NASHVILLE ‒ Leigh-Allyn Baker rallied her fellow parishioners at Conduit Church in Franklin, Tennessee, 20 miles south of the capital, to not let Charlie Kirk’s death be in vain.
In a video the church played for a service Sept. 14, Baker encouraged the audience to speak more boldly and publicly for their conservative values than ever before.
“I know there’s an ember of courage in all of you. And I want you to let Charlie’s legacy fan that flame,” Baker, an actress and speaker with Turning Point USA, the advocacy group Kirk founded, said in the video. “And I for one am not backing down. I am charged; I am so charged. Here I am God − send me.”
Baker is usually at Conduit on Sundays, but this weekend she was at church with Kirk’s longtime collaborator pastor Rob McCoy, Conduit pastor Darren Tyler said at the service. McCoy, pastor emeritus at Godspeak Calvary Chapel in Thousand Oaks, California, is set to speak at Conduit next week.
Kirk’s murder Sept. 10 swiftly produced a range of responses among religious communities. Many on the evangelical Christian right see Kirk as a martyr who died while proselytizing for the Christian faith and religiously informed conservative ideals. Other nonwhite and non-evangelical faith voices see his legacy as more complex and polarizing.
