Editor’s note: This column mentions political violence and includes several sexist, racist, queerphobic, and otherwise objectionable quotations. Reader discretion advised.
After the horrific public murder of Charlie Kirk, things got very religious very quickly.
Turning Point USA, the organization founded by Kirk in 2012, began selling an “exclusive memorial tee” featuring a drawing of Kirk paired with a Bible quote. The shirt is marketed as “a bold statement of faith, conviction, and leadership.”
Right-wing YouTuber Benny Johnson appeared on Fox News to call Kirk “a true martyr, in the true Christian sense.”
Catholic cardinal Timothy Dolan also appeared on Fox News and said that Kirk is “a modern-day Saint Paul. He’s a missionary. He’s an evangelist. He’s a hero.”
U.S. representative Troy Nehls (R-TX) publicly stated, “I would say, if Charlie Kirk lived in the Biblical times, he’d have been the thirteenth disciple.”
Turning Point USA spokesman Andrew Kolvet tweeted about a discussion “with the surgeon who worked on Charlie at the hospital.” He quotes the doctor saying that Kirk’s body had bone so amazingly dense “that he’s like the man of steel,” bone that stopped a speeding bullet and saved all the people behind him and outside the tent in which he was speaking. “It was an absolute miracle,” concludes the medical man.
Given the connections in the United States between right-wing politics, conservative Christianity, and their outspoken promoters in corporate media and social media, none of this was particularly surprising or truly that much of a deviation from ordinary day-to-day proclamations from that corner of the culture.
The thing that actually made me say “oh, my f—ing god” out loud when I saw it was the clip of Kash Patel standing at a podium during a press conference and directly addressing the deceased Kirk.
“Rest now, brother,” he somberly intoned. “We have the watch, and I’ll see you in Valhalla.”
Walhall (Valhalla) by Emil Doepler (c. 1905) [Public Domain]
FBI director Kash Patel (a Hindu) stood next to Utah governor Spencer Cox (a Mormon) and said he would reunite with Charlie Kirk (an evangelical Christian) in Valhalla (a Norse pagan divine location).
For all the MAGA movement’s railing against diversity, equity, and inclusion, that scene sure was a melting pot of strange religious bedfellows.
Maybe Patel was trying to sound like a tough-guy military man. Maybe he plays a lot of video games. Maybe he really likes Marvel movies. I don’t know. I don’t really care.
As someone who studies and writes on Norse mythology while practicing Ásatrú – a modern religion that revives, reconstructs, and reimagines the ancient polytheism of Northern Europe – what is so striking to me is that, in the midst of the sanctification of Kirk as “a martyr now for American freedom,” a MAGA inside leader also felt compelled to use the Old Icelandic name of Odin’s hall for warriors slain in battle as the most appropriate afterlife location for a right-wing Christian provocateur.
I’m not going to pontificate on who can and can’t get into Valhalla. I’m not really interested in where people I’ve never met think they’re going after they die. That’s not even a branch of modern Ásatrú theology in which I spend much time.
The theology that I care about centers on deeds in this life, in this world. The theology in which I’m invested focuses on our actions and the consequences of those actions, not in the afterlife but in our own lives.
Action and fate
Kirk’s fans, followers, and friends have performed endless tributes. They have lowered flags nationwide in his honor. They have held vigils and memorial events.
They have discussed his murder in religious terms, including Norse pagan religious terms. By doing so, they have opened the door for someone like me to join the discussion.
Let’s have that discussion.
Nearly a decade ago, I wrote about the concept of wyrd in Heathen theology and how it is built on a combination of action and fate.
These two concepts seem quite different on the surface level, as those of us raised in a modern western worldview tend to make a distinction between (1) the actions we take of our own free will and (2) the futures that are fated to occur by some deity or supernatural force.
However, for Heathens who believe that “we are our deeds,” the two ideas are inextricably linked. What actions you have taken in the past determine what fate awaits you in the future. This is not mystical predetermination at the whim of an omniscient and omnipotent deity but rather a system of cause and effect determined by actions here on Midgard, the world we inhabit.
This is also not an ideology of rugged individualism in which each Romantic hero singlehandedly determines his own destiny in a triumph of the will. Although your actions add color, weight and strength to the thread of your life, that thread continues to tie you back to your beginnings at birth. As you move through time, your thread is woven together with those of many others to form the tapestry of wyrd. Together, these two basic concepts underscore the connectedness that is at the heart of a Heathen worldview.
Given this theology, the question I have is this: what would we have done if Charlie Kirk had been a prominent member of our wider Heathen community?
In other words, given the theological emphasis on our deeds in this life and the necessary interconnectedness between all of us living on this planet, what actions would we have taken in response to Kirk’s career of commentary?
What if a Heathen said these things?
As a prominent media personality on the right, Kirk’s words were his deeds. He made his living and his mark by writing books, hosting radio shows and podcasts, and speaking on college campuses.
Let’s look at his words. Let’s ask ourselves, what would we do if a modern Heathen leader said these things and claimed – as Kirk did repeatedly – that these words are an expression of his faith?
On empathy for others
“I can’t stand the word empathy. Actually, I think empathy is a made-up new-age term that does a lot of damage.” (The Charlie Kirk Show, 12 October 2022)
On the victims of gun violence
“I think it’s worth it. I think it’s worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year, so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights. That is a prudent deal. It is rational.” (Turning Point USA Faith event, Salt Lake City, 5 April 2023)
On the causes of the October 7 attacks in Israel
“Jewish donors have been the number one funding mechanism of radical, open-border, neo-liberal, quasi-Marxist policies, cultural institutions, and nonprofits. This is a beast created by secular Jews, and now it’s coming for Jews, and they’re like, what on earth happened?” (The Charlie Kirk Show, 26 October 2023)
“Jews have been some of the largest funders of cultural Marxist ideas and supporters of those ideas over the last thirty or forty years… Until you cleanse that ideology from the hierarchy in the academic elite of the West, there will not be a safe future.” (The Charlie Kirk Show, 7 November 2023)
On U.S. Olympic gymnast Simone Biles surviving sexual assault and facing mental health challenges
“I don’t know if she was ever sexually assaulted or abused. So, I don’t, I don’t know what she’s been through… You’re representing your nation, you selfish sociopath… We are raising a generation of weak people like Simone Biles. Again, if you want to be – if she got all these mental problems, don’t show up.” (The Charlie Kirk Show, 27 July 2021)
On the qualifications of African-American professionals
“If I see a Black pilot, I’m gonna be like, boy, I hope he’s qualified… So, I see this guy – he might be a nice person – I say, boy, I hope he’s not a Harvard-style affirmative action student that has points – he landed half of his flight-simulator trials… And, by the way, then you couple it with the FAA, air-traffic control, they got a bunch of morons and affirmative action people.” (The Charlie Kirk Show, 18 January 2024)
“When it comes to pilots or surgeons, if I see somebody who is Black, as I said on the show, I’m going to hope that that person is qualified. That’s what I said, which of course is legitimate, because they’re begging the question. We’re not hiring based on merit anymore. We’re hiring based on race. So, when you see a black pilot, you wonder, boy, is that person there because they earned it, or because they were placed there?” (Charlie Kirk YouTube channel, 3 June 2025)
“If we would have said that Joy Reid and Michelle Obama and Sheila Jackson Lee and Ketanji Brown Jackson were affirmative action picks, we would have been called racist, but now they’re coming out, and they’re saying it for us. They’re coming out, and they’re saying, I’m only here because of affirmative action. Yeah, we know. You do not have the brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously. You had to go steal a white person’s slot to be taken somewhat seriously… It’s very obvious to us that you were not smart enough to be able to get in on your own. I could not make it in on my own, so I needed to take opportunities from someone more deserving.” (The Charlie Kirk Show, 13 July 2023)
(Note: Charlie Kirk’s post-high-school education consisted of one semester at a community college.)
On the civil rights movement
“The Civil Rights Act… let’s be clear, created a beast, and that beast has now turned into an anti-white weapon.” (“Jeremy Carl: It’s Okay to Be White,” undated video from The Charlie Kirk Show)
“Actually, MLK [Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.] was awful. Okay? He’s not a good person. He said one good thing he actually didn’t believe… We made a huge mistake when we passed the Civil Rights Act in the mid-1960s.” (Turning Point USA America Fest, December 2023)
On transgender people and doctors who provide transgender care
“The one issue, I think, that is so against our senses, so against the natural law, and – dare I say – a throbbing middle finger to God, is the transgender thing happening in America right now… You hear that, William Thomas? You’re an abomination to God.” (Video posted by Right Wing Watch, 11 September 2023)
“I blame the decline of American men – this never should have been – you know, you should of, someone should of just took care of it, the way we used to take care of things in the 1950s or 60s. But, you know, as you have, have testosterone rates go down and men start acting like women, and they don’t do anything, then – hey, who’s to say? Look, there are a lot of sick people in the world, unfortunately, and without the strength to go against them, the country’s gonna completely [clip ends].” (The Charlie Kirk Show, 2023)
“These doctors need to be put in prison quickly. We need to have a Nuremberg-style trial for every gender-affirming clinic doctor. We need it immediately.” (The Charlie Kirk Show, 1 April 2024)
I don’t want to hear any hooey claiming he didn’t really say these things, that he didn’t really mean these things, that these things are taken out of context. I’ve provided links for each one.
He did, indeed, say these things. He said them with righteous conviction. He said them in the context of his own broadcasts and his own events. In some cases, he said them to rapturous applause from his faithful fans.
If his followers are so determined to deny that he said what he said, that itself is confirmation of the grossness of the various proclamations.
If they embrace what he said, that tells us something about where a goodly proportion of the Christian Right now stands on major issues.
My own question is where those who practice my own faith (or something like it) stand on all of this.
I know where I stand, and it’s not with these awful statements.
Threats and violence
The murder of Charlie Kirk was shocking. It was horrifying. It was vile.
Responding to hateful statements with deadly force does not erase the statements. As we have been witnessing, it can actually elevate the victim to something approaching sainthood.
I’ve been the target of various threats of violence over the years for my own statements from a progressive Ásatrú perspective. They’ve ranged from corny online posturing (some random wannabe tough guy on Facebook challenging me to a formal boxing match) to declarations serious enough to involve the FBI (calls for my murder posted by a white nationalist Heathen on a number of websites and online forums).
To consider making such threats suggests that one is emotionally broken and intellectually stunted. To actually make them strengthens the claim. To act upon them proves it.
Charlie Kirk’s murderer is a failure. A loser. It doesn’t matter at all to me what his motivation was, defense is, or politics may be. If the authorities have the right person, and he’s found guilty in a court of law, he deserves to spend the rest of his life in prison. Period.
Rightfully denouncing the murder of Kirk as the despicable act of a disgusting schmuck doesn’t mean that we have to celebrate Kirk’s career of ugly statements. Death, no matter how violent, doesn’t magically turn hateful words into sacred deeds.
But I still need to answer my own question.
If Charlie Kirk had been a prominent Heathen and insisted that all of the statements quoted above were rooted in his Heathen faith, how would Heathens have responded?
Given the past half-century of racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, Islamophobia, and anti-Semitism burning through swaths of the worldwide Heathen population, I have grave doubts about how Heathens would have responded.
But I have strong convictions about how Heathens should have responded.
What we should do
If a Heathen with Kirk’s platform and popularity had been regularly ranting against empathy, victims of gun violence, victims of anti-Semitic terrorism, victims of sexual assault, those facing mental health challenges, African-Americans, transgender people, and on and on and on, the path should have been clear. The actions should have been obvious.
Ban spouters of hate from our communities.
Yes, they have the right to say all those things. We don’t have to listen. We don’t have to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with them in our rites and celebrations. We don’t have to keep peace with and share the drinking horn with those who forward views attacking those we love and care about.
Let others know the hateful ones don’t represent us.
Yes, I’ve written repeatedly about empty declarations meaning far less than determined deeds. But in a case like this, where someone’s hatefulness is specifically and explicitly being linked to a faith we share (in name, if not in spirit), we do have to let the wider world know that this is not us. We have to be proactive in speaking to media, government, and watchdog organizations outside of our little Heathen bubbles.
Lift our own voices and speak out.
Yes, Kirk built a huge fanbase by catering to that fanbase’s prejudices. It’s a lot harder to get folks to listen when you’re appealing to their better nature. I do believe that Heathens of positive intent have a responsibility to not just push back against the hateful ones who share their faith but to actively offer a better alternative. Don’t just offer a critique. Offer something more positive and more meaningful.
Build a progressive public theology.
Yes, it does sometimes seem like faith and conservative are synonyms in American discourse. It almost always feels like that. This has not always actually been true, and it’s not true now. I believe that we should build a modern theology that fusses less over how many parts the soul has or where those parts go after death and instead focuses on engaging with the major issues of our time from a progressive Ásatrú perspective. Faith matters. Let’s discuss the ways in which it does.
Get rid of the f—ing guns.
Yes, there is bloody violence in Norse mythology and Northern European history. That doesn’t mean our modern faith has to embrace your gun fetish as a religious imperative. If you watched the video of Kirk’s murder – and I don’t recommend doing so – you saw the real horror of gun violence, of what bullets do to bodies. So, I don’t want to hear about your weird ritual of rubbing blood on rifles to make them holy in the eyes of the gods or whatever. I don’t want you to show up to our Midsummer celebration with a bunch of pistols because Odin loves guns or some crap. Keep that freakish nonsense away from the rest of us and let us live in peace without your weird firearm fixation. I don’t agree with Kirk that the loss of our lives is “a prudent deal” for your gun collecting hobby. You have more in common with Kirk’s despicable shooter than you do with any decent person.
No, really. Get rid of the f—ing guns.
Yes, Kirk’s murder is a tragedy for his family. It absolutely is. But let’s not ignore that, as of September 25, there have already been 10,911 gun deaths in the United States this year (including 317 mass shootings, 750 teens killed, and 175 children killed). We’ve been told for years that #AllLivesMatter, but it sure seems like some still matter a lot more than others. Where are the tears, testimonials, and lowered flags for all of the non-podcaster victims of this nation’s psychotic obsession with guns? No more thoughts and prayers. At the very least, we need a new amendment and a nationwide buyback. Anything less, and we’ll just watch those numbers continue to skyrocket forever.
Let’s get serious. Let’s push back on the hate and violence with positive words and helpful deeds. Let’s step into the public sphere and make our voices heard. Let’s get involved in organizations that actually work for positive change. Let’s get rid of the f—ing guns.
I don’t think any of this will get us into Valhalla, but it might make a real difference here in Midgard.
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