{"id":105230,"date":"2025-09-12T15:39:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T15:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/crcc\/?p=105230"},"modified":"2026-01-12T19:26:31","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T19:26:31","slug":"why-christians-rush-to-label-charlie-kirk-a-martyr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/crcc\/why-christians-rush-to-label-charlie-kirk-a-martyr\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Christians rush to label Charlie Kirk a martyr"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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Why Christians rush to label Charlie Kirk a martyr<\/h1>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n By<\/span>Diane Winston<\/a><\/strong>\n \n September 12, 2025<\/span>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n <\/div><\/div>\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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This article was originally published on Los Angeles Times<\/a> by an affiliate of the USC Center for Religion and Civic.<\/em><\/p>\n

Following yet another shooting at a U.S. college campus, Thursday morning\u2019s class on American religious history at USC called for a different focus. Rather than lecture my students on Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism who was killed by an angry mob, I asked students their thoughts on a newly emerging martyr filling online newsfeeds.<\/p>\n

Charlie Kirk, the right-wing evangelical and political activist who led a youth movement he thought would help restore Christian morality in America, had just been killed the day before, shot at long range across a field at Utah Valley University by a gunman who was at that point still on the run. Almost everyone had something to say.<\/p>\n

Click here to read the full article on Los Angeles Times.<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n <\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Charlie Kirk, the right-wing evangelical and political activist, was shot and killed. Almost everyone had something to say. For some, it was that he was a matryr.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":813,"featured_media":104579,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[14,50,22],"class_list":["post-105230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","tag-christianity","tag-diane-winston","tag-politics"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhy Christians rush to label Charlie Kirk a martyr<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/crcc\/why-christians-rush-to-label-charlie-kirk-a-martyr\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why Christians rush to label Charlie Kirk a martyr - Center for Religion and Civic Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Charlie Kirk, the right-wing evangelical and political activist, was shot and killed. 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