Hundreds gathered at Vintage Church in Harker Heights, Texas, for an event titled “Courageous Christianity” to remember the life of Charlie Kirk. Kirk, a controversial Christian nationalist, was killed by a gunman on the first stop of his American Comeback Tour at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10.
The tour was launched in October 2025 by Turning Point Faith Ministries, co-chaired by Rob McCoy, Kirk’s pastor and friend, and Christian musician Sean Feucht. The tour commemorates Kirk's life and legacy.
“I think it’s important in moments like this that we get a proper frame for what’s going on,” Vintage Church Pastor Stephen Martin reportedly said to the estimated 500 people in attendance.
Martin has been vocal about Kirk’s death and spearheaded the “Courageous Christianity” tour to visit his church, KDH News reports.
“You know the job of a pastor...is to give you a Biblical lens by which to see the natural world, what’s going on around you, your circumstances,” Martin added.
Addressing the congregation, Martin compared Kirk’s death to the stoning of Stephen in the Bible.
“When they can’t overcome your arguments, they turn to violence,” Martin added. “Stephen did not die because of how he spoke. It was the truth of which he spoke.”
Christians, however, remain divided on Kirk’s rhetoric. While many of the evangelical Christian right view Kirk as a martyr who died for his Christian faith and conservative ideas, nonwhite and non-evangelical voices see his legacy as racist and polarizing.
“Yes, I have long wanted Kirk’s voice to diminish ‒ but by disgrace or conversion, never by violence. Jesus loves Charlie Kirk because he loves us all,” Nathan Empsall, an Episcopal priest in New Haven, Connecticut, said in a Sept. 12 post on Substack.
Empsall’s church is known for its classes on Christian resistance to fascism and how to reject White Christian nationalism. He has made it clear to his congregation not to celebrate Kirk’s death because that, too, perpetuates violence. In his post, he added that he “weeps for both Kirk's assassination and for Kirk's legacy of hatred and harm."