Sorrow and horror seeped into the American psyche as news spread of the killing of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA and a devout evangelical Christian.
In announcing Kirk’s death, his organization said Wednesday on social media, “May he be received into the merciful arms of our loving Savior, who suffered and died for Charlie.”
Utah religious leaders joined commenters, politicians and friends in expressing their grief and concern.
“This tragedy has been made more personal in that the assassination of Charlie was committed in our own backyard, on the campus of Utah Valley University in Orem,” said the Rev. Gregory Johnson, who leads Standing Together, a consortium of the Beehive State’s evangelical churches.
The 31-year-old Kirk offered “a biblically clear and passionate moral voice to high school and college students across our country, leading a movement of American youth to a more patriotic and Judeo-Christian worldview,” Johnson said in a statement. “He was articulate, passionate, and wise. He offered a reason for the faith within him and showed his courage by standing before his critics with well-reasoned arguments.”
In this “moment of evil and violence, we call upon the people of Utah and our nation to not return evil for evil,” the Utah pastor pleaded. “We will not honor our brother’s sacred call and service by turning to any effort of retaliation or by seeking revenge. Christians and other God-fearing individuals must fight evil with love. As a Christian movement, we believe the love of Jesus Christ is the greatest weapon in an effort to destroy hate and evil.”
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) People gather outside Timpanogos Regional Hospital in Orem in support of Charlie Kirk after he was shot and killed at Utah Valley University, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. Utah religious leaders are lamenting the violence.
Like many others, Johnson urged Americans to “lift up Charlie’s wife, children, family, friends and all those affected by this senseless and cowardly act of murder and destruction,” he said. “May God be with them all in their time of sorrow, suffering, and loss.”
Kirk spoke two years ago at Awaken Church, an evangelical congregation in South Jordan, according to Pastor Matt Tuggle. “We are mourning the great Christian man we lost. We see him as a martyr, who stood for biblical truths. He was very effective at communicating those truths.”
With his death, Christians are now “called to action,” Tuggle said. “We should not be ashamed of what the Bible says.”
American society doesn’t have a political problem but a “worldview problem,” the pastor said. “The left has a demonically based worldview. They’ve adopted Marxism, which is the most deadly ideology in human history.”
God doesn’t have a party, Tuggle said, but “the devil has found a home in the Democratic Party.”
Evil has always tried “to silence the truth because it can’t contend with it,” he said. “That’s what happened [Wednesday].”
LDS and Catholic reaction
Utah’s predominant faith, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said it “condemn[s] violence and lawless behavior,” spokesperson Doug Andersen said in a news release. “We also pray that we may treat one another with greater kindness, compassion and goodness. For members of the church, we reaffirm the Savior’s teaching and admonition is to love our neighbor.”
Bishop Oscar Solis, leader of Utah’s 300,000 Catholics, added his voice to the others in supporting Kirk’s family in this time of grief.
“I will pray for the repose of his soul,” Solis said. “I am also praying for all who were affected, especially those who were present at the event on campus, the many people who admired Mr. Kirk, and most particularly his family.”
The bishop said in a statement posted on the Intermountain Catholic website that he would “continue to pray for all the victims of gun violence throughout the years and their families. It is appalling that senseless acts of violence such as this continue to occur.”
Solis worries that society “has lost the sense of the sanctity of life,” he wrote, “and I pray that our government will undertake appropriate measures to stop these horrible crimes.”
Jewish rabbi’s view
For the past 33 years, Rabbi Benny Zippel, with Chabad Lubavitch of Utah, has spent every Wednesday in Utah County, teaching Jewish mysticism and the sacredness of life at residential treatment centers.
That’s where Zippel was Wednesday when he heard the news about Kirk.
What transpired is “an indication of the godless society we live in,” the Orthodox rabbi said Thursday in an interview. “It is perfectly acceptable to have disagreements among people in the personal, political or religious arena, but when disagreements spill into the taking of someone’s life, we have failed as a society.”
The fact that the killing took place “12 days before our holiest days of Rosh Hashana, a time for introspection, for stock taking and for meditation,” Zippel said, “behooves each and every one of us to reprioritize our lives, and realize there is only one giver of life, who is also the only taker of life.”
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) People gather outside Timpanogos Regional Hospital in Orem in support of Charlie Kirk as his body is transported by the coroner after he was shot and killed at Utah Valley University, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025.
Episcopal bishop’s response
Praying for victims and survivors is a start, but it is not enough, said Bishop Phyllis A. Spiegel, leader of Utah’s Episcopal diocese. “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 lead to violence.”
In a statement posted Wednesday on the church’s website, Spiegel goes on to say: “Our prayers were not ever intended as passive vessels, but active. We are called not only to intercede for those affected but also to stand together against violence. …When we tolerate rhetoric of division or language that turns neighbors into ‘others,’ we erode the bonds of community and create conditions where violence becomes a part of the narrative. We as a church, and as a society, must change the narrative.”
Because Kirk was reared as a Presbyterian, the words of a Utah Presbyterian minister may carry additional weight.
Presbyterian pastor speaks out
“I know that, for many, Charlie Kirk’s politics and rhetoric were difficult — even painful — to listen to. Others greatly appreciated his efforts to engage young conservatives in public life. Many in our congregation strongly disagreed with his views, and others appreciated him,” wrote the Rev. Chris Pritchett of Mount Olympus Presbyterian Church in Holladay. “None of that matters in a moment like this.”
Some are saying Kirk “was a martyr. Others that his shooting was caused by his own rhetoric. Using this kind of language is toxic and simply reflective of the kind of division that has led to an increase in political violence in our nation from both the left and the right,” Pritchett wrote on the church’s Facebook page. “Taking a side is akin to eating a gallon of ice cream in order to heal from the flu. It’ll only make matters worse for us. The truth is our nation is gravely ill, and our healing will not come from digging in our heels. We need to grieve.”
Pritchett is “weary of the divisions in our country,” he wrote. “I am weary of a culture where people see each other as enemies instead of neighbors. And I am weary of a world where guns and gall take the place of dialogue and dignity.”
Even in “our weariness, Jesus calls us to be people of compassion and peacemaking. To mourn when any life is taken. To reject hatred, regardless of where it comes from,” the pastor wrote. “And to bear witness to a better way — the way of Christ, who prayed for those who opposed him and loved those who disagreed with him.”