News from the Episcopal Church
Utah diocese, bishop urge end to hatred and violence after Charlie Kirk assassination
By David Paulsen
Posted 4 hours ago
Law enforcement tapes off an area at Utah Valley University in Orem after Charlie Kirk, the CEO and co-founder of the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA, was shot and killed Sept. 10. Photo: The Deseret News via Associated Press
[Episcopal News Service] The Episcopal Diocese of Utah and Bishop Phyllis Spiegel issued a statement condemning political violence and hatred and urging prayer and compassion after the assassination of conservative activist and commentator Charlie Kirk at a large, outdoor political event in Utah.
Kirk, 31, was shot and killed Sept. 10 while speaking before as many as 3,000 people during the event at Utah Valley University in Orem. Federal and local authorities have launched a manhunt for the shooter, who remained at large Sept. 11. Little information has been released about the assassin’s assumed identity or motive.
Kirk was one of the most prominent and vocal supporters of President Donald Trump. He was credited with helping to elect Trump in 2024 through his leadership of the Turning Point USA organization, which focused on rallying younger voters behind Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement. The slain activist is survived by a wife and two children.
“Our prayers are with Mr. Kirk’s family and friends as the shock of this news settles upon them,” the Diocese of Utah said in its Sept. 10 statement on the shooting. “We hold in our prayers the victims of emotional trauma who were present at today’s event and the entire Utah Valley University community. We give thanks and ask for protection for all law enforcement and first responders.”
The diocese said Christ challenged his followers to “build a society rooted in compassion, dignity and justice,” and Spiegel said in her statement that prayer is necessary now and in other times of violence but is not enough.
“We must guard the hatred in our hearts and on our lips; it is hatred and righteous indignation that leads to violence,” Spiegel said. “Jesus said plainly, ‘it is that which is on our lips and in our hearts that defiles us.’”
The killing of Kirk comes at a particularly volatile time in American politics, adding to a growing list of recent political violence against elected leaders and their supporters. In June, a Democratic state lawmaker in Minnesota and her husband were assassinated in their home, and another state lawmaker and his wife where shot and injured. Trump also was targeted by assassination attempts twice on the campaign trail last year, including a July 2024 shooting at a rally in Pennsylvania.
Earlier attacks on politicians and their families include former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, wounded in an October 2022 home invasion, and Rep. Steve Scalise, a Louisiana Republican who was shot and injured in 2017 while practicing with a congressional baseball team. And on Jan. 6, 2021, a mob of angry Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in a violent attempt to block Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential victory.
The Kirk shooting also comes as the United States continues to grapple with a growing number of gun deaths and mass shootings across what is the most heavily armed nation in the world. In fact, Kirk was fielding a question from the crowd about gun violence when he was hit in the neck by a single gunshot. He was taken to a hospital and later pronounced dead.
Michigan Bishop Bonnie Perry, a convener of the Bishops United Against Gun Violence network, issued a statement Sept. 10 that warned gun violence was “fast becoming our country’s greatest sin.”
“I am aghast that someone has shot and killed Mr. Charlie Kirk. At about the same time three young people were shot at Evergreen High School in Colorado,” Perry said. “We as people of faith must unite and take action. Our prayers will be our actions.
“The ready access to guns in our country is the primary reason why gun violence is the number one cause of childhood deaths. People of faith can no longer stand by hoping and wishing that this violence goes away.”
Washington Bishop Mariann Budde and Washington National Cathedral Dean Randy Hollerith also responded to the violence in a joint statement released Sept. 11.
“Yet another American public figure has been killed, one more victim of the culture of contempt that, at its extreme, portrays those with whom we disagree as enemies to be destroyed,” Budde and Hollerith said. “Today we mourn for Charlie Kirk. He was a son, a father, a husband and now his loved ones join the grieving community of Americans that spans across geography, political party, racial, gender and economic divides. Their lives have been forever changed by the violence we inflict upon one another.”
The Washington Episcopal leaders drew a connection between this “culture of contempt” and the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, exactly 24 years ago. Such a mindset, then and now, “encourages us to view one another, across our differences, with suspicion and fear. It normalizes ridicule, dishonesty, and hateful rhetoric that leads some to take violent action,” they said.
“We needn’t continue to live this way. Yet addressing the culture of contempt will require us all to commit to its only antidote: acknowledging the inherent dignity of every human being, and a renewed dedication to civility, respect and decency in our personal lives and public discourse.”
– David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service based in Wisconsin. He can be reached at dpaulsen@episcopalchurch.org.