Megachurch pastor Jack Graham interrupted his Sunday sermon at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, this past weekend to unveil an unexpected and striking illustration for his congregation.
After urging worshippers to seek solace in God following the killing of conservative Christian activist Charlie Kirk, he invited the congregation to listen to a roughly one-minute audio clip that appeared to feature Kirk himself delivering a brief address.
“Hear what Charlie is saying regarding what happened to him this past week,” Graham said.
As the recording concluded with the call to “pick up your cross and get back in the fight,” the congregation erupted in applause, then, moments later, rose to their feet in a rousing standing ovation.
But the voice they heard wasn’t Charlie Kirk speaking from beyond the grave. As Graham explained, the viral clip was entirely the work of artificial intelligence—a convincing replica of Kirk’s voice delivering an AI-generated message crafted from a chatbot’s response to what Kirk might have said after his own death.
The video’s origins remain uncertain, but at least two other major evangelical Protestant congregations—Dream City Church in Arizona and Awaken Church in San Marcos, California—featured it in their services the same day. Pastors at both made clear the audio was AI-generated, yet the message still drew enthusiastic applause each time.
This article was reported and produced by Religion News Service and distributed through The Associated Press. While RNS and AP collaborate on certain religion coverage, RNS retains sole responsibility for the content of this story.
The message was part of a surge of AI-generated content that swept across social media after Kirk’s killing, as supporters and even former colleagues shared images, videos, and audio recreations of the slain activist—all created with artificial intelligence.
Amid the outrage over Kirk’s killing and the debate over his legacy, this social-media surge revealed a striking new form of public mourning—one where the departed are memorialized through hyper-real yet entirely fictional reconstructions generated in seconds by AI.
Within hours of Kirk’s death, AI-generated images and videos of him began circulating online, some gaining traction in the days that followed. Many carried strong religious overtones, reflecting Kirk’s late-life turn toward evangelical Christianity in both his personal and political identity.
Depicting Kirk in heaven became a recurring motif. In one widely viewed clip—garnering hundreds of thousands of views on Facebook and X—he gazes into the camera as gentle piano music plays in the background.
“I’m Charlie. My faith cost me my life, but now I stand forever in glory,” the AI-generated Kirk says.
The AI-generated version of Kirk then introduces four historical Christian martyrs and saints—Paul, Stephen, Andrew, and Peter—each briefly sharing their own stories of sacrifice. The AI Kirk concludes by urging listeners to anchor themselves in a “Bible-believing church,” engage in a “spiritual” battle, and “overwhelm the world with Jesus.”
Other clips are briefer but strikingly direct. One features an AI-generated Kirk taking selfies in heaven alongside prominent Americans who were assassinated, including Presidents Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy, as well as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Against a backdrop of clouds, the digital Kirk poses with these historical figures while “Knocking on Heaven’s Door” plays softly in the background.
Many AI-generated clips portray Kirk alongside Jesus Christ. In one, he sits in the very tent where he was fatally shot, only to suddenly leap from his chair and ascend a staircase toward a smiling Jesus. Another shows an AI Kirk praying on a park bench as Scripture scrolls across the screen, accompanied by CeCe Winans’ “Come Jesus Come.” Ultimately, a radiant Jesus appears, and the two share an embrace.
”Welcome, my son,” Jesus says, embracing the AI Kirk. “Your work is done. Come rest.”
(The image drew sharp criticism, with detractors pointing out that the real-life Kirk had criticized King. The Rev. Bernice King, one of Martin Luther King Jr.’s daughters, condemned the depiction, saying, “there are so many things wrong with this.”)
Depictions of famous figures in heaven—or alongside Jesus—are not uncommon. Yet the rapid deployment of AI to memorialize Kirk, with content saturating the internet within hours of his death, appears linked to the technology’s widespread adoption among supporters of former President Donald Trump. Even the Trump administration has participated, with AI-generated images and memes appearing on official government accounts on multiple occasions.
As Charlie Warzel, a technology and media writer, noted in The Atlantic in August, the “high-resolution, low-budget style of generative AI images seems to be merging with the meme-driven aesthetic of the MAGA movement.”
Warzel added: “At least in the fever swamps of social media, AI art is becoming MAGA-coded. The GOP is becoming the party of AI slop.”
Kirk was a fervent supporter of former President Trump and played a key role in advancing his political agenda. Some of the AI-generated content that emerged after Kirk’s death has been connected to conservative causes. Several images, for example, drew parallels between Kirk’s killing and the stabbing of Iryna Zarutska, a Ukrainian refugee murdered on a bus in Charlotte, North Carolina—an incident that had sparked outrage among Kirk and other conservatives shortly before his own assassination. One widely circulated image depicts an AI-generated Kirk comforting Zarutska as she sits bleeding on the bus. At least one creator produced a video version of the image, set to the hymn “How Great Thou Art.” Another AI-generated video portrays Kirk embracing Zarutska on the bus, both sporting newly grown angel wings.
Another AI-generated video promoted a pro-Israel message—a topic that has been a source of division within conservative circles and one that Kirk was reportedly seeking to navigate shortly before his death.
In the video, an AI-generated Kirk, clad in angel wings and a white robe, speaks from heaven, declaring, “I’m in a better place now, but America and Israel will never be the same.” The digital Kirk emphasizes that both nations are founded on “faith, on freedom, on family,” just before a bald eagle lands atop his head as he stands before Israeli and U.S. flags.
Despite their viral reach, the precise impact of these AI-enhanced memorials on those grieving Kirk’s death remains unclear. Supporters on social media, however, often present them as a form of emotional release. On TikTok, influencer Taylor Diazmercado shared a brief video last week reacting to the AI-generated audio clip of Kirk—clearly labeled as such—that would later be featured in churches. As the entirely fabricated voice recites words Kirk never actually spoke, Diazmercado is seen visibly weeping, repeatedly dabbing at her tears while nodding along between sobs.
Beneath the video, which had garnered 123,000 likes as of Wednesday, Sept. 17, she added a brief caption: “What a man.”
Photo: Recent AI-generated content of Charlie Kirk found on social media. (RNS illustration)
