Mourning around the world

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LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Up next, remembering Christian conservative Charlie Kirk.

SOUND: [Crowd singing "Amazing Grace"]

This week, hundreds of people gathered in Arlington Heights, Illinois—Charlie Kirk’s birthplace—to remember his legacy.

AUDIO: Charlie’s example showed us that political dialogue doesn’t have to be about shouting someone down, but about listening and engaging. Even when we see things differently.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And it wasn’t just Arlington Heights. People all over the country gathered for prayer vigils.

In Orem, Utah, the town where Kirk was shot, thousands gathered to pray and reminisce about how Kirk impacted them.

AUDIO: The last thing that he was doing was basically testifying that Jesus Christ was his Lord and Savior. Those were one of his last words before the next person got up to speak. And I’m so moved by that.

WORLD reporters attended a handful of those vigils to understand more about why people gathered. We begin with Emma Eicher who attended a memorial in Phoenix.

EMMA EICHER: On the Arizona State University campus, Dan Beazley stands outside holding a ten-foot tall cross made from cedar wood. It weighs 65 pounds.

DAN BEAZLEY: I built this cross four years ago, and God told me to bring it to wherever the darkest situations are around the country.

Last Wednesday, Beazley saw that someone killed conservative activist Charlie Kirk. So, he hopped in his truck and drove from Michigan to Arizona. He rolled into Phoenix on Friday night. And the next morning, he started a memorial outside Turning Point USA headquarters. Since then, hundreds of people have paid their respects. The sidewalks are covered in bouquets and handmade signs mourning Kirk.

The air smells like flowers wilting in 100 degree heat.

BEAZLEY: Everybody came up and just started to share their hearts with the community as to what they felt and what their love for Charlie, their love for God, their love for the country, their love for the Bible.

SOUND: [STADIUM CHATTER]

On Monday evening, Dan holds the cross outside the ASU Desert Arena for a vigil hosted by Turning Point USA. There’s 14,000 seats in the stadium and families, college kids, and older couples fill more than half of them. Nearly every person wears red colors, or a MAGA hat, or shirts that say “I Am Charlie Kirk,” and “Freedom.”

SOUND: [NATIONAL ANTHEM]

At 5:30pm, everyone stands with a hand over their heart as an ASU student sings the national anthem. And one by one, speakers take the stage.

Almost all of them knew Kirk personally. Troy Holderby is president of the College Republicans at Arizona State.

TROY HOLDERBY: I'd like to do a quick experiment. If Charlie Kirk had an impact on your life, can I hear you please?

[APPLAUSE]

Over the next 3 hours, 22 people honor Kirk’s legacy. Some call for political action in the wake of his murder, like conservative firebrand Jack Posobiec, who promises to take up Kirk’s mantle.

JACK POSOBIEC: Charlie Kirk will not have died in vain as long as I am alive. As long as there is blood in my veins and air in my lungs, I will make sure that the radical left, the media and the Democrats never forget the name of Charlie Kirk!

Others call for a different response, one rooted in Scripture.

STEPHEN DAVIS: Charles has left us with a clear set of instructions to read our Bible, to evangelize the gospel, to get married and have kids and fight for America. How about that for an idea?

[APPLAUSE]

A consistent theme appears throughout the night. Kirk was known publicly for being a prolific debater, but his coworkers and friends knew him as a family man who loved Christ. Tyler Bowyer is the Chief Operations Officer of Turning Point USA. He’s worked with Kirk from the very beginning.

TYLER BOWYER: A bunch of us kids, 20 something year olds, kids running a massive organization and turning into what Turning Point USA is today. But I’ll tell you, the biggest thing that I loved watching was watching him become a husband and a father.

Afterwards, outside the stadium, nearby speakers blast hymns. 31 year old Elijah Day says he’s taking the words from the vigil to heart.

ELIJAH DAY: There will be a reckoning. There will be a price to pay for the choice to murder a young man, a father of two children, a husband and a son of God. And I think all of us will stand for that, and we will be fighting as hard as we can going into 2026 and in the future.

And Dan Beazley is still standing outside, holding onto the cross as the crowd fades into the night.

BEAZLEY: Everybody just loves what Charlie stood for, and Charlie loved America, and he loved the cross, and that's why I'm here.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Emma Eicher in Phoenix.

Hundreds honor Charlie Kirk at a vigil in Ozark, Mo. Photo by Mary Reichard

REICHARD: On Sunday, I attended a vigil in the small town of Ozark, Missouri. Hundreds of faces in the town square were lit up with candles as music and testimonies filled the night.

Local organizer Jessica Wood framed the purpose to OzarksFirst.com:

WOOD: It’s an opportunity for the church to stand up and show everyone what it is to be a church. That you can handle a crisis like this and spread the Gospel.

Mourners prayed for the Kirk family, for the man charged for killing him, and for the soul of Iryna Zarutska, the woman slayed on public transit in North Carolina. And they prayed for the nation.

The founder of the local high school chapter for TPUSA spoke of Kirk’s influence:

HIGH SCHOOLER: Charlie Kirk inspired me to be the man I am today. He inspired me to immerse myself in the Christian faith and start my chapter.

For 18-year-old Luke Gordon, Kirk gave him courage:

GORDON: See him out there doing what nobody else would do. Going out there, promoting free speech and just having free debate with each other, listening to what people had to say. Not judging, but holding to his standards. Real debate. It’s really encouraged me to…I’ve always been kind of a quiet person and the back of the crowd type of guy. And it’s encouraged me to come out, really try to do something for this country. Because if I don’t do it, I shouldn’t expect you to.

Taylor Newsome is in his thirties, and he sees a movement afoot:

NEWSOME: Charlie lived his faith out loud. I mean, we live in an age where there’s a lot of lukewarm Christians who privatize their faith…He was the tip of the spear against woke ideology and he was pushing back against that…I’ve heard Turning Point has like 32,000 new chapters that people have signed up for, so looks like there’s already an amazing movement that’s taking place in his wake.

BROWN: The scene in the Missouri Ozarks was repeated many times around the world since last Wednesday’s assassination. Vigils in South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, and London:

LONDON AUDIO: And one thing Charlie Kirk did is he very much advocated against violence, especially political violence. He said when people stop talking, bad stuff starts.

And across the ocean in the Middle East...Jews and Christians were mourning the loss of Charlie Kirk. WORLD’s Travis Kircher is currently on assignment in Jerusalem, and has this report.

Jewish and Christian worshippers remember Charlie Kirk while on the steps of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Photo by Travis K. Kircher

SOUND: [Temple Mount singing]

TRAVIS KIRCHER: About three dozen pilgrims led by Rabbi Yehuda Glick ascended the Temple Mount in Jerusalem yesterday. They sang psalms and offered prayers in memory of slain conservative commentator, Charlie Kirk.

Glick described Kirk as a friend of Israel:

GLICK: Who inspired so many people around the world, mainly in his believing in dialogue. His main identity was dialogue. And here we are people who like him, loved Israel. Like him, loved Shabbat. And like him, understood the value of family.

While Jews worship freely at the Western Wall, the Temple Mount is administered by Muslims. Non-Muslim prayer is strictly forbidden at the site. In an unusual arrangement, often referred to as the status quo, Israeli police provide security to ensure that no Jewish or Christian religious activities occur on the Temple Mount except in limited areas.

About a half-dozen armed Israeli police escorted the pilgrims as nearby Muslims looked on.

Glick said Kirk’s true impact stemmed from his words, not the manner of his death.

GLICK: And I want you to understand: The fact that he was assassinated doesn't prove that every word he said was true. But he fought for the truth.

SOUND: [Temple Mount singing]

Reporting for WORLD, I'm Travis Kircher, in Jerusalem.

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