AILSA CHANG, HOST:
This Sunday, President Trump and other political leaders will gather in Arizona to memorialize the conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Kirk, who was assassinated earlier this month in Utah, was an evangelical Christian. He was not a pastor, but since his death, his allies have framed him as an important religious leader. But Kirk has also been criticized by some Christians, particularly African American Christians, about his views on race and social justice issues. To help discuss all of this, I'm joined now by Jack Jenkins from Religion News Service. Welcome.
JACK JENKINS: Thanks for having me.
CHANG: So first, can you just kind of set the stage and tell us a little bit more about Charlie Kirk's religious background here?
JENKINS: Yeah, so Kirk is an evangelical Christian, and that's actually a later development in his life. His group, Turning Point USA, was initially focused on college students, not religion. But around 2019, Kirk had a conversion of sorts. He started incorporating evangelical Christianity into his work, started speaking regularly at churches, hosting pastors conferences and even promoting the idea that the U.S. was founded as a Christian nation. By the end of his life, Kirk was devoting a lot of his time to promoting conservative Christianity.
CHANG: And since his death last week, how have his evangelical followers tried to remember him? Like, I understand some are using artificial intelligence.
JENKINS: Yeah, that was a new one for me. Within hours of Kirk's death, X and other social media platforms were flooded with AI-generated images and videos of Kirk. Some depicted him in heaven with other famous Americans who were assassinated, such as John F. Kennedy and Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. Others showed him hanging out with martyrs, such as Saints Paul and Peter. And a lot of them showed him hugging a glowing Jesus. But it wasn't just online. Last weekend, three different evangelical megachurches played the same entirely AI-generated audio clip in their services. It was a cloned version of Kirk's voice, reciting a message that apparently was created by asking an AI chatbot what Kirk would say after he died. Here's part of it. And again, this isn't actually Charlie Kirk.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
AI-GENERATED VOICE: (As Charlie Kirk) America is worth it. Free speech is worth it. Fighting for the unborn. So dry your tears, pick up your cross, and get back in the fight.
JENKINS: I should note, the churches loved it. It got applause every time.
CHANG: But let me ask you - 'cause Kirk was a political activist, and now a lot of his allies are framing him as a religious leader, as well. Can you talk about how that's happening?
JENKINS: Yeah, so some of Kirk's followers said that the best way to honor him is actually just to go to church, and others even claim that, quote, "Satanists" had converted to Christianity because of his death. And that came up a lot, actually, Kirk's allies saying that people had converted to Christianity because of him. And casting Kirk as a martyr, someone who died because of their faith, was also common. Representative Troy Nehls of Texas even suggested that Kirk could have been a biblical figure.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
TROY NEHLS: I would say if Charlie Kirk lived in the Biblical times, he'd have been the 13th disciple.
JENKINS: Others used religious language to frame Kirk's killing as the reason to take up conservative political causes. Earlier this week, Vice President JD Vance, who was close to Kirk, mourned his death by railing against the left and urging Americans to, quote, "put on the full armor of God."
CHANG: But talk about other religious leaders here because some have been deeply critical. How have they been criticizing Kirk's legacy?
JENKINS: Yeah, several have, especially Black Protestant leaders. Reverend Bernice King, for instance, criticized comparisons of Kirk to her father, Martin Luther King Jr. It's worth noting that Kirk once called King, quote, "a bad guy," and he referred to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as a mistake that had been turned into, quote, "an antiwhite weapon." And Kirk saw the veneration of King as part of an improper fixation on race in American society. But perhaps the most widely seen criticism of Kirk came from a sermon preached over the weekend by Reverend Howard-John Wesley, pastor of Alfred Street Baptist Church in Alexandria, Virginia. He said this.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
HOWARD-JOHN WESLEY: Tell me I ought to have compassion for the death of a man who had no respect for my own life. I can abhor the violence that took your life, but I don't have to celebrate how you chose to live.
JENKINS: Kirk's supporters would disagree strongly with those comments, but as his memorial service this weekend in Arizona approaches, it's clear that his legacy, both politically and religiously, is still very much contested.
CHANG: That is Jack Jenkins of Religion News Service. Thank you so much, Jack.
JENKINS: Thanks for having me.
CHANG: And this story was produced through a collaboration between NPR and Religion News Service. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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