<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><br id="lineBreakAtBeginningOfSignature"><div dir="ltr">rev. Dr. Carolyn Peters, Ohio National Federation Of The Blind, board member. Ohio Communities Of Faith division, President. Miami Valley Chapter, President. 937-657-5134<div></div><div>Dr.carolyn.peters@gmail.com</div><div><br></div><div>\U0001f469\u200d\U0001f9af</div></div><div dir="ltr"><br>Begin forwarded message:<br><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr"><b>From:</b> MARILYN BALDWIN <commmdb@aol.com><br><b>Date:</b> October 7, 2025 at 9:24:32\u202fPM EDT<br><b>To:</b> Audrey Grayson <agrayson2@outlook.com>, Cynthia Cave <cynthia@lwvfl.org>, Cecile Scoon <cecile@lwvfl.org>, "Dr. Idelia Phillips" <drphilconsulting@gmail.com>, Carolyn Peters <dr.carolyn.peters@gmail.com>, Deborah Dietz <debbie@justdigit.org>, Ann Patton <annpatton.net@gmail.com>, Ana Segura <anasegura123@comcast.net><br><b>Cc:</b> jessica@lwvfl.org, Kathy Schmitz <kathyonthejourney@gmail.com><br><b>Subject:</b> <b>Fwd: What are Black Catholics hearing when church leaders praise Charlie Kirk? - America Magazine</b><br><br></div></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr">\ufeff<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">We must pray for our Faith Leadership, of every denomination and race. Reading this article reminds me that here in the US we still have a problem with race relations and are going backwards in loving and caring for all people. <div><br></div><div>Marilyn Baldwin <br id="lineBreakAtBeginningOfSignature"><div dir="ltr">Sent from my iPad</div><div dir="ltr"><br>Begin forwarded message:<br><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr"><b>From:</b> Alicia Homrich <ahomrich@rollins.edu><br><b>Date:</b> October 7, 2025 at 7:21:56\u202fPM EDT<br><b>To:</b> Marilyn Baldwin <commmdb@aol.com><br><b>Subject:</b> <b>Fw: What are Black Catholics hearing when church leaders praise Charlie Kirk? - America Magazine</b><br><br></div></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr">\ufeff
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I thought this was an interesting article.</div>
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The sender, my mom's cousin, was a catholic nun, so is on this particular circuit of information. I would extend it to any black people of faith.</div>
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What are Black Catholics hearing when church leaders praise Charlie Kirk?</h1>
<h2 class="x_subhead" style="font-weight:normal; text-align:start; display:block; color:rgba(27,27,27,0.65); font-size:1.46664em; line-height:1.27275em; max-width:100%">
by Gloria Purvis October 6, 2025</h2>
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<a href="https://www.americamagazine.org/author/gloria-purvis/" originalsrc="https://www.americamagazine.org/author/gloria-purvis/" class="x_byline" style="margin:0px; color:rgb(65,110,210); max-width:100%; text-decoration:underline; font-size:1em!important; font-weight:normal!important; font-style:normal!important; display:inline!important">Gloria
Purvis</a><span class="x_delimiter" style="margin:0.07em 0.45em 0px; max-width:100%; padding:0px; font-size:1em!important; font-weight:normal!important; font-style:normal!important; display:inline!important"></span><time datetime="2025-10-06T14:59:26-04:00" class="x_date" style="margin:0px; max-width:100%; font-size:1em!important; font-weight:normal!important; font-style:normal!important; display:inline!important">October
6, 2025</time></div>
<img width="1200" height="800" alt="" data-hero-candidate="1" data-attachment-id="239311" data-permalink="https://www.americamagazine.org/faith-and-reason/2025/10/06/charlie-kirk-racism-black-catholics/attachment/charlie-kirk-shot-3/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/www.americamagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/AP25253684868612-1-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707&ssl=1" data-orig-size="2560,1707" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"4.5","credit":"AP","camera":"ILCE-9M3","caption":"FILE - Turning Point USA Founder Charlie Kirk speaks at a Turning Point event prior to Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, speaking, Sept. 4, 2024, in Mesa, Ariz. (AP Photo\/Ross D. Franklin, File)","created_timestamp":"1725496111","copyright":"Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved","focal_length":"70","iso":"5000","shutter_speed":"0.0015625","title":"Charlie Kirk Shot","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Charlie Kirk Shot" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="<p>Turning Point USA Founder Charlie Kirk speaks at a Turning Point event prior to Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, speaking, Sept. 4, 2024, in Mesa, Ariz. </p>
" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/www.americamagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/AP25253684868612-1-scaled.jpg?fit=300%2C200&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/www.americamagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/AP25253684868612-1-scaled.jpg?fit=780%2C520&ssl=1" class="" style="max-width:100%; margin:0.5em auto; display:block; height:auto" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.americamagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/AP25253684868612-1-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1" data-unique-identifier="">
<span style="max-width:100%; margin-top:0.25em; margin-bottom:0.25em">Turning Point USA Founder Charlie Kirk speaks at a Turning Point event prior to Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, speaking, Sept. 4, 2024, in Mesa, Ariz.
<span style="max-width:100%"><span style="max-width:100%">Credit:</span> AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File</span></span>
<p style="max-width:100%">After Charlie Kirk\u2019s assassination last month, public figures faced immediate scrutiny over their reactions. Many people on the political right viewed any criticism of Mr. Kirk as tacit approval of his murder, while praise for his
civic engagement became widespread.</p>
<p style="max-width:100%">In Catholic circles, two prominent bishops lauded his example: Bishop Robert Barron called him an \u201c<a href="https://www.facebook.com/share/v/16xV9rbGzS/" originalsrc="https://www.facebook.com/share/v/16xV9rbGzS/" style="color:rgb(65,110,210); max-width:100%; text-decoration:underline">apostle
of civil discourse</a>,\u201d and Cardinal Timothy Dolan <a href="https://www.osvnews.com/dolan-charlie-kirk-was-a-modern-day-st-paul-and-wasnt-afraid-to-say-jesus-name/" originalsrc="https://www.osvnews.com/dolan-charlie-kirk-was-a-modern-day-st-paul-and-wasnt-afraid-to-say-jesus-name/" style="color:rgb(65,110,210); max-width:100%; text-decoration:underline">
compared him to St. Paul</a>. They praised Mr. Kirk\u2019s willingness to debate opponents and speak openly about his Christian faith. Ave Maria University
<a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/266925/sculpture-of-jesus-and-charlie-kirk-to-be-installed-at-ave-maria-university" originalsrc="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/266925/sculpture-of-jesus-and-charlie-kirk-to-be-installed-at-ave-maria-university" style="color:rgb(65,110,210); max-width:100%; text-decoration:underline">
announced</a> that it would install a bronze sculpture of Jesus embracing Mr. Kirk on its campus. Personally, I experienced a Mass in which a priest praised Mr. Kirk without qualification during his homily.</p>
<p style="max-width:100%">For those unfamiliar with Mr. Kirk, such praise may seem like an appropriate tribute to a fallen public figure. But for many Black Catholics familiar with his full record, these endorsements carry a devastating message.</p>
<h3 style="font-weight:bold; font-size:1.25em; max-width:100%"><strong style="max-width:100%">What Many Black Catholics Have Seen and Heard</strong></h3>
<p style="max-width:100%">When Catholic Church leaders, clergy and lay alike, publicly praise Charlie Kirk, many Black Catholics hear them sanctifying a figure who championed rhetoric that served to maintain white supremacy. </p>
<p style="max-width:100%">Many Black Catholics hear church leaders holding up as an exemplar someone who trafficked in the same dehumanizing stereotypes that justified slavery, Jim Crow, lynching and systematic exclusion\u2014stereotypes that Black people have been
challenging and fighting against since the colonial era.</p>
<p style="max-width:100%">I am not suggesting church leaders intentionally endorsed Mr. Kirk\u2019s racism or were even aware of it. I am suggesting that their failure in awareness, or in imagining the message their praise would convey, is a wound in the body of
Christ, for Black and white Catholics alike.</p>
<p style="max-width:100%">I am also not suggesting that Mr. Kirk\u2019s racist remarks are a problem unique to him, as they were wholly unoriginal.</p>
<h3 style="font-weight:bold; font-size:1.25em; max-width:100%"><strong style="max-width:100%">Documenting Kirk\u2019s Rhetoric</strong></h3>
<p style="max-width:100%">Mr. Kirk\u2019s rhetoric is not new. It follows well-documented historical patterns of racist demagoguery. </p>
<p style="max-width:100%">For example, Mr. Kirk positioned himself as defending <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/charlie-kirk/charlie-kirk-pushes-great-replacement-conspiracy-they-wont-stop-until-you-and-your" originalsrc="https://www.mediamatters.org/charlie-kirk/charlie-kirk-pushes-great-replacement-conspiracy-they-wont-stop-until-you-and-your" style="color:rgb(65,110,210); max-width:100%; text-decoration:underline">
white people from \u201creplacement,\u201d</a> claimed white families face existential threats and argued that qualified
<a href="https://podscripts.co/podcasts/the-charlie-kirk-show/getting-the-american-youth-back-in-the-game-my-speech-at-the-university-of-wyoming" originalsrc="https://podscripts.co/podcasts/the-charlie-kirk-show/getting-the-american-youth-back-in-the-game-my-speech-at-the-university-of-wyoming" style="color:rgb(65,110,210); max-width:100%; text-decoration:underline">
white people are losing opportunities</a> to undeserving Black people. This victimization narrative provides emotional justification for racist ideology while eschewing moral culpability or accountability.</p>
<p style="max-width:100%">Mr. Kirk\u2019s characterization of Black people as \u201c<a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/charlie-kirk/charlie-kirk-goes-unhinged-racist-rant-prowling-blacks-go-around-fun-go-target-white" originalsrc="https://www.mediamatters.org/charlie-kirk/charlie-kirk-goes-unhinged-racist-rant-prowling-blacks-go-around-fun-go-target-white" style="color:rgb(65,110,210); max-width:100%; text-decoration:underline">prowling
Blacks</a>\u201d who target whites \u201cfor fun\u201d echoes centuries-old \u201ccriminal predator\u201d stereotypes. His claim that certain prominent Black women lack \u201c<a href="https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/charlie-kirk-black-women/" originalsrc="https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/charlie-kirk-black-women/" style="color:rgb(65,110,210); max-width:100%; text-decoration:underline">brain
processing power</a>\u201d and \u201c<a href="https://x.com/patriottakes/status/1679829904026730496?s=20" originalsrc="https://x.com/patriottakes/status/1679829904026730496?s=20" style="color:rgb(65,110,210); max-width:100%; text-decoration:underline">stole a white
person\u2019s slot</a>\u201d mirrors post-Civil War claims that Black elevation necessarily means white degradation.</p>
<p style="max-width:100%">Mr. Kirk\u2019s rhetoric represents the latest threadbare cover for racism. His argument that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a \u201c<a href="https://www.wired.com/story/charlie-kirk-tpusa-mlk-civil-rights-act/" originalsrc="https://www.wired.com/story/charlie-kirk-tpusa-mlk-civil-rights-act/" style="color:rgb(65,110,210); max-width:100%; text-decoration:underline">mistake</a>\u201d
that created \u201c<a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/charlie-kirk/charlie-kirk-civil-rights-act-created-beast-and-beast-has-now-turned-anti-white-weapon" originalsrc="https://www.mediamatters.org/charlie-kirk/charlie-kirk-civil-rights-act-created-beast-and-beast-has-now-turned-anti-white-weapon" style="color:rgb(65,110,210); max-width:100%; text-decoration:underline">anti-white
weapons</a>\u201d inverts remedies for racial harm into threats against white people.</p>
<p style="max-width:100%">The rhetoric that Mr. Kirk employed follows many of the same patterns as those documented by the former undercover detective and author Matson Browning, who
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/1728276624?ref_=cm_sw_r_ud_dp_E25EKFYRDK871XB7S7KS" originalsrc="https://www.amazon.com/dp/1728276624?ref_=cm_sw_r_ud_dp_E25EKFYRDK871XB7S7KS" style="color:rgb(65,110,210); max-width:100%; text-decoration:underline">
infiltrated white supremacist groups</a> and studied how they attract followers. Those tactics start with \u201clove for the white race\u201d rather than explicit hatred at the outset. The hatred will come later. This kind of rhetoric, even if it does not deliberately
aim at hatred of Black people, paves the way for it.</p>
<p style="max-width:100%">For four centuries, white resistance to Black equality has advanced the same core objective: preserving racial hierarchy in defiance of constitutional amendments, federal laws and even God\u2019s plan for humanity. </p>
<p style="max-width:100%">Mr. Kirk\u2019s comments are not mere policy disagreements about affirmative action. They are not heated political rhetoric. They are well-worn dismissals of Black people\u2019s equal dignity. They are the building blocks of
<a href="https://www.ncregister.com/blog/what-pope-st-john-paul-ii-said-about-structures-of-sin#:~:text=When%20any%20part%20of%20the,the%20way%20our%20society%20functions." originalsrc="https://www.ncregister.com/blog/what-pope-st-john-paul-ii-said-about-structures-of-sin#:~:text=When%20any%20part%20of%20the,the%20way%20our%20society%20functions." style="color:rgb(65,110,210); max-width:100%; text-decoration:underline">
structural sin</a>.</p>
<h3 style="font-weight:bold; font-size:1.25em; max-width:100%"><strong style="max-width:100%">The Corruption of Christian Witness</strong></h3>
<p style="max-width:100%">Mr. Kirk claimed pro-life, pro-family and pro-marriage values as well as an ardent love of Jesus Christ, which have in turn garnered substantial good will, trust and acceptance from certain parts of the church. I do not doubt the sincerity
of his words in that regard; however, a tree must be judged by its fruit and \u201cfrom the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks\u201d (Lk 6:43-45). As such, Mr. Kirk\u2019s legacy of racist rhetoric cannot simply be waved aside, nor can church leaders\u2019 lack of reckoning
with it be ignored.</p>
<p style="max-width:100%">One devastating aspect of church leaders\u2019 praise for such a figure is how it perpetuates the same moral corruption that has infected American Christianity from colonial times until now. </p>
<p style="max-width:100%">An 1865 report by Carl Schurz, the 19th-century statesman and journalist who later became secretary of the interior, \u201c<a href="https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/historic-document-library/detail/carl-schurz-report-on-the-condition-of-the-south-december-181865" originalsrc="https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/historic-document-library/detail/carl-schurz-report-on-the-condition-of-the-south-december-181865" style="color:rgb(65,110,210); max-width:100%; text-decoration:underline">On
the Condition of the South</a>,\u201d documented how white churches \u201cremorselessly turned blacks out\u201d of buildings that enslaved labor had helped construct, expressing \u201ccontempt for negro religion\u201d and believing it \u201cterrible impertinence for the blacks to worship
the same God that we do.\u201d In other cases, \u201cpious, well-bred\u201d church members even requested permission to torture freed people while maintaining their religious respectability.</p>
<p style="max-width:100%">This moral corruption continued through the Jim Crow era, when white churches actively opposed integration while claiming Christian virtue, when some white parishes, without a pang of conscience, forced Black members to sit in the
back or in the basement of the church and wait until after all the white parishioners to receive the Eucharist. Such moral corruption is revealed anew when church leaders praise Mr. Kirk. Even if they are ignorant of Mr. Kirk\u2019s dehumanizing language, their
praise \u201csanctifies\u201d his racist rhetoric and gives it a veneer of respectability.</p>
<p style="max-width:100%">Such endorsements create what Catholic teaching calls \u201c<a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/catechism/en/part_three/section_two/chapter_two/article_5/ii_respect_for_the_dignity_of_persons.html" originalsrc="https://www.vatican.va/content/catechism/en/part_three/section_two/chapter_two/article_5/ii_respect_for_the_dignity_of_persons.html" style="color:rgb(65,110,210); max-width:100%; text-decoration:underline">scandal</a>\u201d\u2014occasions
of sin that lead others into moral error. When well-known church leaders praise Mr. Kirk as a model Christian despite his racist rhetoric, they provide religious cover for racist thought and behavior. As a result, Catholics who might otherwise recognize Mr.
Kirk\u2019s anti-Black propaganda as anathema to their faith are enabled and even encouraged to embrace it while maintaining their religious identity.</p>
<p style="max-width:100%">This is particularly dangerous because Mr. Kirk\u2019s \u201creluctant racist\u201d pose\u2014claiming D.E.I. policies \u201c<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4y4d9QV45E" originalsrc="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4y4d9QV45E" style="color:rgb(65,110,210); max-width:100%; text-decoration:underline">make</a>\u201d
him doubt Black people\u2019s competence\u2014allows Catholics to accept and adopt racist beliefs while denying any moral responsibility. His \u201cdevil made me do it\u201d excuse becomes a template for others, thereby corrupting consciences while providing plausible deniability.</p>
<p style="max-width:100%">These endorsements directly contradict multiple church statements. The church strongly
<a href="https://www.usccb.org/committees/african-american-affairs/brothers-and-sisters-us" originalsrc="https://www.usccb.org/committees/african-american-affairs/brothers-and-sisters-us" style="color:rgb(65,110,210); max-width:100%; text-decoration:underline">
condemns the sin of racism</a> as a grave evil and a denial of human dignity. When a bishop or priest praises Mr. Kirk, they not only neglect the spiritual welfare of their flock, they also are perceived at some level as condoning the sin of racism even as
they intend on pointing out Christian virtue.</p>
<h3 style="font-weight:bold; font-size:1.25em; max-width:100%"><strong style="max-width:100%">The Deeper Problem</strong></h3>
<p style="max-width:100%">If church leaders were not aware of Mr. Kirk\u2019s racist rhetoric despite it being documented and public, this raises the concern they may only consume media from sources that are uninformed or worse, unconcerned, about racism against
Black people. </p>
<p style="max-width:100%">The fact that Mr. Kirk\u2019s anti-Black statements did not come to their attention\u2014or didn\u2019t register as disqualifying\u2014suggests that harm to Black people may not be on their radar as a serious pastoral concern. Issues that affect Black
Catholics weren\u2019t salient enough to factor into their assessment of this contentious moment in public life.</p>
<p style="max-width:100%">It suggests that Black Catholics and concerns about the sin of racism are so peripheral to their worldview that such information never reached them or seemed important enough to investigate.</p>
<p style="max-width:100%">Black people have appealed to Christian conscience in every way for 400 years, since first being brought to these shores as slaves. They have consistently hoped that white Christians might live up to the demands of the Gospel. They
often suffered violence and exclusion for employing natural rights arguments, for pursuing legal and legislative remedies, or for resisting unjust practices as a means of prophetic witness.</p>
<p style="max-width:100%">It is, then, another bitter betrayal to see and hear praise for Mr. Kirk from Catholic quarters given his poor public witness. It signals that abhorrent views about Black people are compatible with Catholic faith, as long as someone
is sufficiently vocal about their love of Jesus. It suggests, although I hope this is not the case, that corrupt beliefs have captured a not-insignificant portion of the U.S. Catholic Church.</p>
<p style="max-width:100%">To be clear, this is not just about two bishops making ill-considered comments. It reveals a broader pattern where many in the Catholic Church in America have historically failed to see, understand or prioritize the experiences and
dignity of Black Catholics. This is not a new problem, but one that is deeply embedded in Catholic culture, practice and institutions.</p>
<h3 style="font-weight:bold; font-size:1.25em; max-width:100%"><strong style="max-width:100%">Hard Truths, Hard Decisions</strong></h3>
<p style="max-width:100%">The question is not whether church leaders have the right to praise Charlie Kirk. The question is whether they understand what their praise permits: the legitimation of racist ideology, the corruption of Catholic consciences and the
perpetuation of the same evil that has infected American Christianity since colonial times.</p>
<p style="max-width:100%">Church leaders may unintentionally become accomplices to rising racial bigotry and injustice. Ignorance of the historical context that makes unqualified praise of Mr. Kirk so dangerous may point to an inadequate formation or seminary
training that has not helped form them to love and serve Black people. </p>
<p style="max-width:100%">Our Catholic witness in America hangs in the balance. Church leaders can either acknowledge their grave error and work toward genuine reconciliation or they can continue tacitly sanctifying racist speech and injustice. The choice will
help determine whether American Catholicism finally confronts white supremacy or remains captured by the same moral blindness that has corrupted Christian witness in our country since its colonial origins.</p>
<p style="max-width:100%">Black Catholics are not asking clergy and laity to abandon Catholic principles\u2014but are imploring them to live up to those very principles by recognizing that Charlie Kirk\u2019s language about Black people is fundamentally incompatible
with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Souls depend on how they respond.</p>
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<h3 style="font-weight:bold; font-size:1.25em; max-width:100%"><em style="max-width:100%">Related</em></h3>
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<div dir="ltr">Sent from my iPad</div>
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