'A Martyr For Truth and Faith and Memorial Plazas'

"The canonization of Charlie Kirk continued Sunday with a packed, jarring, often vicious memorial service - part MAGA rally, part revival meeting, with fireworks. The event in an Arizona football stadium hailed the right-wing bigot as a prophet, martyr, savior of Western civilization and just like Jesus or MLK Jr. despite his espousal of the racist replacement theory. His tearful widow said she forgave his killer because 'it is what Christ did.' The mad king said fuck that nonsense - he hates his enemies."

"In the ten days since Kirk’s assassination on a Utah campus by a lone shooter addicted to guns and video games with a murky, shifting political profile - raised MAGA, possibly moving left - Kirk, 31, has been sanitized, glorified, venerated, his death used as a cudgel to stifle political dissent. Though he founded Turning Point USA in 2012 largely as a pro-free-market organization, over time he slowly re-shaped it into an increasingly extremist, anti-democratic part of a Christian right that somehow fell under the spell of a crooked, blasphemous, sexually assaulting felon. 'He embodied the MAGA warrior,' boasted one fan. 'He was all Trump.' Little wonder, after his killing, that Christian nationalists claimed him as a martyr in their unholy war."

“ 'We know that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church,' said right-wing pastor Sean Feucht, vowing, 'The devil is not gonna win.' German Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller called Kirk 'a martyr for Jesus Christ' who 'gave his life in following his Lord,' charging he was 'the victim of an atheistic ideology whose followers erupted in Satanic celebration over (his) heinous murder.' He 'could have been the 13th disciple,' or at least a contender. He was a 'MAN OF STEEL' whose body, in an 'ABSOLUTE MIRACLE,' stopped a bullet from killing more people. He was 'a martyr for truth and faith' and a 'modern civil rights leader,' which is why some Okie MAGA pols want to mandate a Charlie Kirk Memorial Plaza and statue at every public university."

"Never mind the racist, tribal, divisive stands, the endless culture wars in the name of propping up white power structures, the weaponizing of Christian beliefs to marginalize those deemed 'un-Christian.' Almost 100,000 fans and followers of Kirk and Jesus streamed into State Farm Stadium in Glendale, AZ to celebrate their own white savior; noted Elon Musk, sweeping the fearsome scene, 'All for Charlie Kirk.' Some stood in line for hours in almost 100-degree heat, red, white and blue outfits wilting, trash piling up, sniper teams above them, merch on all sides: t-shirts reading 'Freedom,' 'MAGA,' 'In Loving Memory,' featuring Charlie with wings. One woman, who evidently didn’t get the somber memo, wore a Wisconsin cheese hat with 'R.I.P. Charlie.' "

Continued at link:

https://www.commondreams.org/further/a-martyr-for-truth-and-faith-and-memorial-plazas