Statement on the Killing of Racist Homophobe Charlie Kirk
September 11th 2025 | For Immediate Release
Please allow us to share our hearts today.
We’ve seen people actually defend Charlie Kirk and ww find that nauseating. And flags are being flown at half mast (by presidential order!) in his honor. That is an outrage. And...
We’ve seen people rejoice at Kirk's murder. We find that appalling but we try not to judge too quickly... he hurt people and hurting people may feel entitled to a moment of schadenfreude when a villain gets his comeuppance; still, we probably don't want to be the kind of people who cannot see even our enemies' humanity. There's an old proverb that says, "Never rejoice when an enemy falls, but neither rush to help him up." We think that tone may strike the proper balance.
Of course Kirk was a fiend, an outrageous homophobe, a danger to Trans* people, an appalling racist, a provocateur and an unrepentant racist. He was also a staunch supporter of the most obviously amoral and performatively cruel president in our lifetimes.
We don't like nor will we miss Charlie Kirk. We can deplore violence, hate guns, want sane regulations on guns, and even acknowledge that his murder was heinous while also realizing that if the murder had been of Maxine Waters, Wes Moore, or Oprah, Kirk would almost certainly have openly rejoiced with added hurtful commentary about the victim.
CK was not a good guy and there is no reason to pretend otherwise. A monster who dies is a dead monster, not suddenly a saint.
What we have seen most in the last day is something that gnaws at me in deep places. We’ve seen people bend over backwards to seem kinder than they feel, more balanced than is actually appropriate to the person in question, and more generous than is healing for the victim's many victims.
Were white news consumers and political junkies this fair, balanced, compassionate, and vocal when Roberta Drury, Ruth Whitfield, Aaron Salter, Celestine Chaney, Geraldine Talley, Heyward Patterson, Katherine Massey, Margus Morrison, Pearl Young, and Andre Mackniel (all African American) were killed by a white supremacist at a supermarket in Buffalo?
Were white news watchers and political hawks this concerned about being kind to the 9 people killed at a bible study at Mother Emmanuel AME Church by a white man they welcomed into their service?
When MeShon Cooper, a Black woman, was killed by a Klansman in Kansas? When Ahmaud Arbery, while simply jogging, was killed by three white men in Georgia?
You see, this is what won't let us rest. We bet some of my friends don't even recognize some of these names, and these victims were not cruel purveyors of hatred and animosity. Why when one of the objectively worst people in the public eye is killed (and is white, and a white supremacist at that!) are we afraid to simply say, "He was diabolical. He sowed seeds of hatred while advocating for deadly weapons and that he was victimized by the combination of hate and guns seems somewhat poetic, if not karmic."
We don't have to dance and sing about it. We obviously wouldn't laugh about it. We should not congratulate the killer. We can grieve that such hatred and violence plague us, and, we can also notice the obvious fact that much of that hatred and violence is perpetuated and encouraged by people like the recently deceased Charlie Kirk.
This wasn't someone who cheers for a different sports ball team than we do or someone who does or doesn't believe raisins go in salads; this wasn't someone we disagreed with about a few things...this was someone who tried to erase, harm, and humiliate minority communities. He took pleasure in dehumanizing people for who they were. We aren't being overly judgmental to say out loud what is crystal clear before us.
Our country is sick with violence and cruelty. Compassion and restorative justice are our only hope for healing.
And, unrepentant bad guys are what they are even when they suddenly die.
I condemn Kirk's murder. And I condemn his nefarious public witness. If we are suddenly going to be very both/and when Aryan Nation types get hurt, can we at least be honest about their diabolical public lives and can we be as concerned when the victims are not straight, white, cisgender men?
We’re not super bothered that people are bending over backwards to show grace to Kirk and his family (maybe they are actually showing the better way), BUT we are pretty close to enraged that we haven't seen such gestures very often when the victims didn't look like Charlie Kirk. That says something about our world that is too upsetting to leave unsaid.
Kyrie eleison.
Global Justice Institute Council of Bishops
Presiding Bishop, Pat Bumgardner, GJI Founder
Bishop Jim Merrit (Eastern Europe)
Bishop Robert Griffin (Africa & Caribbean)
Bishop Durrell Watkins, Communications Director (& Trans* Advocacy)
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