(RNS) — Megachurch pastor Jack Graham was in the middle of his Sunday message to Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, this past weekend when he paused to cue up an unusual sermon illustration. After encouraging people to respond to the killing of conservative Christian activist Charlie Kirk by turning to God, he instructed the congregation to listen to a roughly minute-long audio clip of what sounded like Kirk delivering a short speech.
“Hear what Charlie is saying regarding what happened to him this past week,” Graham said.
As the clip, which encouraged listeners to “pick up your cross, and get back in the fight,” ended, the congregation burst into applause. A few seconds later, they rose to their feet in a standing ovation.
But the clip they listened to was not, in fact, Charlie Kirk from beyond the grave. As Graham made clear when he introduced the segment, the congregation was listening to a production generated entirely by artificial intelligence: The clip, which has gone viral online, was a cloned version of Kirk’s voice delivering what appeared to be an AI-generated response from a chatbot asked what Kirk would say in the wake of his own death.
It’s unclear where the video originated, but at least two other large evangelical Protestant churches — Dream City Church in Arizona and Awaken Church, San Marcos in California — also played it during their services that day. Pastors at both churches made clear the clips were AI; even so, the segment triggered applause each time.
The message was part of a wave of AI-generated content that flooded social media in the wake of Kirk’s killing, with supporters and even Kirk’s former colleagues sharing images, videos and audio messages that featured the felled activist and that were made by artificial intelligence. Amid outrage over Kirk’s killing and debate about his legacy, the surge, which has been most visible on social media platforms, showcased a new form of public mourning and remembrance, one in which the dead are grieved with hyperreal but entirely fictional reconstructions crafted in seconds by AI services.
Congregants listen to AI-generated audio of Charlie Kirk, Sept. 13, 2025, at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas. (Video screen grab)
AI-generated images and videos of Kirk appeared within hours of his death, some growing in popularity over the next few days. Many featured religious themes, a byproduct of Kirk’s own personal and political shift toward evangelical Christianity near the end of his life.
Imagining Kirk in heaven was a common theme. In one clip, which has racked up hundreds of thousands of views on Facebook and X, Kirk stares into a camera as soft piano music plays.
“I’m Charlie. My faith cost me my life, but now I stand forever in glory,” the AI-generated Kirk says.
The fictional Kirk then introduces four historical Christian martyrs and saints — Paul, Stephen, Andrew and Peter. These, also AI-generated characters, briefly recount their own stories of martyrdom before the AI Kirk urges listeners to root themselves in a “Bible-believing church,” join in a “spiritual” battle and “overwhelm the world with Jesus.”
Other clips are shorter, but more direct. One depicts an AI-generated Kirk taking selfies in heaven with prominent Americans who were assassinated, such as Presidents Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy as well as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. As the digital Kirk poses with the historical icons in a cloudy vista, “Knocking on Heaven’s Door” plays in the background.
