
away from hell in this world and in the next. It needs young people pointed in
the direction of truth and beauty. And so, I promise you today, every part of
our work will become greater.”
The five-hour program included
Christian music from Lee Greenwood, Steve Amerson, Chris Tomlin, Brandon Lake,
Phil Wickham, Kari Jobe Carnes, and Cody Carnes.
Some of the speakers were Rev.
Rob McCoy, Sergio Gor, Stephen Miller, Tucker Carlson, Dr. Ben Carson, Jack
Posobiec, Donald Trump Jr., Dir. Tulsi Gabbard, Sec. Pete Hegseth, Sec. Robert
F. Kennedy Jr., Sec. Marco Rubio, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, Vice
President JD Vance, President Donald Trump, Erika Kirk (widow)
The memorial was a historical
Christian spectacle that will be remembered and analyzed for years to
come. Marco Rubio, the Secretary of
State, paid tribute by citing the gospel message of the resurrection of Jesus. Stephen Miller, a deputy White House chief of
staff, envisioned a spiritual uprising in Mr. Kirk's wake. This movement would
continue to inspire and mobilize young people towards conservative values. Vice
President JD Vance said Mr. Kirk’s influence had reshaped the balance of
political talk, alluding to Charlie’s faith. Because of it, he said that he had
talked more about Jesus Christ in the past two weeks in the public forum than in
his time in public office.
In the packed football
stadium, the highest levels of U.S. government and evangelical Christian expression
came together for a few hours. The commemorative event reflected the degree to
which conservative Christianity has melded with Republican politics in the
Trump era.
The theme that Mr. Kirk is a
modern-day Christian martyr was noted throughout the service. Vice President
Vance said, “We must remember that he is a hero to the United States of
America. And he is a martyr for the Christian faith.” Pete Hegseth, the
Secretary of Defense, shared the Christian message of washing away sins. “We
always did need less government. But what Charlie infused into his movement is
that we also needed a lot more God.”
Near the close of the event,
President Trump called Mr. Kirk a martyr, but described him not as a Christian
martyr but an American one. “Our greatest evangelist for American liberty
became immortal. He’s a martyr now for American freedom.”
Charlie Kirk's ambition
extended beyond seeking a position within the Trump administration. In the last
year, it became clear that he aimed for something larger: reshaping the
Republican Party, American politics, and society itself. He envisioned
transforming the culture through his organization, a testament to his vision
and commitment.
Mr. Kirk was only 18 when he
founded Turning Point USA in 2012, as a conservative response to liberal
organizing platforms and groups. By the start of the first Trump administration
in 2017, Mr. Kirk was already in regular rotation on the conservative TV pundit
circuit and an in-demand speaker among conservative organizations. He proved to
be a captivating speaker and a skillful debater, with a gift for bringing clarity
to President Trump’s sometimes elliptical statements.
He became somewhat influential
within the administration and was said to have visited the White House many
times during Trump’s first term. He focused his activism on what he
characterized as rampant Marxism and gender ideology on college campuses. He
encouraged students to call out professors who embraced such ideas, and he did
the same in appealing to parents and grade school students.
Under Charlie Kirk's
leadership, ‘Turning Point USA’ experienced significant growth. The
organization added dozens of campus chapters each year, effectively displacing
older conservative youth organizations. Kirk's commitment to bringing
high-profile conservative speakers to colleges, providing training, networking,
and organizing, created a united group of engaged young people and future
politicos, a testament to his enduring influence.
Undaunted, Mr. Kirk was among
the first to rally around Mr. Trump once he left office, traveling to the Mar-a-Lago
estate in Florida to strategize a comeback. Mr. Kirk sensed that the country
was not done with Trump, and that the new Biden administration was seriously
flawed.
Mr. Kirk also created a separate
group, ‘Turning Point Faith’, to amplify the role of Christian testimony in the
public square coming from the church community. He doubled down on his social critiques
of the left, which he said had taken over campuses, corporate America, and
government.
Charlie Kirk was not initially
a Trump supporter. During the 2016 Republican primaries, he first supported
Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin and then Senator Ted Cruz of Texas. But he was
won over to the Trump campaign after a meeting with Donald Jr., who hired him
as a social media coordinator.
Although he rarely touched on
religion during his early years, Mr. Kirk increasingly embraced evangelical
Christianity following the COVID pandemic. He grew more critical of gay rights radicalism
and the notion of separation of church and state, and began to cite the Bible for
support for his critiques. He spoke frequently of an American Renaissance.
Kirk continued to build
support among young voters with his ‘American Comeback’ tour, which brought him
to Utah Valley University on September 10, 2025. About 3,000 onlookers cheered
as he took the stage in the university courtyard. He spoke briefly, then came
the sound of a gunshot, and American social culture changed.
The passage of time gives perspective.
For example, the international shock and grief at the passing of Princess Diana
on August 31, 1997, faded into our culture. The horror of airplanes flying into
buildings on September 11, 2001, is remembered respectfully. The 1968 assassination
of Martin Luther King is commemorated in the USA on the third Monday of January
each year, and was first observed in 1986.
The full impact of Charlie Kirk’s example will surely unfold.
President Trump said he will
award Charlie Kirk a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest
civilian honor in the United States, at a ceremony in the days ahead. We in
Canada can only hope that powerful and credible conservative voices emerge to
push back against the hurt in Canadian culture.
In the study “The Politics of
the Culture Wars in Contemporary Canada," the McDonald-Laurer Institute
report says there is an untapped market for strongly vocalized traditional
conservative values. It shows that Canadian attitudes lean about 2 to 1 against
the cultural socialist position of the left-wing voices, and that Canadian
opinion data is somewhat similar to that in the United States and Britain. For
example,
• Respondents oppose teaching
children that “There is no such thing as biological sex, only gender
preference” by 85 to 15;
• Canadians oppose gender
reassignment surgery for under-16s by 4 to 1;
• By a 78 to 22 margin,
Canadians agree that “political correctness has gone too far”;
• By a 70 to 30 margin,
Canadians oppose the idea that Canada is a racist country, and a similar share
do not want this taught at school;
• By 70 to 30, people prefer a
colour blind rather than colour-conscious approach to issues in society;
• Canadians oppose removing
statues of Prime Minister John A. Macdonald by a 2 to 1 ratio;
• By a 2 to 1 margin, people
said we talk too much about race in Canada;
• Respondents, by a 2 to 1
ratio, want parents informed when children under age 16 change pronouns at
school;
• Respondents, by a 2 to 1
ratio, do not want transgender individuals to enter women’s sports
competitions;
• More Canadians disapprove
than approve of people displaying their preferred pronouns;
• Younger Canadians are
substantially less likely than younger Britons or Americans to describe their
country as racist;
• Those who have taken
diversity training (indoctrination) are significantly more fearful of losing
their job or reputation for what they say than those who have not;
• Those who have taken
diversity training are significantly more ‘woke’ than those who have not;
• Francophone attitudes are
generally very similar to Anglophone attitudes on culture war questions;
• Survey results suggest that
conservative parties can gain electoral support by defending historical figures
and symbols and resisting trans-activist policies. Parties on the left are advised to deflect or avoid
such issues as they are electorally costly.
• Results indicate that
diversity training (DEI) needs to be reformed or abolished in organizations as
it heightens employee anxiety, advances contentious beliefs, and produces
social division.
The task of Canadian conservative
political and cultural leadership is to use facts and evidence to deconstruct the
myths encoded in the progressive narrative, which underpins the ‘woke’ cultural
movement that has recently dominated the official elite institutional agenda.
Canadians recoil when they learn
that the cultural Marxism of ‘Diversity-Equity-Inclusion’ programs have been
extensively used since 2016 in corporate employee training, union education
programs, public sector employee indoctrination, and at the federal level, over
one billion has been spent by the government in 29 departments for this ideology,
instead of transferring these tax dollars to Provinces for Healthcare.
Canada needs a cultural
renewal. We hope that the grassroots movement represented by Charlie Kirk and many
others in America will find fertile ground in Canada to lift us out of our dark
malaise. We must discover the Canadian way into a truth-based society of personal
responsibility, rule of law, science, and responsible journalism, allowing for
maximum human flourishing and peace.