Last week, still another tragic political assassination occurred when popular right-wing speaker Charlie Kirk was murdered on a Utah University campus. The act was despicable and should never have happened in a healthy society.
Responsible political leaders, such as the Republican governor of Utah, called for unity and peace. But not the president of the United States, who immediately went on air and blamed the “radical left” even when no one at the time knew who killed Kirk. Now we know the killer was a 22-year-old who identifies as a political independent and whose parents are registered Republicans.
The loud and well-endowed right-wing press also pressed for violence immediately: Fox News host Jesse Waters proclaimed, “Whether we want to accept it or not, they are at war with us!” Billionaire Elon Musk opined to his 220 million followers on X, “The Left is the party of murder.” Laura Loomer said, “We must shut these lunatic leftists down.”
Meanwhile, there are some in America busy trying to canonize Charlie Kirk and make him a martyr for the cause of hate politics.
The president has vowed to give Kirk a Medal of Freedom honor, as he did for Rush Limbaugh in his first term. Yes, he who brought hate radio to America, becoming a multi-millionaire in the process, and who demonstrated that hate and violence sell and spawned countless imitators in the media.
Calls for vengeance abound in the right-wing manosphere. Steve Bannon’s response to Kirk’s murder went like this: “Charlie Kirk is a casualty of war. We are at war in this country. We are.” Elon Musk chimed in. “If they won’t leave us in peace, then our choice is to fight or die.”
When Minnesota Democratic state Representative Melisa Hortman and her husband were shot and killed in a deliberate political act, we heard not a peep from those who want to go to war on Kirk’s behalf. When Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and his family underwent an arson attack in their home while they slept, these people were silent.
Trump sat through the violence of January 6, 2021, and did nothing to stop it. Though numerous police officers were beaten and several died, he released all 1500 insurrectionists from prison, including the most violent of them. He has posted violent images on his social media site, including one of former President Joe Biden hog-tied in a pickup truck, and calls his political opponents “the enemy” and “vermin.” He sent the DOJ to investigate them and moved a convicted pedophile to a cushy prison. He has cut the FBI budget dedicated to domestic terrorism.
Patrice Mersault points out that immediately following Kirk’s killing, MAGA “thundered about ‘left-wing terrorists.” But the evidence—the decade-long tally of extremist murders—shows the opposite. The far-right has been responsible for the overwhelming majority of extremist and ideologically motivated killings in the United States….The right radicalizes, the right arms, the right kills. And then the right lies about it.
She lists how, year by year, the right killed. In 2024, 13 were killed—all by the far-right. In 2023, 20, all tied to right-wing extremism. In 2022, 25 people were killed, etc. *
What did Charlie Kirk stand for? What was his message that sat so well with the MAGA crowd that they and Trump seek to hold him up as some kind of saint? I will return to that question in tomorrow’s DM.
Meanwhile, I highly recommend Episcopal priest and contemplative activist Adam Bucko’s article, which points out that Kirk supported a “cult of white Christian nationalism,” which is a far cry from that of Jesus.** To be continued.
* Patrice Mersault, “The Deadly Arithmetic of Right-Wing Extremism: 2015-2025.” Patrice Mersault’s Substack blog.
** Adam Bucko, “Jesus Didn’t Preach the Second Amendment. The Cult of White Christian Nationalism Does.” Adam Bucko’s Substack blog.
And Fox, Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ.
And Fox, Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the World.
And Fox, Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality.
And Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul & Society.
And Fox, A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice.
And Adam Bucko and Matthew Fox, Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation.
Banner Image: Far right-wing white Christian nationalist speaker Charlie Kirk with apparent halo at the 2021 Young Women’s Leadership Summit hosted by Turning Point USA. Photo by Gage Skidmore on Flickr.
Queries for Contemplation
What lessons do you take from this difficult time in American history? Who are the persons you would call on and emulate and what are the teachings that you feel can bring harmony and truth and peace to this moment?
Recommended Reading
Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election
Matthew Fox tells us that he had always shied away from using the term “Anti-Christ” because it was so often used to spread control and fear. However, given today’s rise of authoritarianism and forces of democracide, ecocide, and christofascism, he turns the tables in this book employing the archetype for the cause of justice, democracy, and a renewed Earth and humanity.
From the Foreword: If there was ever a time, a moment, for examining the archetype of the Antichrist, it is now…Read this book with an open mind. Good and evil are real forces in our world. ~~ Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit and Conversations with the Divine.
For immediate access to Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election, order the e-book with 10 full-color prints from Amazon HERE.
To get a print-on-demand paperback copy with black & white images, order from Amazon HERE or IUniverse HERE.
To receive a limited-edition, full-color paperback copy, order from MatthewFox.org HERE.
Order the audiobook HERE for immediate download.
Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth
Fox’s spirituality weds the healing and liberation found in North American Creation Spirituality and in South American Liberation Theology. Creation Spirituality challenges readers of every religious and political persuasion to unite in a new vision through which we learn to honor the earth and the people who inhabit it as the gift of a good and just Creator.
“A watershed theological work that offers a common ground for religious seekers and activists of all stripes.” — Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice.
“I am reading Liberating Gifts for the People of the Earth by Matt Fox. He is one that fills my heart and mind for new life in spite of so much that is violent in our world.” ~ Sister Dorothy Stang.
Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality
Matthew Fox lays out a whole new direction for Christianity—a direction that is in fact very ancient and very grounded in Jewish thinking (the fact that Jesus was a Jew is often neglected by Christian theology): the Four Paths of Creation Spirituality, the Vias Positiva, Negativa, Creativa and Transformativa in an extended and deeply developed way.
“Original Blessing makes available to the Christian world and to the human community a radical cure for all dark and derogatory views of the natural world wherever these may have originated.” –Thomas Berry, author, The Dream of the Earth; The Great Work; co-author, The Universe Story
Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society
Visionary theologian and best-selling author Matthew Fox offers a new theology of evil that fundamentally changes the traditional perception of good and evil and points the way to a more enlightened treatment of ourselves, one another, and all of nature. In comparing the Eastern tradition of the 7 chakras to the Western tradition of the 7 capital sins, Fox allows us to think creatively about our capacity for personal and institutional evil and what we can do about them.
“A scholarly masterpiece embodying a better vision and depth of perception far beyond the grasp of any one single science. A breath-taking analysis.” — Diarmuid O’Murchu, author of Quantum Theology: Spiritual Implications of the New Physics
A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice
In A Spirituality Named Compassion, Matthew Fox delivers a profound exploration of the meaning and practice of compassion. Establishing a spirituality for the future that promises personal, social, and global healing, Fox marries mysticism with social justice, leading the way toward a gentler and more ecological spirituality and an acceptance of our interdependence which is the substratum of all compassionate activity.
“Well worth our deepest consideration…Puts compassion into its proper focus after centuries of neglect.” –The Catholic Register
Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation
Authors Adam Bucko and Matthew Fox encourage us to use our talents in service of compassion and justice and to move beyond our broken systems–economic, political, educational, and religious–discovering a spirituality that not only helps us to get along, but also encourages us to reevaluate our traditions, transforming them and in the process building a more sacred and just world. Incorporating the words of young activist leaders culled from interviews and surveys, the book provides a framework that is deliberately interfaith and speaks to our profound yearning for a life with spiritual purpose and for a better world.
“Occupy Spirituality is a powerful, inspiring, and vital call to embodied awareness and enlightened actions.”
~~ Julia Butterfly Hill, environmental activist and author of The Legacy of Luna: The Story of a Tree, a Woman, and the Struggle to Save the Redwoods
4 thoughts on “Let Us Not Canonize Charlie Kirk”
The enclosed YouTube interview of Chris Hedges by Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman, is an important message of our dangerous times in the US. He “warns that the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk is being “weaponized” to crush dissent” like in past historical times by autocrats.
All humanitarian Americans are being challenged to maintain their Faith and responsibilities in Our Source~Co-Creator’s Spirit of Love~Wisdom~Truth~Peace~Justice~Healing~Strength~Compassion… Present within and among Us in Our LOVING DIVERSE ONENESS….
A family member of Tyler Robinson reported that at a dinner gathering shortly before the assassination Tyler had said he didn’t like Charlie Kirk because Kirk was full of hate and was spreading hate.
More moral complexity.
My approach is to dismiss Kirk as a real figure of importance.
Not worth the continued energy spirituality. I believe history will show him to be easily forgotten. The promoters of his work and legacy are using his
death to continue fear and hate for power and political advantage.
This will continue until the next opportunity to divert people’s attention from
the oligarchy that now plunders the country.
Our faith in these times is being measured in equal proportion to the reality
of uncertainty. Wisdom teaching abounds in resilience from many traditions. I’m staying with Christian teachings on Love.
In my opinion, the coup is an established fact, and democracy in government is gone, at least at the federal level. I turn for courage to the teachings of Dorothy Day, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, Howard Thurman, John Lewis and the many who followed the core teachings of Jesus, whatever their professed religion. These are all from historically oppressed people, women and people of color, and yet managed to live their lives as beacons of hope.