The fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk in Utah on Wednesday sparked an outpouring of shock, fear and mourning from local religious leaders.
Leading Christian, Jewish and Muslim voices grieved and condemned the murder of the 31-year-old activist, who leaves behind his wife and two young children.
Some Dallas-Fort Worth faith leaders knew Kirk personally and reflected on his influence and legacy.
Allie Beth Stuckey, a Plano native and host of the popular podcast Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey, told The Dallas Morning News that Kirk invited her to speak at Turning Point USA’s women’s conference in 2017. From then on, he became one of her biggest supporters, “consistently sending me words of wisdom and encouragement,” she wrote in a statement.
“He showed up for people he believed in, even when they had nothing to offer him in return,” she said. “He was a fearless defender of the faith, a faithful husband & father, and he was my friend. I will miss him.
“I know that, more than anything, he’d want me to say this to anyone who’ll listen: Jesus is the way. The only way. That love and satisfaction you’re looking for will only be found in Him. Charlie is with Jesus now, and even through the heartbreak, I rejoice in that.”
“Charlie Kirk is a martyr,” Jack Graham, senior pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, wrote on X. Graham said Kirk possessed an “insatiable” hunger for God’s word. “His voice and witness of Truth will not be silenced but will rather inspire courage in a generation of young men and women who will continue to boldly proclaim the message of Life and Hope.”
Other religious voices focused on the unacceptability of political violence.
“No matter your politics, violence diminishes us all,” the Rev. George Mason, who founded the multifaith group Faith Commons and led Dallas’ Wilshire Baptist Church for over 30 years, wrote on Facebook. “Nothing good comes of it. It only leads to greater polarization. Now is the time to prove that empathy is strength not weakness.”
Mehdi Hasan, a leading Muslim journalist based in D.C., condemned Kirk’s death while also drawing attention to the murder of a Democratic Minnesota lawmaker earlier this year.
“Charlie Kirk called me a ‘lunatic’ and a ‘prostitute’ and demanded I be deported,” Hasan wrote on Bluesky. “Nothing, *nothing*, justifies killing him, or robbing his kids of their dad. We don’t know the identity or motive of the shooter but murder can *never* be the response to political disagreements.”
“No one deserves to be shot brutally in public, sliced open by the bullet of a cowardly sniper,” Imam Yasir Qadhi, resident scholar at the East Plano Islamic Center, said on X.
Qadhi then also denounced Israeli soldiers who have shot and killed Palestinians attempting to access aid at food distribution sites in Gaza, according to witnesses and Red Cross officials who spoke with The Associated Press. Israeli army spokesman Effie Defrin told the AP that “the numbers of casualties published by Hamas were exaggerated,” but that the incident was being investigated.
Bishop Ruben Saenz Jr., who leads the United Methodist Church conference that includes North Texas, wrote on Facebook that Christians and Americans must “unequivocally denounce” Kirk’s murder.
“The assassination of Mr. Kirk represents not just an attack on one individual, but an assault on the very principles of free speech and democratic engagement that define our nation,” he said. “We must recognize that when we dehumanize those who hold different political views, when we treat our opponents as enemies rather than fellow Americans, we create the conditions where such horrific acts become possible.
“Let us honor Charlie Kirk’s memory not through anger or calls for vengeance, but by working to create the kind of society where such tragedies become unthinkable because we have learned to see each other as brothers and sisters, fellow children of God deserving of respect and protection.”
Temple Emanu-El Senior Rabbi David Stern said in a Wednesday interview that “what happened today is horrific and reprehensible and unconscionable.”
“Any act of violence and murder is tragic, and this one is just a reflection of the level of hate and toxic polarization that we’ve reached as a society, in terms of how our discourse has been eroded,” he said. “The combination of that and the availability of weapons that can turn that polarization into acts of violence and murder should give us all deep cause for concern.
“Judaism has long believed in the importance, not just the acceptability, but the vital importance of constructive disagreement,” Stern said. “We don’t get anywhere as a civil society until we can disagree constructively.”