“GOD BLESS CHARLIE KIRK”; a poster for the conservative activist appears on West Haggard

A poster with the words “GOD BLESS CHARLIE KIRK” appeared on the corner of West Haggard and North Williamson Avenue on Sept. 11 following the death of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk on Sept. 10. Kirk died after being shot in the neck, according to a statement from Turning Point USA.

In the morning the display was surrounded by candles and red, white and blue fake flowers, the poster leaning against the bricks outside of the Elon Community Church. Below a taped on cigar, the poster states Kirk’s date of birth and date of death. It is unknown who put up the display. 

In the evening the poster was covered by pieces of paper with statements including “Kirk said he doesn’t believe in empathy” and “Care like this when it’s a 3rd grade classroom”.

Senior Pastor of Elon Community Church Randy Orwig said he was not aware of the poster outside of the church. Orwig said because the street corner is not on church property, he has no say in what happens to the poster. 

“Elon Community Church has a strong and long history of looking for values that deal with unity,” Orwig said. “You know, again, it's very sad what happened here. But, I don't know if it really needs to be here, but it is an expression that sometimes people need to make, and if they want to make that, it's on what I consider to be public property.”

Orwig said he thinks sometimes religion takes on a meaning that most people don't really understand. Kirk was an evangelical Christian and Orwig said that Kirk did not like anything that was “untraditional”. 

“He was religious,” Orwig said. “We all grab onto God. So ultimately we're just going to have to live within that tension and see where people really come out with this.”

Orwig said the violent act against Kirk should not be acceptable.

“There are some people that believe that he was right, and there's other people who believe that he was wrong, but we're all sad that he was killed this way,” Orwig said. “This kind of violence, this kind of tragedy really shouldn't be acceptable. But right now we don't have any choice because we live in a society where this can happen quite frequently.”