Before a loud, full stadium in Glendale, Arizona, at the memorial service of Christian and conservative activist Charlie Kirk, Erika Kirk tearfully forgave the assassin who shot her husband on September 10.
“I forgive him because it was what Christ did and is what Charlie would do,” she said. “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.”
Erika Kirk said her husband had sought to “revive the American family” and “save the lost boys of the West, the young men who feel like they have no direction. … He wanted to save young men, just like the one who took his life.” She will become the CEO of Turning Point USA (TPUSA) in her husband’s stead.
President Donald Trump spoke after Erika Kirk, saying that Charlie Kirk “did not hate his opponents. He wanted the best for them.”
“That’s where I disagreed with Charlie. I hate my opponent and I don’t want the best for them,” he said. “Now Erika can talk to me and the whole group and maybe they can convince me that that’s not right, but I can’t stand my opponent.”
Local police estimated the crowd at about 100,000, including in two overflow areas. That made it one of the largest memorial services in US history. Millions more watched on livestreams. Pyrotechnics went off repeatedly, including when Trump and Erika Kirk came out to speak. The event lasted almost five hours.
The memorial for Kirk included both gospel proclamation and promotion of TPUSA, a grassroots network that engaged young conservatives and helped secure Trump’s 2024 victory. The logo for TPUSA flashed on the stage backdrop throughout the event.
The event invitation instructed everyone to wear their “Sunday best” red, white, and blue, and the memorial took place in Arizona at 11 a.m. Sunday morning when many churches were having services.
Music threaded through the service, with bagpipers playing “Amazing Grace,” Christian music stars Kari Jobe Carnes and Cody Carnes leading their hit worship song “The Blessing,” and Lee Greenwood singing “God Bless the USA.” Chris Tomlin led worship along with stars Phil Wickham and Brandon Lake, performing “Holy Forever” and “How Great Is Our God.”
Family remembrances included a recording of Kirk’s daughter singing “Jesus Loves Me.”
Here’s a quick look at four of the speeches, one from a pastor, one from a Turning Point leader, one from a well-known podcaster, and one from a key Trump advisor:
– Charlie Kirk’s pastor Rob McCoy, a longtime Calvary Chapel pastor from California, offered a gospel message, saying “There are none righteous, not even one.” He told of Christ coming to die on the cross: “The Lord loves you, he wants to save you…. Charlie looked at politics as an on-ramp to Jesus. He knew if he could get all of you rowing in the streams of liberty you’d come to its source, and that’s the Lord.”
McCoy led an altar call, asking those who wanted to put their faith in Jesus to stand. He pointed to a QR code on the screen for new believers to share their information so organizers could help “get you into a Bible-believing church.” Then came the singing of the National Anthem and chants of “USA.”
– Tyler Bowyer, chief operating officer of Turning Point Action, gestured to the crowd as he said, “[Kirk] always said to me, ‘If we could figure out how to bring the Holy Spirit into a Trump rally’ — I think you’ve done it.”
– MAGA podcaster Benny Johnson in his speech asked, “Who feels the Holy Spirit in the house tonight? Who can feel that revival happening right now?… Raise your hand if Charlie Kirk centered you a little closer to Christ. Did Charlie help you achieve your American dream a little bit more?”
Johnson compared Kirk to the first Christian martyr, Stephen, saying Stephen’s martyrdom helped spread Christianity. Referring to Romans 13, he said, “May we pray that our rulers here, rightfully instituted and given power by our God, wield the sword for the terror of evil men in our nation, in Charlie’s memory.”
– White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller spoke of taking action against evildoers: “They cannot conceive of the army that they have arisen in all of us, because we stand for what is good, what is virtuous, what is noble.” He criticized those “trying to foment hatred against us” and said, “You have nothing, you are nothing.”
Members of Trump’s cabinet including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also spoke, as did White House chief of staff Susie Wiles. She credited Trump’s victory last year to Kirk’s mobilization of young people. Rubio described Kirk’s work as showing college students that the US was “the greatest country in the world and that Marxism was bad.” Rubio spoke of the gospel in his brief remarks and said Kirk showed that the country was “worth passing on to the next generation.”
Trump, the concluding speaker, called the event “like an old-time revival” and promoted his policy aims while eulogizing Kirk: “One of the last things [Kirk] said to me was, ‘Please sir, save Chicago. And we’re going to do that. We’re going to save Chicago from horrible crime. … We had a country that was dead one year ago, and now we have the hottest country anywhere in the world, and Charlie helped us make it that.”
