Reuters :
Some called Charlie Kirk a modern martyr. Others said his death was a pivotal moment for the US.
The potent blend of politics and religion that captivated the Sunday afternoon memorial service for the slain conservative activist left little doubt that Kirk’s death had elevated him to iconic status for the American right.
The event at State Farm Stadium outside Phoenix drew some of the most powerful political and religious voices in the country, led by President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Kirk’s widow Erika and many others. Its size, intensity and patriotic pageantry eclipsed many of Trump’s own campaign rallies last year. But the impact of Kirk’s assassination as he spoke on a Utah college campus on September 10 may have been most vividly demonstrated by the more than 63,000 regular people who filled the stadium to capacity to honour and mourn him.
Many had driven or flown thousands of miles to be there. Cindy Warford, 62, said she and her 13- and 15-year-old granddaughters listened regularly to Kirk, who hosted a podcast and spoke on college campuses. The girls have been hit particularly hard by his death, she said.
“I really feel this is this generation’s Martin Luther King or JFK or even 9/11 – that we lived through,” she said. “This has hit them really hard, because Charlie was talking to them.” Warford was referring to the assassination of Democratic President John F. Kennedy in 1963, the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr in 1968 and the attacks on US targets in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001.
The melding of religiosity and speechifying at the memorial reinforced the perception that Kirk’s shooting death was a galvanizing moment for US conservatives.
Rob Hartz, a business analyst from Arizona in his 50s, described Kirk as inspirational and a martyr for conservative values.
Kirk, 31, ran Turning Point USA, a youth voter turnout organization for Republicans. He was well known among college students and conservative activists. But the turnout on Sunday showed he became a far bigger figure for the right in death than in life.
Antonina Gagliano, 58, wore a light blue and white summer dress to pay tribute to Charlie Kirk, having driven from San Diego for the occasion.
“Just very faithful Christian man, all about God and family,” she said
