Kirk Memorial’s religious and political mixing alludes to the future of the Maga movement

The event honoring the conservative activist Charlie Kirk in a stadium in Arizona was a swirling mixture of commemorative service, Christian religious renewal and conservative political rally.

He also provided an overview of a republican party in a fork on the road, weighing a choice between forgiveness and retribution; reconciliation and conflict.

The main lights of the Make America coalition again from President Donald Trump gathered for a celebration of several hours of Kirk’s life, which included music and many speeches.

The event gave an overview of the potential direction of the Trump Magi movement, more than a decade after it emerged and upset the American policy.

Despite the chain of eminent politicians who speak on Sunday evening, the decisive moment came when Erika Kirk, Charlie’s widow, went on stage. The former candidate, podcaster and 36 -year -old businesswoman, took the opportunity to preach the unit – including forgiveness for her husband’s killer.

“The response to hatred is not hatred,” she said, her cute voice. “The answer, we know of the Gospel, is love and always love. Love for our enemies and love for those who persecute us.”

It was a powerful speech by a woman who quickly found her place in the hardestrum of the spotlight. Last week, Turning Point USA named her the head of the organization of the conservatives that her late husband founded, a group that is rinking with new energy and a new determination in the aftermath of Kirk’s murder.

Sunday evening, Erika Kirk has strength and character as an effective public face for the USA turning point.

She could finally become a formidable candidate for the public service in her Arizona house, a key political political state. His words also offered a contrast to the bomb and the confrontation that characterized most of modern American policy.

If Erika Kirk offered an overview of a nicer and softer future for the conservative movement, Donald Trump, who spoke immediately after her, quickly recalled that today’s republican party can have very different priorities.

“I hate my opponents and I don’t want what is best for them,” said Trump with a little laugh. “Now Erika can talk to me and the whole group and maybe they can convince me that it’s not good, but I can’t stand my opponent.”

Trump’s remarks come just one day after a social position in which the president demanded that his Ministry of Justice are continuing his political enemies – including the Senator of California Adam Schiff, the former director of the FBI James Comey and the Prosecutor General of New York Letitia James.

The president also announced that he had dismissed a federal prosecutor who had recently announced that there was not enough evidence to instill James with a crime, replacing him with one of his former defense lawyers.

Trump’s comments in the commemorative service were shocked for the occasion, but he was not the only speaker to use the time to promise an action against “enemies”.

“We are the storm,” said Stephen Miller’s main advisor. “Our enemies cannot understand our strength, our determination, our determination, our passion.”

He continued by saying that the conservatives would fight for Western culture and traditions and that their adversaries have only wickedness and jealousy.

“You have no idea of ​​the dragon you woke up,” he said.

While the event had its discordant notes, the general theme is akin to a religious renewal – recalling the crusades of the Billy Graham tent of the 1930s and 1940s or the “great awakenings” of the 19th century.

The commemorative service has celebrated Christianity by Charlie Kirk and has promised a new enthusiasm among young Americans for traditional values ​​with an evangelical fervor.

Tens of thousands of supporters have packed the stadium and millions of others looked online. These figures are sure to encourage conservative leaders who want to see Christianity playing a more central role in American public and political life – a vision that Kirk himself has expressed on several occasions.

“The political body of America was so Christian and so Protestant that our form and our structure of government were built for the people who believed in Christ our Lord,” said Kirk in 2024. “You cannot have freedom if you have no Christian population.”

Although Christianity has decreased in the United States in recent years, it is still the majority faith. Most surveys show that young Americans are less religious than their elders, which indicates that new changes could be in store.

Kirk’s death can cause a religious awakening among young Americans. If this is not the case, however, the evangelical rhetoric on Sunday evening could exclude as much as it is united – exacerbating more cultural and political divisions in the nation.

We are only nine months after Trump’s second term, but Sunday evening can also be an opening skirmish during the republican presidential appointment competition of 2028.

Three potential contenders – Vice -president JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the Secretary of Health Robert F Kennedy Jr – had important speech slots.

All three spoke of the importance of their relationship with Kirk and their personal religion – providing more targeted traditional praise that contrasts strongly with Trump’s speech. But there was still a prospective political advantage.

“For Charlie, we will rebuild these United States from America to grandeur,” said Vance. “For Charlie, we will never shrink, we will never curl up, and we will never vacillate, even when we look at the cannon of a pistol.”

Kennedy described how Kirk “changed the trajectory of history” – and the risks of difficult “rooted” interests. Rubio congratulated Kirk for inspiring the Americans to “live a productive life, get married, start a family, love your country”.

Trump, of course, was an eminent speaker during the rally, but the President of the United States was not the dominant force as he is often during political events.

The conservatives on Sunday began to taste those who could become key actors on the national scene once Trump leaves the scene.

Speaking of key players, Sunday evening saw the return of one of the most important figures at the start of Trump’s second term.

Elon Musk Multi-Millionaire Technologique, who was a confident close to Trump before a dramatic audience fell in June, visited the president’s box during the Phoenix event and had what seemed to be a friendly conversation.

“I thought it was good,” Trump told journalists afterwards. “He came; we had a conversation.”

Musk, who directed Trump’s “Ministry of Efficiency” earlier this year, supervised federal layoffs and attempted budget reduction.

However, he broke up with the president on a Congress expenditure bill of $ 3.4 billion, and later promised to start his own political party.

Trump -Musk reconciliation was certainly not the most important development of the commemorative service, but it can be one of the most unexpected – and who knows where it can lead.