FILE PHOTO: Charlie Kirk, Turning Point USA founder, puts on a MAGA hat during the AmericaFest 2024 conference sponsored by conservative group Turning Point in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S. December 19, 2024. REUTERS/Cheney Orr/File Photo

Far-right MAGA pundit Candace Owens is claiming that Turning Point USA's Charlie Kirk was getting ready to convert to Catholicism near the end of his life, but evangelical Christian fundamentalists are denying that claim. And reporters Sam Stein and Will Sommer appeared skeptical about that alleged conversion during a conversation for the conservative website The Bulwark.

Kirk, who was 31 when he was fatally shot in Utah, was closely identified with evangelical Christian nationalism. And The Guardian's J. Oliver Conroy, in an article published on September 20, reports that Christian nationalists are "positioning Charlie Kirk as a martyr for their movement."

After Kirk's murder, his widow, Erika Kirk, posted, on Instagram, that the "world is evil" and declared, "They have no idea what they just ignited within this wife."

Author Jeff Sharlet, known for his writings on Christian nationalism, discussed Erika Kirk's comments with The Guardian — warning, "That's holy war, that's accelerationism, and it's incredibly powerful."

Conroy notes some of the other things far-right Christian nationalists have been saying since Kirk's death.

In a video, megachurch pastor Matt Tuggle said of Kirk's murder, "If your pastor isn't telling you the left believes (in an) evil demonic belief system, you are in the wrong church."

Sean Feucht, a Christian nationalist pastor who worked with Kirk, said, "We know that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. The devil is not gonna win. The forces want us to be silent; they want us to shut up.… We need to be more bold."

Conroy describes Christian nationalism as "the belief that the U.S. is and should be an explicitly Christian nation."

"Kirk had been an evangelical Christian since childhood but earlier in his career, expressed reluctance at politicizing his religious views," Conroy explains. "That changed during the peak of the early pandemic, when Kirk made the acquaintance of several charismatic megachurch pastors protesting church lockdowns. He began to traffic in ideas influenced by the (New Apostolic Reformation), including the seven-mountain mandate. Turning Point USA also began to forge partnerships with churches."

Read J. Oliver Conroy's full article for The Guardian at this link.