Charlie Kirk's massive memorial service in Phoenix, Arizona feels like an evangelical revival for many. Its religious message deeply attracted some members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who watched it from Provo.
Even if this feeling may be different from what Latter-day Saints are used to, Utah Republican Chairman Robert Axson told Coul, “It’s still a reminder of Jesus.”
Axson's word choice was “very interesting” for Matthew Bowman, chair of Mormon Studies at Claremont Graduate University. That's because the two religious traditions have great theological differences. He said that “Jesus” was a common way to refer to Jesus Christ in the evangelical movement, but much less in the LDS church.
“I think it's a symbol of the way that has been around for the last 50 years or so, and both traditions are gradually getting stuck,” Bowman said. “I think it's largely out of political affinity.”
Despite the current link between the two, Bowman believes that there will be no permanent change in the relationship between the evangelical and the Latter-day Saints.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Ciara Hulet: Why don’t you think there will be permanent changes?
Matthew Bowman: This uneasy relationship has been around for a long time since the 1970s, when many religious right-wing leaders appeared in the evangelical world, with people like Jerry Falwell seeing the late saints as useful allies. Of course, because they are very similar to issues like abortion, gender and sexual behavior, they have a working relationship.
But at the same time, in the 1970s and 1980s, there were many other evangelicals who were very angry at the right of these religious leaders to establish such relationships because they said, “These people are not Christians, they are cultists. We cannot trust them.”
Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee are allies, Republicans, right? But at the same time, Huckabee doesn't believe that Romney is indeed a Christian and is very vocal about it. So, I don't think this same dual thought will disappear anytime soon. It has been going on for 50 years.
CH: Why do some evangelicals say that Latter-day Saints are not Christians?
MB: What do these two things mean. First, they mean that the LDS people do not agree with the traditional Christian Trinity, and therefore, this means that they do not believe that Jesus Christ is the perfect God. Therefore, evangelicals might say that the people of LDS worship another Jesus.
Another thing they will mean is that in many aspects of the evangelical world, if you call yourself a Christian, it means you are reborn-you have received this special experience that Jesus Christ revealed to you that you are saved. Of course, this is usually not part of Latter-day Saints practice. People at LDS won't talk about salvation in this way.
CH: Latter-day Saints will question that they are not Christians. Commemorative audiences of Provo told Kuer that he did not like the speakers to compare Charlie Kirk with Moses or other biblical figures.
Kirk Memorial’s message about Latter-day Saints might be strange?
MB: Yes, that's an interesting question, right? I think it's Charlie Kirk that is part of the charismatic sport, which dominates the memorial service. The Holy Spirit will be manifested in various events. People will start speaking in tongues, and people will rehabilitate their faith when inspired. And I think that for many LDS people, it's all too restrictive, they're more used to the conventional system of authority and the true meaning of what LDS people call “reverence” which has become very popular in LDS churches over the past 60 or 70 years, emphasizing that worship services should be solemn and som. This is very, very strange to charismatic Christians.
CH: Latter-day Saint Ronald A. Rasband delivered a Brahma’s young college dedication speech on the importance of family this week, one of the messages from the Kirk Memorial. Rasband condemned the assassination and said the church’s controversial family declaration should be the government’s guide.
What is that (if any) about how the church now positions itself politically?
MB: In some ways, this is not very different from what the LDS Church has declared for 30 years. In fact, the announcement itself states that it is recommended that the government follow this. But what exactly is it? what does that mean? What is a family policy? And there is a lot of controversy about this, but for people who I think belong to religious rights, it usually means policies about culture, not policies about economics. That means we should have laws to make divorce more difficult, right? We should create laws specifically to promote and enhance heterosexual families. However, regarding these policies is one of the reasons why many evangelicals (especially politically active evangelicals) are willing to work with Latter-day Saints because they tend to believe that the same policies are important.
CH: From 2023 to 2024, Pew Research Center found that the decline of our Christianity may have escalated. Another person from Provo told Kuer that he had returned to church for the first time in the years since the shooting.
This is just an example, but do you think this moment can further change the trajectory of American Christianity?
MB: Probably not. I think it's too early to say whether this is a temporary respirator or a new normal. I think there may be signs that this is a temporary breathing. One is that all these surveys are totally the U.S. population. But if you look at the youngest in the United States, with 18 to 29 years old in the survey, I think they continue to lean towards the tendency of “Nones” – those who say they don't have religious beliefs usually speak – and older generations do so.
That said, I do think that interesting things are happening in religion in the youngest generation. Perhaps, while I think it's too early, we might see the idea that organized religion becomes cool and countercultural among the younger generation.