“How do we cover that?”
The subject had to have been on the table during the Monday morning meeting of executives of news network, producers and hosts, and will probably be at least another week today.
I hope that the producers and hosts have the courage to name what it was: the most viewed Christian service of witnesses and forgiveness, mourning and testimony as ever viewed and listened to in history.
Leaders and influencers flood social media with tribute to Charlie Kirk while thousands of Arizona packs Memorial
Look beyond the more than 100,000 people who were personally present and began to stand outside the State Farm Stadium of Phoenix for dawn, a stadium that filled the acceptable capacity of 70,000 and left tens of thousands in an adjacent arena or look at their mobile phones.
I have not seen any estimates of our audience or online views, let alone the international reach or the public for clips during the days of echo that will follow in the virtual world. The figures will be huge if there is even a way to compile them.
That Sunday would be a unique day of Mourning, although the end of last week was already generally understood. President Donald Trump, vice -president JD Vance, State Secretary Marco Rubio and Minister of War Pete Hegseth would be the biggest names among the EuLogists, together with the sincere tribute of Charlie’s friends and colleagues, teachers (Dr. Larry Arnn, President of the Elder, Mentors, Mentors, Mentors, Mentors, Mentors, Mentors, Mentors, Mentorsman, Mentorsman, Mentorsman, Mentorsman, Mentorsman, Mentorsman, Mentors, Mentors, Mentors, Mentors, Mentors, Mentors, Mentors, Mentors, Mentors, Mentors, Mentors, Mentors, Mentors, Mentors, Mentors, Mentors, Mentors, Mentors ( Evangelical Evangelical Evangelic on Turning Point USA Plus an extraordinary musical background from the world of Christian operation and excellent production values ​​of a TPUSA team that was used for large events.
But how will the media describe it?
After in America since 1990 in America, with a few books and documentaries on this subject and a PBS series in 1996, “looking for God in America”, I am well aware that the American newsrooms are not overcrowded with journalists who are used to the language of the evangelic Christianity of whatever nature.
I am multilingual when it comes to Christianity, and have been describing myself as an evangelical Roman Catholic Presbyterian for decades, because I am a loyal member of the legions of Pope Leo XIV and a sacred elder in the Presbyterian Church, (US) – one river, two benches and I am welcomed on both. I’m just a “merely Christian” as CS Lewis said. Not a theologian, but a lawyer-journalist who has treated world religions and has made an attempt to keep track of doctrinal arguments, arguments that have consumed most of the past decades.
More than 60% of Americans identify as Christians, according to the Pew Research Center 2023-2024 survey. The world is currently the home of more than 2.5 billion Christians. Whatever you make of faith, it is the primary forming power of Western civilization. Whatever you make of the truth of Christianity claims, Charlie and the vast majority of those who have looked at Sunday, they believe, like me.
But many of the postmodern media lack fluency in the language used by many of the speakers on Sunday. The vice -president and state secretaries and war brought explicit testimonies in their faith in the objective truth of life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Trump underlined the role of Charlie as an evangelist.
Erika Kirk made a heartbreaking and deeply moving public forgiveness of the murderer of her husband, the most difficult of all the Christian commandments that Jesus put in his famous sermon on the mountain: “I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who prosecute you can be your father’s children in heaven.”
At that time, Erika Kirk modeled the words of the first Christian martyr, St. Stephen, while he prayed for his persecutors, even as Jesus did for the Romans who crossed him 2000 years ago in Jerusalem.
So what is the impact of Charlie’s murder and of his evangelical witness reinforced by Sunday and a hundred or a thousand other comments such as this?
I don’t know and it would be foolish to guess. Here is an example of why.
The Christian view is large and the timelines are not “news cycles”. This year, for example, I had the opportunity to worship in an old Baptist church in Maine who had ordered George Dana Boardman in 1825 – “Apostle to the Karens” (yes, a real ethical group in Myanmar).
Boardman and his wife took the ship to Calcutta 200 years ago, and then on what was then considered Burma, learned the language for two years and spent three to four years evangelizing the people before George died of tuberculosis. An unobtrusive life of a forgotten Christian missionary? Hardly.
There are hundreds, if not thousands, of “Karen municipalities” all over the world because of the efforts of a missionary 200 years ago. The Karen Baptist Convention (KBC) is a major denomination in Myanmar and a reliable source for figures there. More than ten years ago, the KBC included 1,829 churches with a membership of more than 287,000 in Myanmar with hundreds of more municipalities in Thailand. There are only hundreds of such churches in the US. George Boardman’s mission was then unnoticed by most. I doubt that even many people from the American Baptist church know him today. Religious “coaching trees” are very difficult to trace. But they are everywhere.
Point is: Nobody has any idea what Charlie’s life and his memorial service will mean in the hearts and spirits of millions who have viewed it and how their lives will change as a result and thus change the lives of others.
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But reporting the size of the outreach is a start and asking the authorities about faith for their assessment is so much more interesting and convincing than trying to break the story in a “political” or “cultural box”.
The box with “global religious impact” is not often taken off the death of popes and conclusions are one of the few occasions that come up in me, but the unique character of the Christian celebration of Charlie Kirk’s life should attract serious people.
There are hundreds of experts on whom network and news platforms of all species can trust that are close by: Dr. Albert Mohler, bishop Robert Barron, former senator Ben Sasse and perhaps even Pope Leo XIV can be approached for assessment and comments.
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What I expect is that most news organizations will flee the scene or forcing in a political moment because Charlie was murdered for open political goals in a time of increasing political violence.
But the “story” is one who told Christians routinely “the biggest story ever told” and a story that we believe is true. Bravo to the stores with the courage to struggle with the most consistent part of the life of Charlie Kirk: his impact on the infinite timeline of millions of human souls.
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