When he stepped to the podium at Alfred Street Baptist Church in Alexandria, Virginia, last Sunday, Rev. Dr. Howard-John Wesley, the senior pastor, had a message for his congregation about the broad-daylight murder of Charlie Kirk, the far-right political activist.
Within an hour of the end of the 8 a.m. service, the entire world had heard what he said; Kirk didn’t deserve to die, but he was no hero, either.
“I’m overwhelmed to see the nation’s flag flying half-staff for a man who was a proud racist and spent his entire life sowing seeds of division and hatred into this land,” Wesley told the congregation in a video that immediately went viral as soon as it was posted. “And then these hypocrites with selective rage who are mad about Charlie Kirk but didn’t say anything about [Democratic lawmaker] Melissa Hortman and her husband when they were gunned down in their living room.”
As the shock waves of Kirk’s assassination on Sept. 10 continued to reverberate, Wesley and other Black pastors across the country grappled with how to respond to the killing. Kirk, whose combative, racially incendiary rhetoric made him a darling of the right — and a Trump administration insider — as well as a lightning rod for critics.
Balancing Sympathy and Truth
Almost to a person, the Black ministers who spoke about Kirk in their Sunday sermons and messages condemned the violence, declaring that Kirk’s murder was unjustified. They recalled the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders who used the church to call for justice, peace, and civic engagement.
But they also argued that, like King, their duty in this historic moment is to offer moral clarity, not partisan fervor.
In sermons and statements, they condemned Kirk’s message, which included attacks on racial equity efforts, LGBTQ rights, social justice, and even King himself. They pointed out that Kirk’s rhetoric fueled division and endangered marginalized communities. And they warned that, despite the outpouring of shock and sympathy over his death, Kirk is not a martyr.
I can be sorry about your death and not celebrate your life.
Rev. Dr. Howard-John Wesley, Alfred Street Baptist Church, Alexandria, Va.
Those values were on display in Wesley’s sermon. He donned the prophetic mantle and said Kirk’s death at the hands of an assassin, in front of a crowd of thousands of young people at a Utah rally, does not outweigh his life.
“There’s nowhere in the Bible where we’re told to honor evil,” he said. “How you die does not redeem how you lived. Your death does not make you a hero, one who should be honored or respected. I can be sorry about your death and not celebrate your life.”
He went on: “It’s tiring being Black in America. It’s exhausting defending your existence everywhere you go. It’s an assault on my identity to keep seeing this nonsense in our nation, and I am overwhelmed.”
‘America is a Powder Keg’
In the same vein, Senior Pastor Rev. Dr. Gina M. Stewart addressed her congregation at Christ Missionary Baptist Church in Memphis — the next city Trump has slated for occupation by the National Guard.
“I cannot act like violence is not real, particularly in a city that is Black and in a congregation that is Blackety Black. America is a powder keg waiting to explode,” Stewart said. “I am weary of the rhetoric that is so filled with venom and hatred that poisons our common life.”
While Kirk did not personally advocate for violence, he was known for rhetoric ”that fuels division and even death,” she said, pointing out “unfounded and unfair retaliation against those on the so-called left” that had nothing to do with Kirk’s murder.
“Several of our HBCUs were even targeted — a chilling reminder of how quickly violence can be sanctified, baptized, and how easily hate can dress itself up as virtue,” Stewart said.”
No Comparison With King
Dr. Frederick Douglass Haynes III, senior pastor of Friendship West Baptist Church in Dallas, rebuked those who compared Kirk’s murder to King’s assassination.
“A white Christian Nationalist gets killed, not assassinated,” Haynes said. “Martin King was assassinated. Medgar Evers was assassinated. Malcolm X was assassinated. Don’t compare Kirk to King.”
“I’m anti-political violence. Kirk should still be alive,” he said. “I don’t agree with anything Kirk said. What he said was dangerous. It was racist. It was rooted in white supremacy.
But he should still be alive, playing with his kids. I don’t want anybody to be victimized by political violence.”
He then lit into anyone who would say Kirk’s murder goes against American values.
“If you ever say ‘America, we’re better than this,’ you’re lying,” he said. “We’re not better than this. America was born in political violence. Committed political violence in the slave trade. Committed political violence with ‘strange fruit’ on Southern trees. Committed political violence against the Irish and against Italians — before they became white.”
