On Charlie Kirk, Martyrdom, and Celebrity

by

Perspectives

The Lo-Fi Gospel Minute | Sept. 15, 2025

I’m still trying to figure out why I’m allowing this whole situation to take up so much space in my mind and heart. I think it’s because people I love love Charlie Kirk. They admire him. They believe in what he says. They are grieving publicly on social media.

They cannot see his racism. They cannot see his sexism. They cannot see his Christian nationalism. All they can see is a devout follower of Jesus.

I can’t see that.

Now, let me confess that my experience of Charlie was limited to the reels that would appear thanks to my algorithm. My algorithm shows me stuff that’s decidedly left of center. So, my algorithm showed me outrage videos. They never showed me anything else. They showed me what I wanted to see. The same is true for those folks who love Charlie. That’s how the algorithm works. That’s how the Techbros get you.

They show you what you want to see so that you will buy what they want you to buy. They drive your activity to their social media platforms by outraging you with whatever works. They are not trying to inform you. They are trying to entice you.

So, it has taken me a while to get a sense of what Charlie was actually about according to my family members.

Here’s what I think.

Charlie did not die a martyr. Not at least a Christian one. He did not die because he refused to give up his Christian faith. That was not the test that led to his death.

Rodney Kennedy, in his Baptist News Global essay offers this:

The word “martyr” means “witness.” And historically, that means witness to the essential beliefs of the gospel — the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In the classical sense, Kirk could only be considered a “martyr” if he were killed specifically for refusing to renounce that Christian faith.

Charlie Kirk died because of his politics and his practice of trolling college students. That he claimed Christ as his savior had nothing to do with his death.

That people cannot separate his politics and practice from his faith terrifies me.

That’s why I can’t shake it. It’s that terror I feel.

This whole Charlie Kirk discourse terrifies me.

When I watch videos that my friends and family have posted that laud Charlie Kirk, I do not see a martyr. I see a celebrity.

His death, as is any death, any assassination, is a tragedy.

But he is no martyr. Not by any Christian definition.

I am not afraid that someone is going to come and find me and gun me down because I can recite the Apostles Creed with sincerity. That’s not the world we live in. Not in America at least. Not yet.

There is a greater statistical likelihood that I will be gunned down because I welcome 2SLBGTQIA people as they are into the worship life of Christianity. I see no need for them to repent for who they are. They are made in the image of God just as they are. They may need to repent for being an asshole, but not because of whom they love.

There is a greater statistical likelihood that I will be gunned down because I believe women should have the right to decide upon their own health care. They should have the right to vote. They should have the right to have their own bank accounts.

There’s a greater statistical likelihood that I will be gunned down for proposing policies that use tax money to care for the poor, for proposing policies that use tax money to provide health care to all Americans, and for proposing policies that use tax money to provide excellent public education to all our children.

I would like to see an end to the military industrial complex. I would like to see an end to domestic terrorism. I would like to see an end to police violence. I would like to see common sense gun control.

Does my faith inform my politics? Of course it does. My interpretation of Jesus‘s ministry absolutely informs my politics. So did Charlie Kirk’s faith. He is interpretation of the Bible absolutely influenced his politics. And his politics influenced his interpretation of scripture. I don’t see he and I is doing anything particularly different from one another.

I disagree, however, with his interpretation of scripture.

Any interpretation of scripture that leads to oppression, repression, suppression, or generally asinine behavior toward other people is not a good interpretation of scripture. It is a failed interpretation of scripture. It is false.

Comment

Now, let me be clear. My interpretation of scripture is not perfect. It is full of all kinds of holes and misunderstandings. No one person can grasp the entirety of Christian tradition and distill from it the absolute truth. There is no such thing.

Christianity is a 2000 year-old collection of traditions built on a 3000-year-old tradition (It is not built on contemporary Judaism; let’s be clear.) built on even more ancient traditions.

No one has ever “gotten Christianity right.” Not me. Not you. Not Charlie Kirk.

Just because you’re beloved by many, doesn’t make you right.

And just because someone kills you, doesn’t make you a martyr.

Let me state again for the record. Charlie Kirk was murdered. I would go so far as to say he was assassinated. Bad people get assassinated. Innocent people get assassinated. Celebrities get assassinated. Charlie Kirk was a right wing political celebrity who was assassinated.

But he was not a Christian martyr.

Y’all be excellent to each other.

The Rev. Tripp Hudgins is pastoral director of Richmond Hll Retreat Center in Richmond, Va. This post is republished with permission from his Substack blog, The Lo-Fi Gospel Minute. Subscribe.