The Indian Christian Women’s Movement has criticized The Examiner, one of the oldest Catholic weeklies in the country, for featuring “white supremacist” Charlie Kirk alongside Mother Teresa and late Jesuit tribal activist Father Stan Swamy.
“The Examiner’s use of Charlie Kirk betrays core Christian and Indian values. This editorial choice reveals either shocking ignorance or deliberate complicity in promoting hatred disguised as faith,” the movement’s September 22 statement asserted.
Kirk was an American right-wing political activist, who was assassinated on September 10, while on stage at Utah Valley University in Orem, a US city. The ICWM that has members from all Christian denominations lamented that a weekly published from India has promoted a man who viewed Indians as inherently inferior and unwelcome.
The Mumbai-based Examiner carried the editorial and cover in its volume 69 dated September 21. Father Joshan Rodrigues, editor of the 175-year-old weekly, responded to the criticism a week later, saying “it was never The Examiner’s intention to eulogize Charlie Kirk in death or to prop him up as a model of holiness.” He pointed out that the editorial had “clearly stated that Kirk was a polarizing figure,” and that some of his statements lacked compassion and inclusivity.
Kirk reportedly disapproved immigration of Indians, particularly non-Christians, into the US. He held the view that America does not need more visas for people from India as the Indian-American immigrants dominated the workforce in his land. He also stated that America would still be America if it were ethnically 90 percent Indian, as long as they were Christian Indians.
The Examiner promoting a man who views Indians as inherently inferior and unwelcome was “not only a profound betrayal of Christian values, but a shocking act of self-hatred,” the women’s movement asserted. “This editorial choice reveals either shocking ignorance or deliberate complicity in promoting hatred disguised as faith,” added the statement signed by 96 women from various parts of India.
It also listed Kirk’s several views that went against Christian teachings such as support for gun ownership, celebration of political violence, violence against LGBTQIA communities, violent detention of asylum seekers and promotion of white supremacy.
Father Rodrigues pointed out that his weekly has published several letters expressing diverse views on Kirk. “Putting [Kirk’s] picture on the cover next to the likes of Mother Teresa and Stan Swamy (and others) never sought to create an equivalence between them. It is agreed that there can be no comparison between Mother Teresa and a person like Charlie Kirk,” the priest said. Father Swamy died July 5, 2021, as an undertrial prisoner in Mumbai at the age of 84.
The article on Kirk, the editor explained, “sought to highlight the courage of a young man unafraid to share his faith in a culture that often mocks or silences Christians.”
Father Rodrigues recalled many American bishops acknowledging Kirk’s influence on “countless young people in the US and beyond to open their Bibles, to pray, and to consider Christ seriously.” Kirk “was a strong advocate for the life in the womb and strove to convince young people to follow ‘The Truth’ in their moral and spiritual lives, and not fall prey to the relativism of ‘truths’ that are destroying the family and society today,” the editor said.
At the same time, the editor added, the weekly did not endorse Kirk’s political views on immigration, capital punishment or affirmative action based on political leanings. “We do understand however, why the cover of that issue would have caused angst among many of our readers, and therefore respecting the sensitivity of the subject and the trusted value of our readers, we have apologized for that particular cover in the very next issue alongside the letters to the editor published,” Father Rodrigues added.
- Jose Kavi, Matters India
