More MAGA rally than funeral, Kirk farewell was ultimate blur of church and state

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Phoenix: It is impossible to know how significant Charlie Kirk will ultimately become in the pantheon of American history. But in the cauldron of State Farm Stadium on Sunday (Monday AEST), it felt as though something important was brewing.

For onlookers, this might seem hard to fathom. Kirk was a 31-year-old political activist – what of it? But he was also a very prominent figure in the MAGA movement, a key ally of President Donald Trump and a prolific fundraiser through his organisation, Turning Point.

Tens of thousands of Americans attended Charlie Kirk’s memorial at State Farm Stadium in Arizona.

Kirk was a bridge to the next generation at a time when many young people have sworn off conservatism, mainstream media, or both. He was killed by a single bullet fired from a rooftop while he debated attendees at Utah Valley University on September 10. A 22-year-old man from Utah has been charged with murder.

Precisely what was brewing at Kirk’s memorial in Arizona is again difficult to say because we cannot know right now which message delivered in that stadium will resonate with Americans: that of mercy and forgiveness espoused by the grieving widow, Erika Kirk, or the calls for vengeance and reckoning espoused by others.

It was a ceremony that made no distinction at all between church and state. Trump, in his speech, repeated his pledge to “bring God back” to America. Watching these proceedings, you were in no doubt: God never left.

Most of the crowd on Sunday were not dressed for a funeral; they were dressed for a MAGA rally, and that’s largely what they got. They heard from the US president and his son, the vice-president, three cabinet ministers, the White House chief of staff and her deputy.

The crowd was dressed for a MAGA rally more than a funeral, and that was as organisers intended.

But salvation was never far from anyone’s mind. Indeed, it would have been unthinkable for any speaker not to mention God. Trump said Kirk had been reunited with his creator. JD Vance argued it was better to die young while being persecuted for your faith “than to deny the Kingship of Christ”. Pastor Rob McCoy said Kirk saw politics as the on-ramp to Jesus; a way to bring his followers to the Lord.

Steve Deace, a conservative Christian talk show host, said on X: “It’s quite possible we are now witnessing the largest singular proclamation of the gospel in all of human history.”

Still, there was a subtle tension in the five-hour ceremony, buried under copious layers of American certitude, pageantry and self-congratulation. Surely, Erika Kirk’s haunting call for forgiveness cannot sit easily beside Stephen Miller’s insistence on an existential battle between good and evil.

Miller, the bald hardliner who has orchestrated Trump’s crackdowns on immigration and crime, invoked the myth of the warrior and the storm. “Erika is the storm. We are the storm,” he said. “And our enemies cannot comprehend our strength, our determination, our resolve, our passion … we will prevail.”

President Donald Trump with Erika Kirk at the memorial of her husband.

Trump himself made the differences clear. He admitted he could not match Charlie Kirk for mercy and compassion.

“He did not hate his opponents. He wanted the best for them,” Trump said. “That’s where I disagree with Charlie. I hate my opponent and I don’t want the best for them. I’m sorry ... Maybe they can convince me that that’s not right, but I can’t stand my opponent.”

It was tongue-in-cheek, and it got the laughs. But there was a dark truth underneath.

Of all people, it was former Fox News host Tucker Carlson who tried to cleave apart church from state, just a fraction. He said Kirk was a political person, deeply interested in building coalitions behind the conservative agenda, but that he also knew politics was “not the final answer”, and couldn’t probe the deepest questions.

“Politics at its core is a process of critiquing other people and getting them to change … Christianity calls upon you to change,” Carlson said.

“Our core prayer, the Lord’s Prayer, demands that we forgive other people. But preceding that is a request for our forgiveness. That is a call to change our hearts, and that is the only way forward in this country.”

The message would have resonated with many of the people in attendance – and those who couldn’t make it. As with so many large events in the US, the logistics were poor, with no signs or information to guide thousands of confused punters who didn’t know which line to join, where the lines led, or if they would get in. Meanwhile, they sweltered in the Arizona heat.

Dan Tanner was one of those who was turned away as the stadium filled up. It took him two days to drive his 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS – decked out in an American flag paint job and “I Am Charlie” banner – the 2500 kilometres from Minnesota to Phoenix.

Dan Tanner and his 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS outside State Farm Stadium in Phoenix. Tanner was one of those who was turned away as the stadium filled up..

Still, he was not perturbed. “I didn’t get in, but I’m here,” Tanner said as he blasted music on a lawn outside the stadium. “People are enjoying the car. I’m getting a lot of thumbs up, handshakes. Everybody that’s here, they’re here for love, they’re here for Charlie, they’re here for America.

“There is the other side, of course. Hopefully, some day we can all get together and make things work, so [that] maybe there is no ‘two sides’, there’s just unity – unity in America.”

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