A viral clip making the rounds shows a Black woman in tears after a pastor included Charlie Kirk in a church service, touching off a fierce online debate about whether politics belongs in the pulpit. The Hodgetwins highlighted the TikTok reaction, and the moment has become a flashpoint for conservatives who see faith being dragged into partisan theater.
Across the country some pastors have doubled down, even using AI-generated tributes and cloned audio of Kirk in services, framing his death as a call to spiritual and political resistance. Those scenes — pastors likening Kirk to biblical witnesses and encouraging congregations to “pick up the cross” for political causes — illustrate how easily worship can slide into political martyrdom.
Not every preacher went that route; some clergy publicly condemned Kirk and argued his life didn’t merit veneration, sparking more division inside churches and online. Prominent voices in Black churches have said you can decry the violence that ended his life while refusing to celebrate the man’s record, and those sermons have been shared widely.
The fallout is predictable: conservatives who valued Kirk’s outspoken defense of religion, family, and free speech feel robbed of a place to mourn without being demonized, while progressives and some clergy insist churches must critique political figures they see as sowing division. Meanwhile, ordinary worshippers — like the woman in the viral clip — are left confused and hurt when a Sunday service becomes a political message board.
Let’s be blunt: the American church should not be a stage for cancel culture or for clergy to traffic in partisan denunciations from the pulpit. Pastors who turn worship into a sermon of political scoring betray congregations and drive people away from faith, which is exactly what secular activists want. Faithful Americans deserve pastors who preach the Gospel, not campaign rhetoric dressed in robes.
If a worship service makes people leave the pews because it’s become a political propaganda session, that is a loss for the soul and for the country. Conservatives should push back — not by stoking hatred, but by insisting churches return to prayer, repentance, and real spiritual leadership rather than becoming battlegrounds for the latest culture-war narrative.
