FAITH leaders across the United States have condemned political violence and access to guns in the US in the wake of the assassination of the right-wing activist Charlie Kirk — and of another school shooting, on the same day.
Mr Kirk, 31, was killed with a single bullet while speaking in front of 3000 students at Utah Valley University on Wednesday.
On Friday afternoon, the governor of Utah, Spencer Cox, announced in a press conference that a 22-year-old suspect, Tyler Robinson, had been taken into custody.
At a press conference, the Utah sheriff Mike Smith thanked the public for their support for law- enforcement agents. “We needed those prayers, that’s what we needed to get through this,” he said, also thanking the public for their support and prayers for Mr Kirk’s family.
The CEO and co-founder of Turning Point USA, which advocates conservative politics among students, and a prominent and vocal supporter of President Trump, Mr Kirk was hailed by the Christian right as a martyr. Intercessors for America, a Christian group which supports the Trump administration, described him as a “modern day MLK [Martin Luther King]”, in an email to supporters.
He was a divisive figure, who began his career as a “secular provocateur”, according to The New York Times, later emerging from the Covid pandemic to speak much more about his Evangelical Christian faith. He was outspoken on what he called “transgenderism”, scathing about the Black Lives Matter movement, and earlier this month posted on social media: “Islam is the sword the left is using to slit the throat of America.”
He also opposed gun control, saying in 2023: “I think it’s worth it to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights.”
On the same day of his assassination, a school shooting in Colorado left the shooter dead and two students seriously injured.
The Episcopal Bishop of Utah, the Rt Revd Phyllis Spiegel, issued a statement condemning political violence and hatred, offering prayers for Mr Kirk’s family, including his wife and two small children.
“Christ stands with the victims of violence and challenges us to build a society rooted in compassion, dignity, and justice,” Bishop Spiegel said. “As people of faith, we believe Jesus Christ calls us to confront injustice and ideological differences with integrity and truth, but never through the use of physical force or intimidation. Violence is an unacceptable response to disagreement.
“We often say that we will pray for the victims and their families, and pray we must. But our faith demands more from us. We must guard the hatred in our hearts and on our lips; it is hatred and righteous indignation that leads to violence. Jesus said plainly, ‘It is that which is on our lips and in our hearts that defiles us.’”
The Bishop of Michigan, Dr Bonnie Perry, said that she was “aghast” at the killing, and at the shooting in Colorado. “The ready access to guns in our country is the primary reason why gun violence is the number one cause of childhood deaths. People of faith can no longer stand by hoping and wishing that this violence goes away.”
The Bishop of Washington, DC, the Rt Revd Mariann Edgar Budde — who challenged President Trump at a service marking his inauguration (News, 24 January) — issued a joint statement with the Dean of Washington National Cathedral, the Very Revd Randy Hollerith, on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
“Yet another American public figure has been killed — one more victim of the culture of contempt that, at its extreme, portrays those with whom we disagree as enemies to be destroyed,” the statement said.
“Today we mourn for Charlie Kirk. He was a son, a father, a husband and now his loved ones join the grieving community of Americans that spans across geography, political party, racial, gender and economic divides. Their lives have been forever changed by the violence we inflict upon one another.”
The Bishop of Los Angeles, the Rt Revd John H. Taylor, an outspoken critic of President Trump’s anti-migration policies, and who said that some of Mr Kirk’s views had “hurt and even endangered people I love”, posted on Facebook: “I am angry at the murder of Charlie Kirk. I am angry at whatever went wrong in the heart and mind of his killer.
“I am angry at the trauma, neglect, or malice that led him to that rooftop. I am angry that he didn’t find some source of peace to seduce him away from his anger. I am angry no one helped him. And I am angry that he had a rifle he had no business having. Anger at the murder, and anger at the gun.”
This story was updated on the afternoon of Friday 12 September.