Black pastors say Charlie Kirk not martyr, while decrying racism and political violence

Charlie Kirk’s killing has exposed deep divisions in America, especially among Black clergy who reject his portrayal as a martyr, citing his history of racist and divisive rhetoric. His memorial, blending religion and politics, fuels debates over faith, race, and nationalism

Washington: How Charlie Kirk is being memorialised — with many conservatives and white Christians, particularly evangelicals, emphasising his faith and labelling him a martyr — has sparked debate among Black clergy, who are trying to square a heroic view of the 31-year-old with insulting statements about people of colour that were key to his political activism.

“How you die does not redeem how you lived,” the Rev Howard-John Wesley, of Alexandria, Virginia, said in a sermon in the aftermath of Kirk’s killing that ha