Just weeks before his killing at a Utah event Wednesday, the conservative activist Charlie Kirk told a reporter that one of his “ultimate purposes” was to get young people “back to faith.”
“I’m trying to paint a picture of virtue … lifting people up, not just staying angry,” he told the Deseret News. If young people led “a more virtuous, deeper existence,” they would spend less time on social media, on videos – even on Mr. Kirk’s Turning Point USA videos. They would help move the country in a better direction, he believed. (One poll this year found 34% of college students support the use of violence in some circumstances to stop a campus speech, up from 24% in 2021.)
It didn’t take long after the tragedy for thousands of people to turn toward faith and console others feeling fearful – such as his widow and two children, those who witnessed the killing at Utah Valley University in Orem, and those struggling to act on the range of solutions for ending political violence and hate.
Professional counselors in Utah, both religious and therapeutic, offered their services to those traumatized by the murder. “Anything that we can do to restore that feeling of calm or safety is so important,” Dr. Eric Monson, a psychiatrist with the University of Utah Health, told The Salt Lake Tribune.
Only hours after the shooting, prayer vigils were held across the United States. One was even planned by Mr. Kirk’s supporters in London. After a vigil of prayers and singing at the Utah State Capitol on Wednesday night, one woman told KUTV, “This was Republicans, Democrats, and everybody coming together, denouncing this senseless violence that took Charlie’s life.”
Even though many saw Mr. Kirk’s views as extreme, religious leaders in Utah gave advice on how to react to his killing. One, the Rev. Gregory Johnson of the Standing Together ministry, told the Tribune, “We call upon the people of Utah and our nation to not return evil for evil.”
Rather, the pastor pleaded for “God-fearing individuals [to] fight evil with love.”
