{"id":226127,"date":"2025-09-14T12:22:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-14T12:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/226127\/"},"modified":"2025-09-14T12:22:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-14T12:22:08","slug":"faith-leaders-across-metro-phoenix-speak-on-death-of-charlie-kirk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/226127\/","title":{"rendered":"Faith leaders across metro Phoenix speak on death of Charlie Kirk"},"content":{"rendered":"

The fatal shooting of conservative activist and Valley resident Charlie Kirk was acknowledged by faith leaders and religious institutions across metro Phoenix.<\/p>\n

Kirk, 31, was killed on Sept. 10 after a rooftop shooter opened fire during a stop on the activists’s “American Comeback” tour at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. Authorities identified the suspect as Tyler Robinson, 22, of Utah, who is now in custody.<\/p>\n

On Sept. 11, Kirk\u2019s body was flown back to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport aboard Air Force Two, accompanied by U.S. Vice President JD Vance.<\/p>\n

Influential figure: <\/strong>Charlie Kirk, a conservative political dynamo, inspired young people in Arizona, US<\/a><\/p>\n

Religious institutions in metro Phoenix swiftly offered their prayers and condolences to the Kirk family.<\/p>\n

“First and foremost, we commend the soul of Charlie Kirk to the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. May He welcome Charlie into eternal life, grant peace to his grieving family, and bring healing to all who loved him,” said Cristofer Pereyra, CEO of Tepeyac Leadership Inc., which is a leadership program for the development of Catholic professionals. “Charlie leaves behind a wife, children, colleagues, and countless young people he inspired. We unite ourselves to their sorrow, and we ask God to give them fortitude and consolation in this hour of grief.”<\/p>\n

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix Bishop John Dolan released a statement condemning political violence, addressing Kirk\u2019s slaying and the June 14 shooting death of Democratic Minnesota House Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman.<\/p>\n

“Such acts defy our nation\u2019s commitment to free speech and democratic participation,” read Dolan\u2019s Sept. 11 statement. “This violence violates an even deeper law \u2014 the law of peace and love. Political disagreement must never descend into bloodshed.”<\/p>\n

In a Sept. 11 Facebook post<\/a>, Peoria\u2019s nondenominational Christ Church of the Valley Pastor Ashley Wooldridge shared biblical scripture as he observed the taking of Kirk\u2019s life and the 24th anniversary of the 9\/11 attacks.<\/p>\n

“Paul was writing in a time of similar cultural upheaval and division, not unlike the present, ‘And yet I will show you the most excellent way,'” read a captioned image.<\/p>\n

Wooldridge\u2019s message mentioned Paul the Apostle\u2019s exulting in the principles of faith, hope and love.<\/p>\n

“The hope of our world is not politics, not control, not even safety,” Wooldridge\u2019s post read. “The hope of the world is Jesus.”<\/p>\n

Speaking to Kirk\u2019s killing, the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issued a statement on on Sept. 12: “We affirm our repeated calls to seek peace and unity despite our differences. Jesus Christ teaches us to love one another, that hate is wrong and that human life is sacred. We urge all to reject violence and instead build understanding.”<\/p>\n

Imam Omar Tawil of the Islamic Community Center of Tempe said he spoke about Kirk\u2019s shooting to about 3,000 congregants during three services on Sept. 12.<\/p>\n

“We do not condone any extrajudicially killing or vigilant justice or vigilante ideals of justice, whatever people may think that they were trying to do in gunning down a political speaker,” Tawil said he told congregants. “We are against that. We don’t believe that violence has a place in the realm of discourses.”<\/p>\n

Tawil added that Kirk “was someone who did also speak very ill about Islam and Muslims. He defended the genocide that is currently happening in Palestine, in the Gaza Strip<\/a>. And he was known to also publicly malign and insult the prophet of Islam, Prophet Muhammad<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

Charlie Kirk in his own words: <\/strong>What the conservative commentator believed<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The fatal shooting of conservative activist and Valley resident Charlie Kirk was acknowledged by faith leaders and religious…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":226128,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5131],"tags":[567,691,5229,5643,1587,8746,8573,80778,19719,39495,4446,6006,2488,11412,122298,2487,50128,2066,15916,451,635,7233,940,18361,450,457,1589,449,80,365,8577,80461,122299,645,2490,6003,66689,118607,646,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,83837,8572,8576,7223],"class_list":{"0":"post-226127","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-phoenix","8":"tag-abuse","9":"tag-ai","10":"tag-america","11":"tag-arizona","12":"tag-az","13":"tag-az-now","14":"tag-belief","15":"tag-charlie","16":"tag-charlie-kirk","17":"tag-christians","18":"tag-death","19":"tag-death-u0026-tragedy","20":"tag-enabled","21":"tag-faith","22":"tag-faith-religion","23":"tag-highlights","24":"tag-jd","25":"tag-jd-vance","26":"tag-kirk","27":"tag-negative","28":"tag-new","29":"tag-new-visitors-az","30":"tag-now","31":"tag-organizations","32":"tag-overall","33":"tag-overall-negative","34":"tag-phoenix","35":"tag-point","36":"tag-politics","37":"tag-religion","38":"tag-religion-u0026-belief","39":"tag-religious","40":"tag-religious-organizations","41":"tag-story","42":"tag-story-highlights-ai-enabled","43":"tag-tragedy","44":"tag-turning","45":"tag-turning-point","46":"tag-u0026","47":"tag-united-states","48":"tag-united-states-of-america","49":"tag-unitedstates","50":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","51":"tag-us","52":"tag-usa","53":"tag-vance","54":"tag-violence","55":"tag-violence-u0026-abuse","56":"tag-visitors"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}