A Martyr For Truth and Faith and Memorial Plazas

The canonization of Charlie Kirk continued Sunday with a packed, jarring, often vicious memorial service - part MAGA rally, part revival meeting, with fireworks. The event in an Arizona football stadium hailed the right-wing bigot as a prophet, martyr, savior of Western civilization and just like Jesus or MLK Jr. despite his espousal of the racist replacement theory. His tearful widow said she forgave his killer because "it is what Christ did." The mad king said fuck that nonsense - he hates his enemies.

In the ten days since Kirk's assassination on a Utah campus by a lone shooter addicted to guns and video games with a murky, shifting political profile - raised MAGA, possibly moving left - Kirk, 31, has been sanitized, glorified, venerated, his death used as a cudgel to stifle political dissent. Though he founded Turning Point USA in 2012 largely as a pro-free-market organization, over time he slowly re-shaped it into an increasingly extremist, anti-democratic part of a Christian right that somehow fell under the spell of a crooked, blasphemous, sexually assaulting felon. "He embodied the MAGA warrior," boasted one fan. "He was all Trump." Little wonder, after his killing, that Christian nationalists claimed him as a martyr in their unholy war.

"We know that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church," said right-wing pastor Sean Feucht, vowing, "The devil is not gonna win." German Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller called Kirk “a martyr for Jesus Christ” who "gave his life in following his Lord," charging he was "the victim of an atheistic ideology whose followers erupted in Satanic celebration over (his) heinous murder." He "could have been the 13th disciple," or at least a contender. He was a "MAN OF STEEL" whose body, in an "ABSOLUTE MIRACLE," stopped a bullet from killing more people. He was "a martyr for truth and faith" and a "modern civil rights leader," which is why some Okie MAGA pols want to mandate a Charlie Kirk Memorial Plaza and statue at every public university.

Never mind the racist, tribal, divisive stands, the endless culture wars in the name of propping up white power structures, the weaponizing of Christian beliefs to marginalize those deemed "un-Christian." Almost 100,000 fans and followers of Kirk and Jesus streamed into State Farm Stadium in Glendale, AZ to celebrate their own white savior; noted Elon Musk, sweeping the fearsome scene, "All for Charlie Kirk." Some stood in line for hours in almost 100-degree heat, red, white and blue outfits wilting, trash piling up, sniper teams above them, merch on all sides: t-shirts reading "Freedom," "MAGA," "In Loving Memory," featuring Charlie with wings. One woman, who evidently didn't get the somber memo, wore a Wisconsin cheese hat with "R.I.P. Charlie."

Inside, a "major mega-church vibe" reigned. Several Christian country and rock singers performed; many in the audience prayed and swayed with them, their hands in the air. Finally prepping for speeches, a florid Turning Point display geared up, all flaring fireworks and blinding lights. "The martyr dies, and his rule has just begun," proclaimed Mike McCoy, Kirk's former chief of staff, quoting Kierkegaard. In tribute, a parade of regime flunkies, fascists and clowns, unable to understand Kirk's awful death did not redeem his awful life, then launched into their acclaim and harangues. As they went, they grew more aggressive, their battle cries aimed at placating Dear Leader - dozing off behind bulletproof glass - and "wielding the sword against evil."

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna compared Kirk to George Washington, John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., asking, "Will you live boldly as Charlie did? Will you rise to the challenge as Charlie did?...We are all Charlie Kirk now." Far-right activist Jack Posobiec clutched a rosary and pledged to "stand and fight" for Kirk’s memory: "A century from now," he said, "when they write of the two or three pivotal moments that led to the saving of Western civilization, they will write that the sacrifice of Charles James Kirk was the turning point." RFK Jr. compared Kirk, his "spiritual brother," with Jesus. YouTuber Benny Johnson called him "a martyr in the true Christian tradition." Pete Kegseth called him "a warrior for Christ" and "an American patriot."

Tucker Carlson, atypically moderate, again argued the murder shouldn't be used to "leverage" restrictions on free speech. Even though feds have yet to find any link between Tyler Robinson and the rest of us - "Thus far, there is no evidence connecting the suspect with any left-wing groups" - Ben Carson ignored that fact as completely as everyone else and described a Marxist plot to "push God out of society," "fundamentally change who we are" as Americans, and, landing on a favorite if bewildering MAGA obsession, infiltrate the public school system in order to "indoctrinate" young people into believing "sexual perversion is normal," though surely their fixation on who sleeps with whom is likewise pretty weird and far from normal, right?

Speaking of: Good Nazi Stephen Miller, as always, went "full devil mode," shrieking out a racist, rage-fueled, us-and-them diatribe in supposed defense of (white) "civilization": "Our lineage and our legacy hails back to Athens, to Rome, to Philadelphia, to Monticello. Our ancestors built the cities, they built the industry....They stand for what is good (to) save the West...To those trying to incite violence against us: You have nothing. You are nothing. You are wickedness. You are jealousy. You are envy. You are hatred." Whew. In contrast, Kirk's tearful widow Erika called Charlie's life "a miracle," praised their joint effort to "bring back Christian-led marriage," and said she forgave the shooter as Christ would, arguing, "The answer to hate is not hate."

Trump, very orange, was the final speaker; soon after he started droning on, 12 hours after some people had arrived, audience members began streaming out - even as he noted that Kirk could “always draw a crowd." He only managed to stay on topic a few minutes - Kirk’s "name will live forever in the eternal chronicle of America’s greatest patriots" - before veering off into self-serving delusion. He boasted his tariffs are "making us rich again" and he "stopped crime" in D.C., he claimed "one of the last things Charlie said to me is, 'Please, sir, save Chicago,' and we're going to do that," he urged MAGA to "Fight! fight! fight...The gun was pointed at (Kirk), but the bullet was aimed at all of us." And - "Sorry, Erika" - he vowed retribution.

Kirk, he noted, "did not hate his opponents, he wanted the best for them." Not him, though. "I hate my opponents," he bragged, all the millions of them, "and I don't want the best for them." Along those lines, he remembered to mock Joe Biden, now being treated for Stage 4 cancer, as "a mean son-of-a bitch." Kirk, he argued, was "heinously murdered by a radicalized, cold-blooded monster." Some people, he claimed, reacted with "sick approval, excuses or even jubilation," in that they felt unable to mourn a life that did harm. Still, he sneered, "They are major losers." And now, rightly, the DOJ is brazenly, often brutally, going after "networks of radical left maniacs." But for God's sake don't say anything mean about Charlie Kirk.

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