Erika Kirk, the widow of slain right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, concluded her eulogy for him on Sunday by saying that she was “tremendously honored” to be the new chief executive of Turning Point USA, the nonprofit and affiliated advocacy organizations he cofounded more than a decade ago to promote conservative ideology among young people.
With that appointment, Kirk has become one of the most prominent figures in the country’s Christian conservative movement.
“Charlie and I were united in purpose. His passion was my passion and now his mission is my mission,” Erika Kirk told the tens of thousands of people gathered in an Arizona stadium for her husband’s memorial service, including President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance.
“Everything that Turning Point USA built through Charlie’s vision and hard work, we will make 10 times better, through the power of his memory. Chapters will grow, thousands of new ones will be created, Turning Point USA Faith will add thousands of new pastors and congregations and, yes, campus events will continue,” she said.
Charlie Kirk, 31, was shot and killed nearly two weeks ago as he spoke at Utah Valley University during the relaunch of a campus tour in which he debated students on issues related to his conservative, Christian ideology. A single bullet struck him in the neck as he was answering a question about the degree to which transgender individuals are responsible for mass shootings. Kirk, who opposed gun control laws, answered that there were “too many.” According to the Gun Violence Archive, only five — or 0.1 percent — of mass shootings in the United States over the past decade have been committed by trans people.
He staked out far-right positions on a variety of social issues, including gender roles and gender identity. He called for a ban on gender-affirming care and encouraged students and parents to report educators who teach that gender can be fluid or nonbinary. In June, when speaking to Turning Point USA’s 10th annual Young Women’s Leadership Summit, he encouraged attendees to trade feminism for femininity and to forgo a career to stay home and raise children.
In a Zoom call for Turning Point USA employees after his death, Erika Kirk said she would carry on her husband’s mission exactly as he had planned, CNN reported.
In her eulogy, she said she has forgiven the killer, noting that her husband “wanted to save young men just like the one who took his life.”
Here is what we know about Erika Kirk, the new leader of Turning Point USA:
-
Read Next:
She has her own public profile
Erika Kirk, 36, played a prominent role supporting her husband, but she also has had a public profile of her own since winning the Miss Arizona pageant in 2012. She hosts podcasts related to her Christian faith, leads an online Bible study group, founded a faith-based clothing line and also a nonprofit organization called “Everyday Heroes Like You.”
She grew up in Scottsdale, Arizona, graduated from Arizona State University with a degree in political science and international relations, received a master’s degree in legal studies from Liberty University and, according to her website, is pursuing a doctorate in Biblical Studies.
As her husband focused on young men, Erika Kirk took a special interest in mentoring young women. In recent podcast episodes, she shared her postpartum experience (the Kirks have two young children, a boy and a girl) and recounted how she met, dated and married her husband.
His world “engulfed” her
The Kirks met at a Turning Point USA event and began dating after Charlie traveled to New York, where Erika was living at the time, and interviewed her for a job.
In a recent interview with the New York Times, Erika said Charlie told her he wanted to date her, not hire her, and then “he engulfed me into his world.” She noted they had an “Ephesians 5” marriage, a nod to the Bible verse that calls on women to submit to their husbands and for men to love and cherish their wives as Christ loved the church. “It’s so hard to articulate the beauty of an Ephesians 5 marriage when you actually have a man that’s worth following,” she told the newspaper.
(John Locher/AP)
She believes in traditional gender roles
“Your wife is not your servant. Your wife is not your employee. Your wife is not your slave. She is your helper. You are not rivals. You are one flesh working together for the glory of God,” Kirk said of her husband during the eulogy.
She added: “I was his vault, his closest and most trusted adviser, his best friend.”
Kirk said her husband wrote her love notes every Saturday. She described them to the New York Times as fulfillments of his Ephesian promise to cherish her by asking a version of the question, “How can I best serve you?”
“I knew my expectations and role, and he knew his,” she told the newspaper. “I wasn’t going to be the nagging wife who he wouldn’t want to come home to. I wanted to create a sacred landing space for him.”
She encourages motherhood
A key component of marriage for Erika Kirk is having and raising Christian children.
At the Young Women’s Leadership Summit in June, she called for the “revival of Biblical womanhood,” a concept that emphasizes separate and complementary gender roles in Christian, heterosexual relationships. “The enemy loves to make you feel like you’re running out of time, but you can always have a career, it is not going anywhere … but children, family, your husband, marriages, that is not a renewable resource,” Erika Kirk said. “Don’t delay the eternal for temporary and do not sacrifice the sacred for the secular, it is not worth it.”
During her eulogy for her husband, she said: “If you’re a mother, please recognize that is the single most important ministry you have.”
Her views on marriage have evolved
At the Young Women’s Leadership Summit, Kirk noted that she was raised by a single mother who encouraged her to always be able to take care of herself.
Meeting Charlie changed her views.
“When you meet the right man, everything shifts, everything changes. When I met Charlie, that was it. I could care less about the career,” she said at the summit. “Motherhood is not a pause — it’s a launchpad.”
Her husband described her as more conservative
In her podcasts and public appearances, Kirk has focused on marriage and motherhood. Unlike her husband, she has not delved into many specifics about political issues or policy positions.
Still, in an episode of the “Charlie Kirk Show” last year, her husband indicated in response to a listener’s question that she was more conservative of the two of them.
“By far. Not even close. I am a moderate compared to Erika,” he said.
She agreed.
Great Job Amanda Becker & the Team @ The 19th Source link for sharing this story.
