Erika Kirk: White Martyr of the Century, or Hypocrite? Part I

In the year AD 2026, I am hard pressed to think of a candidate for white martyrdom and witness to the truth more poignant than that of Erika Kirk - at least on the surface. A mere four months ago, she had to experience what the world horrifically watched - and then rewatched - from their phones: the public execution of her husband, and the father of her children. We lost a brother; she lost her spouse. 

Immediately following that horror, however, new and more even more nefarious attacks were waiting for her. What would have been enough to send many of us reeling in shock and agony would only be the beginning of her ordeals. First came the jeers of those supporting her husband’s death, and calling for further violence. Soon after, her every breath would be meticulously scrutinized by those same violence-supporters, ranging from she looked too beautiful to she looked too pitiful to she engaged with friends in her grief too much. The political movement which had opposed her husband both killed the man and sought to insult and mock the grieving widow. Through it all, Erika seemed to keep a high head and upheld the dignity of her state which was itself under attack.

If that was where Erika’s trials had ended, I would not be writing this paper. All those jeers, the mocking, the internet trolls, all that is in a sense to be expected. If they hate the husband, they most assuredly hate the wife who loves him. So it is with Christ and His Church: Catholics are hated in the world because we love Him who has espoused Himself to us. However, I am writing this article: Erika’s tribulations did not stop with her natural enemies.

It did not take long for the conspiracy theorists, the internet sleuths, and the attention grifters to see an untapped opportunity unfolding before their very eyes. Far-right voices long antagonistic to Charlie Kirk used the opportunity to amplify their own voices, filling the gap in his absence with their own platforms and attacking TPUSA - and Erika - in their vulnerability. Moreover, seemingly valid lines of reasoning escalated quickly to involve Israel, Egypt, Turning Point USA, and alleged love affairs of Erika herself as allegedly related to Kirk’s assassination. At one point, the US Military itself was touted as being party to his killing. Every move Erika made - ignoring the clamor, disavowing the clamor, clarifying the noise, official statements - literally everything she does seems to the “just asking questions” crowd to be nothing more than an indictment of her guilt. So, it is not only the left that wants Erika’s head on a platter: the alt-right, far right, and extremists want her disenfranchised as well. 

As a fair note to the “just asking questioners”: seeking the truth, especially when there are things that simply don’t pass the smell test, is not a bad practice. In fact, it is laudable in free society. But that does not issue license for the tirade we see today plaguing TPUSA and Erika Kirk. Virtuous and justified search for truth has long since ceased to be the end of this questioning, and the good it might have done has long been eclipsed by the bad. We shall delve more deeply into why this is the case in a moment.

Seeming to fight against a white-martyrdom from both the political left and the right would be enough to prompt some reflections from me here. But Erika’s critics and condemners don’t even stop there! There is at least one more group calling for her silence and subjugation: the ultra-religious/manosphere/red-pill members. Not to be confused with the far-right Fuentes/Groypers, or the Candace Owens following, this final group of Kirk-attackers are those who criticize her ascent to CEO of Turning Point. “She should submit to the masculine presence at the company,” they cry, “and be a stay-at-home mother to Charlie’s children.” The mere fact that this grieving and attacked widow would take a stand and prevent her husband’s legacy from getting away from her angers this final group. Rather than ensure her husband’s - and, by extension, her own - vision is upheld, the rigidity of the religious/manospheric following would have this widow and her voice fade into a sad but distant background, herself and her own public voice a casualty of the assassin’s bullet beside her husband. The image almost reminds one of women burned on the funeral pyres of their husbands in so many ancient cultures!

These three public attacks - the jeering of the left, the suspicion of the right, and the subjugation from the manosphere - leave a grieving widow under fire from nearly every corner of the public world. All this, because her husband was killed for speaking openly and she dared to continue his view. Erika Kirk is well on her way to being the model of white martyrdom of our own day - if all of these attacks are unwarranted. If they are not, she stands the risk of being the hypocrite of the decade, seeking to profit off of her husband’s demise at worst, or common feminist ideologue at best.

To look at each of these with the depth they deserve is a task too lengthy for this article. However, you can head over to my Substack at https://open.substack.com/pub/rememberingtomorrow/p/erika-kirk?r=6b73id&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web to see the rest of this article!  Or, stay tuned tomorrow to read the rest of it here!