Mourners pack Kennedy Center to pay respects to Charlie Kirk

By Jon Brown, Christian Post Reporter Monday, September 15, 2025People wait in line prior to a prayer vigil for political activist Charlie Kirk outside the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Sept. 14, 2025, in Washington, D.C. Kirk was shot and killed by a gunman on Sept. 10 while speaking at Utah Valley University. | Al Drago/Getty ImageWASHINGTON — Thousands of mourners, including White House cabinet officials and more than 80 members of Congress, packed the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to capacity on Sunday to pay their respects to Charlie Kirk.The event featured high-profile speakers that included House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, as well as HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., all of whom emphasized Kirk’s outspoken Christian faith. Attendees who spoke to The Christian Post said the late conservative political activist, who was assassinated last week in Utah by a 22-year-old who reportedly lived with a trans-identified partner and harbored leftist political views, has shown the need to continue Kirk’s strong but peaceful legacy.’Good versus evil’An orderly line of hundreds had already begun wrapping its way throughout the courtyard of the Kennedy Center more than an hour before the event began, despite hours of notice regarding the location that had a heavy police presence.Line for Charlie Kirk vigil at Kennedy Center is already wrapping around the building an hour before it begins. Location was announced hours ago.“I think it’s just absolutely incredible, and this is just a very small portion of our country,” the woman next to me in line said. pic.twitter.com/M1lpOnvFiH— Jon Brown (@JonBrownDC) September 14, 2025 “It’s just absolutely incredible,” said Hilary Jackson, the chapter chair of Moms For Liberty in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, who traveled more than five hours from the Cleveland area to attend the vigil as soon as she learned where it was.Dressed in a shirt she made that was emblazoned in bold letters with the word “freedom” to resemble that which Kirk wore when he was shot, Jackson told CP she was hoping to meet Kirk in person at the Moms for Liberty National Summit in October.She suggested Kirk’s death potentially marks a turning point in a larger spiritual battle in which the dividing lines are becoming increasingly unmistakable.”I think that there is a revival happening in this country, where we are clearly seeing not a difference of Right or Left, or red or blue, but a difference between good and evil,” she said as nearby protesters screeched profane messages against President Donald Trump through a megaphone.”I think for the first time in a long time, people are actually recognizing that, and they are starting to be able to distinguish the difference between good and evil, and not hiding behind a party to justify certain actions.”Dawn Erckenbrack, whose daughters recently graduated college, told CP that Kirk’s legacy was multi-generational. She noted she came to honor Kirk because of “the influence he’s had on young people and people my age as well.”She believes many of those on the Left who have openly celebrated Kirk’s assassination “really don’t understand what he was all about.” She said Kirk never personally retaliated against those who attacked or hated him.”I really wonder the depth to which they’ve watched his videos,” she said. “He was never rude to anyone. He was always courteous. He never attacked the person.”‘A dark shadow’Trevor McKay, a Christian man at the vigil in his early 20s, told CP he admired Kirk because he was “unafraid and unashamed of who he was,” which is a trait he hopes will inspire other young men. He noted he has personally observed that many of them have been making a rightward shift.”I think everyone in the conservative movement is sort of feeling the same right now,” he said of Kirk’s death. “It’s important to be together, come out and show that we’re not afraid, despite this sort of domestic terrorism that’s coming from the Left. We’re not afraid to do what Kirk was doing and continue his legacy.”Kirk’s vigil came weeks after the Kennedy Center hosted the premiere of “The Revival Generation,” a documentary that highlighted the large Christian revival movements on college campuses in recent years amid what some perceive as a growing spiritual hunger among young men especially.The premiere took place the same day a 23-year-old trans-identifying man murdered Catholic children as they prayed at the Church of the Annunciation in Minneapolis, Minnesota.During his eulogy at the vigil, Speaker Johnson suggested that Kirk’s murder has continued to expose a gathering spiritual darkness that has rattled even those in power.”It’s as if a dark shadow was cast over our country, and certainly here, even on Capitol Hill, the leaders of the nation have been shaken, as have university students and college students and young people all across the country,” he said. “It’s as if the ground was shifted beneath us.””We remember that our dear friend Charlie would never want us to be overcome by despair. He would want exactly the opposite. You know, Charlie Kirk recruited, trained, and educated a generation of happy warriors. And we do well to be reminded that the best way to honor his memory… pic.twitter.com/nLJhkyumJo— The Kennedy Center (@kencen) September 14, 2025 Johnson emphasized his belief that Kirk would doubtless have encouraged those who admired him to stay faithful and remain steadfast in hope.”We remember that our dear friend, Charlie, would never want us to be overcome by despair; he would want exactly the opposite,” he said. “Charlie Kirk recruited and trained and educated a generation of happy warriors, and we do well to be reminded that the best way to honor his memory and honor his unmatched legacy is to live as Charlie did.”‘We can die with our boots on’Shouts of “USA!” shook the room as Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took to the podium to deliver a message of courage and forgiveness in the theater named after his murdered uncle.He began by noting that his 17-year-old niece recently tucked a Bible into her suitcase before heading to Europe for school, telling her mother, “I want to live like Charlie Kirk.” He said Kirk’s Christian faith and devotion to American principles were inextricable.”The overarching mission of Charlie Kirk was Jesus and also free speech, and he saw that these were intertwined,” said Kennedy.”I had a conversation once with Charlie where we talked about the danger we both faced from challenging entrenched interests. He asked me if I was scared to die. I said, there are a lot worse things than dying… Charlie gave his life so the rest of us wouldn’t have to suffer… pic.twitter.com/fT1kn8tH4U— The Kennedy Center (@kencen) September 15, 2025 Kennedy, who expressed love for his family last year after they publicly denounced him, mocked him and accused him of betraying his father’s legacy by endorsing Trump, emphasized the importance of extending grace to those who lash out with hatred and fear.”We need to reach out with love to the people on the other side who are asleep, and who are too frightened and too manic and too controlled to understand what they are losing, and we need to protect those things until they wake up,” he said.Kennedy, who was 14 years old when his father was assassinated in 1968, spoke of growing through grief and also shared a private conversation he had with Kirk about the potential of being killed for standing up against evil.”We were talking about the danger that we both face in challenging entrenched interests,” he said. “And he asked me if I was scared to die, and I said, ‘There’s a lot worse things than dying.'””Chief among these is losing our constitutional rights, and having our children raised in slavery. What I said to him at that time is, ‘Sometimes our only consolation is that we can die with our boots on. We can die fighting for these things,'” he continued, drawing raucous applause.”Charlie gave his life so that the rest of us would not have to suffer those fates worse than death. Now it’s our job, that he’s no longer there to lead us, to rush in and fill the breach and win this battle for our country, for God and for our families.”Jon Brown is a reporter for The Christian Post. Send news tips to jon.brown@christianpost.com