September 28 2025, 08:15 
Charlie Kirk died, as so often seems to happen to the greats, doing what he loved: modeling civil discourse in the public battle of ideas. The living embodiment of the First Amendment in his tragically truncated life, Charlie died as a (literal) martyr for free speech….His martyrdom must galvanize younger conservatives like never before. We must not allow Charlie to have died in vain as a free speech martyr.
– Josh Hammer, “The Martyrdom of My Friend Charlie Kirk, Newsweek, 9/12/2025
Since the tragic and horrific shooting death of ultra-conservative political advocate, Charlie Kirk, many prominent (and not-so-famous) personalities on the political right have mourned his murder. Some, as evident in Josh Hammer’s quote above, have resurrected his name and soul as a martyr for their cause.
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Charlie Kirk, 31 years old, was a right-wing political activist, author, and media personality. He co-founded the conservative organization Turning Point USA in 2012 and was its executive director as well as the chief executive officer of Turning Point Action, Turning Point Academy, and Turning Point Faith.
In his social media post announcing Kirk’s death, President Donald Trump wrote: “The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead. No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie. He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!”
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Contrary the evidence discovered by law enforcement, the Trump administration blamed Kirk’s assassination on a secret network of violent left-wing extremists.
In his September 13 article entitled, “Charlie Kirk: A Christian Martyr,” Marcus Serven, writing for the Protestant-based Genevan Foundation, reminded his readers that the word “martyr” means to be “a witness” from the Greek word, martureo (which means “to be a witness,” “to bear witness,” or “to testify”) and marturia (which means “a witness,” “testimony,” and “a proof.”)
Serven quoted an early Christian Church leader, Tertullian, who prophesied: “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.”
Scamman argued that Kirk’s murder was caused by someone who was doing Satan’s work… Satan, he said, also controls the minds of all those who doubted or demeaned Kirk’s supposed divine inspiration.
Serven ascribed Charlie Kirk to the great pantheon of martyrs, writing, “In my opinion, Charlie Kirk is a ‘Christian martyr’ –- clearly he was ‘a witness’ who bore a powerful testimony to the person and work of Jesus Christ. Watch a video from any one of his many debates on college campuses around the world and it is quickly evident that the foremost thought in his mind was to defend the core beliefs of his faith in Jesus Christ.”
Serven continued by enumerating the evils that Kirk challenged within the so-called “prevailing atheistic philosophies of this dark age – whether it was the ever-changing theories of evolution, the destructive purges of Marxism, the hopelessness of Nihilism, or the prevalent despair of Postmodernism….[with] an abundance of rational evidences for the reality of Jesus Christ.”
Someone assassinated Kirk, claimed Serven, because he was a convincing speaker by “those who hated God [and] were threatened by his successes.”
Evan Scamman joined in the elevation of Charlie Kirk to the rank of Christian martyr with his September 19 article, “Charles James Kirk, Martyr” in Gottesdienst (Worship): The Journal of Lutheran Liturgy.
Scamman argued that Kirk’s murder was caused by someone who was doing Satan’s work: the Satan who murdered Christ, Christians, and Charlie Kirk. Satan, he said, also controls the minds of all those who doubted or demeaned Kirk’s supposed divine inspiration.
“Charlie was an example of a man who lived out his faith in Christ in the public sphere,” Scamman wrote. “The church needs such examples. That is precisely why we remember and seek to emulate the faith and boldness of the martyrs who stood before kings and emperors. This Christ-hating world would have you remember Charlie only as a political activist, but I will honor his witness by remembering him as a Christian martyr.”
New York Catholic Cardinal Timothy Dolan has virtually elevated Kirk to sainthood. Though Dolan claimed not to have known much about Charlie Kirk while he was alive, soon following his death on September 10, the Cardinal researched him.
“The more I learned about him, I thought, ‘This guy’s a modern-day Saint Paul,’ ” Dolan told “Fox and Friends. “He was a missionary, he’s an evangelist, he’s a hero.”
Well, Cardinal Dolan, to whom was Charlie Kirk a hero? If he had been a contemporary of the historical Jesus, I could argue that Jesus would challenge Kirk to a vigorous debate regarding Kirk’s misinterpretation of Jesus’ precepts.
Charlie Kirk didn’t really preach the teachings of Jesus Christ
Jesus preached that the way to achieving inner peace and happiness is through principles like love, forgiveness, charity, and humility. He taught people to love their neighbors as themselves. He blessed those who were poor in spirit and those who were meek, those who mourn, and those who hunger for justice.
He called his followers to care for the “least of these”: to feed the hungry, house the homeless, and help to heal the sick. Jesus identified with marginalized groups, including foreigners. Jesus taught that welcoming and caring for immigrants, strangers, and all vulnerable people is a command and a core tenet of faith.
Actually, Kirk probably would not have been a follower of the historical Jesus – who was himself a Jewish person of color — since Kirk had promoted blatantly antisemitic and racist propaganda.
Therefore, if Kirk is now a hero to anyone and to any cause, it would most likely be to those who espouse a patriarchal, heteronational, white supremacist, Christian nationalist theocratic agenda.
Marcus Serven listed the “social issues” Kirk promoted and, therefore, he was despised by those who wanted him dead: “abortion, the blessing of children, election integrity, a Christian view of history, the sacredness of biblical marriage, the wrongness of men competing in women’s sports, his conviction that transgenderism was a mental disorder, and the priority of the America First agenda in contrast to globalism….the true revelation that God had given through the Bible.”
Though I am sad and I never wanted to see Kirk murdered for expressing his guaranteed First Amendment rights to free speech, Serven failed to include many of the other reasons why people like myself detested Kirk’s politics, including his overt racism, misogyny and advocacy for traditional binary gender roles, antisemitism, vilification of LGBTQ people and our relationships, opposition to gun safety regulations, opposition to the science of climate change, and opposition to immigration — in short, his advancement of an all-consuming patriarchal heteronational white supremacist Christian nationalist theology.
This is most likely the reason the ultra-conservative political right has latched their sharpened claws into his body and into the nation’s collective memory for the purpose of forwarding their grievance-fueled democracy-killing political “Project 2025” agenda.
The right is using Kirk as a martyr for propaganda purposes
We see this clearly in the ultra-right’s showering special gifts and privileges to honor Charlie Kirk’s work and his legacy in the service of their authoritarian project: from a presidential executive order to lower the nation’s flags to half-staff and the U.S. House of Representative taking a moment of silence to remember Kirk and his family, to displaying Kirk’s larger-than-life photo on a massive video screen with the message, “Remembering Charlie Kirk,” at Yankee Stadium before taking a moment of silence.
In addition, President Trump announced the awarding of Kirk with a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom, and requests by several Congressional Republicans asking Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to erect a statue of Kirk in the National Statuary Hall Collection in the U.S. Capitol, a request by Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) to authorize Charlie Kirk’s body to lie in honor at the Capitol, and a resolution by Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN) to award Kirk with a posthumous Congressional Gold Medal.
Additional testimonials and tributes have been flooding into the media. Undoubtedly, other individuals and institutions will propose more honors and awards.
Many questions, though, must be addressed, the primary one being: Does Charlie Kirk, someone who increased the divisions in an already sorely divided nation — someone who, quite frankly, further vilified and scapegoated the already marginalized — deserve special privileges and awards that are better suited to others more worthy?
It is not hyperbole to compare the baby wannabe fascist dictator Donald Trump with his mentor and role model, his daddy and actual fascist dictator, Adolf Hitler (along with Trump’s high-ranking minion, Joseph Goebbels), in their use of martyrs for propaganda purposes.
As MAGA has risen Charlie Kirk, German Nazis elevated Horst Wessel to the status of martyr in the service of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP or Nazi Party).
The terrible tale of Nazi martyr Horst Wessel
Horst Ludwig Georg Erich Wessel was born on October 9, 1907 in Bielefeld, Westphalia, a region in northwestern Germany. He was the son of Wilhelm Ludwig Georg Wessel, who was a Lutheran minister in Bielefeld. Wessel’s mother, Bertha Luise Margarete Wessel (born Richter), also came from a family of Lutheran pastors.
Horst was raised along with his sister Ingeborg Paula Margarethe and his brother Werner Georg Erich Ludwig. Wessel graduated from the Luisenstädtisches Gymnasium, which would later be renamed in his memory. In 1926, Wessel enrolled in Friedrich Wilhelm University to study law.
Shaped by the father’s political beliefs, the Wessel family supported the monarchist German National People’s Party (DNVP), a prominent right-wing party. At age 15, Wessel joined the DNVP’s youth group Bismarckjugend (Bismarck Youth) in 1922. He left the group three years later.
The expressed goal of Wiking Liga was to bring about “the revival of Germany on a national and ethnic basis through the spiritual education of its members” – in other words, to Make Germany Great Again.
In his late teen years, Wessel frequented bars and hung out in flophouses. During this period, Horst organized his own youth group, the Knappschaft (Squires). His stated purpose was to “raise our boys to be real German men.”
Toward the conclusion of 1923, he joined the Wiking Liga (Viking League), a paramilitary group founded by Hermann Ehrhardt, a German naval officer in World War I who became an anti-republican and antisemitic German nationalist leader during the Weimar Republic. The expressed goal of Wiking Liga was to bring about “the revival of Germany on a national and ethnic basis through the spiritual education of its members” – in other words, to Make Germany Great Again.
Wessel described the Viking League having “the ultimate aim” of the “establishment of a national dictatorship.” Soon after joining, he rose as a local leader, where he often conducted street battles with members of opposing youth groups including the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Communist Party (KPD). However, the Viking League was banned in Prussia in May 1926, when officials discovered that it, along with similar groups, were planning a coup against the government. At age 19, Horst resigned from the League and became a member of the Sturmabteilung (the SA or Storm Division).
Wessel was placed in command of several SA groups (nicknamed the “Brownshirts”), which played a vital role in clearing Adolf Hitler’s path to power by intimidating and harassing political opponents such as the Communists and Social Democrats.
Wessel greatly admired Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi Party’s newly appointed Gauleiter (regional leader) of Berlin. Later, Wessel wrote, “There was nothing [Goebbels] couldn’t handle. The party comrades clung to him with great devotion. The SA would have let itself be cut to pieces for him. Goebbels – he was like Hitler himself. Goebbels – he was ‘our’ Goebbels.”
Many Nazi elites attended Horst Wessel’s funeral in 1930. Goebbels had been trying to find someone to turn into a martyr to advance the Nazi cause, and he settled on Horst Wessel.
Joseph Goebbels soon became impressed with Wessel, especially in his ability as an effective street speaker and debater. In fact, during 1929 alone, he spoke at approximately 60 NSDAP gatherings. During that year, Goebbels appointed Horst to became the Street Cell Leader of the Alexanderplatz Storm Section of the SA, and later as district leader of the SA for Friedrichshain with the rank of Sturmführer (storm leader).
Wessel wrote several songs for the SA, with some in mocking imitation of the Communist paramilitary, the Red Front Fighters’ League. He wrote them as parody to bait the Communists into attaching his troops and to heighten the morale of his men. Wessel also wrote the lyrics to “Die Fahne hoch!” (“Raise the Flag!”), which would later come to be known as the “Horst Wessel Song.”
From 1930 through the end of World War II, it became the anthem of the Nazi Party, and between 1933 to 1945, the Nazis made it the co-national anthem throughout all of Germany, along with the first stanza of the “Deutschlandlied.”
Horst Wessel’s Nazi career came to a swift end when two Communists found him alone and shot him in the head on January 14, 1930. Albrecht “Ali” Höhler was arrested and charged with his murder. Though the court sentenced Höhler to a prison term of six years, members of the SA forcibly removed him from jail and killed him, following the Nazis taking power in 1933.
As Wessel lay dying in hospital, Goebbels released reports accusing the attack on “degenerate communist subhumans.” Many Nazi elites attended Horst Wessel’s funeral in 1930. Goebbels had been trying to find someone to turn into a martyr to advance the Nazi cause, and he settled on Horst Wessel.
Goebbels eulogized Wessel in his newspaper, Der Angriff, using blatantly Christian tones: “A Christian Socialist! A man who calls out through his deeds: ‘Come to me, I shall redeem you!’….A divine element works in him, making him the man he is and causing him to act in this way and no other. One man must set an example and offer himself up as a sacrifice! Well, then, I am ready!”
Though Hitler could not attend Wessel’s funeral over safety concerns, he called Wessel a “blood witness” whose song had become “a battle hymn for millions.” Wessel sacrificing his life was “a monument more lasting than stone and bronze.” The Nazi Party declared a two-month period of mourning.
On their march to the funeral, 16,000 members of the Berlin and Brandenburg SA and SS passed the Community Party headquarters as a calculated act to provoke and ridicule them. Hitler spoke that night at a memorial service at the Berlin Sportpalast, at which the “Funeral March” from Richard Wagner’s Götterdämmerung was played. The stage was festooned with an altar made from “laurel trees, branches, candelabra and a larger-than-lifesize portrait of Wessel”.
Hitler piled admiration on “those fanatics who are consumed by the great task of their age” – (with “fanaticism” seen as a positive virtue among the Nazis) – “who live for that task and who die for it…[they would] later be not only the martyrs of their struggle but also the seed from which the subsequent harvest [would come]”.
The Nazi newspaper, Völkischer Beobachter, called Wessel “the hero of the Brown Revolution” and referred to his “sacrificial death” that “passionately inflamed millions who followed.”
In commemoration of Horst Wessel and his contributions to the Nazi Party, in 1933, they renamed the Berlin district of Friedrichshain, where Wessel died, to “Horst Wessel Stadt” and the Bülowplatz in the Mitte district was renamed “Horst-Wessel-Platz.” A German naval three-masted training ship the Nazis named the SSS Horst Wessel in 1936. Many other pieces of territory and buildings were also named after Wessel.
Following World War II, the ship was taken as a war prize by the United States, and the German districts were given their original names. People vandalized Wessel’s memorial and destroyed his remains and the remains of his brother Werner. Several Neo-Nazi groups have tried to resurrect Horst Wessel as a symbolic reminder of days of German Nazi rule.
History will be the judge over the usefulness of Charlie Kirk as the ultra-right’s martyr.
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