Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, paid tribute to Charlie Kirk by citing the gospel message of the death and resurrection of Jesus. Stephen Miller, a deputy White House chief of staff, envisioned a spiritual uprising in Mr. Kirk’s wake. Vice President JD Vance said Mr. Kirk’s influence had reshaped the balance of American politics and traced it back to Mr. Kirk’s faith.
Because of Mr. Kirk, he said, “I have talked more about Jesus Christ the past two weeks than I have my entire time in public office.”
At the memorial service of Mr. Kirk on Sunday in a packed football stadium in suburban Phoenix, the highest levels of U.S. government and evangelical worship were woven as one. Perhaps never before, at such a grand scale, had such a fusion taken hold in a public display. More than just a tribute in the style of Mr. Kirk’s evangelical tradition, the service represented a pinnacle event reflecting the degree to which conservative Christianity had melded with Republican politics in the Trump era.
The belief that Mr. Kirk is a modern-day Christian martyr was infused throughout the service. And it solidified in real time through testimonies from a who’s who of conservatives, planting Mr. Kirk’s story firmly into a line of Christians over history who lost their lives with their faith.
“We must remember that he is a hero to the United States of America. And he is a martyr for the Christian faith,” Mr. Vance said.
Benny Johnson, a right-wing podcaster, also tied that sense of martyrdom to a divine plan for America, and thanked the Trump administration for carrying out “that godly mission of wielding the sword against evil.”
Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, shared a message of Christian salvation, about the blood of Jesus washing away sins. “We always did need less government. But what Charlie understood and infused into his movement is, we also needed a lot more God,” he said.
So on this Sunday, looking around the stadium, he said, “I’d like to think we’re all in Charlie’s church.”
Elizabeth Dias is The Times’s national religion correspondent, covering faith, politics and values.
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