"The five-hour memorial service for conservative activist/influencer/organizer Charlie Kirk that packed tens of thousands Sunday into a Phoenix-area stadium was a melding of religion and politics unlike any seen before. Or perhaps it was proof, if any more were needed, that the line that used to separate them may no longer exist, particularly on the right. Practically missing were the healing rituals the nation has come to know in these times when it is rocked by the all-too-common kind of tragedy that occurred when Kirk was killed Sept. 10 on a college campus in Utah. With the exception of a moving and powerful declaration by his widow, Erika Kirk, that her Christian faith calls her to forgive her husband’s killer, there were almost no appeals for transcending the political divide or putting hate aside. Or recognition that the spasm of political violence of recent years has been the work of — and inflicted upon — both of the nation’s ideological tribes, arising in an era in which deranged individuals find in the fetid corners of online culture justification for horrendous acts. All of this formed an emblem of where the country finds itself in the Trump era. “He did not hate his opponents. He wanted the best for them,” the president, who was the final speaker, said of Kirk. “That’s where I disagreed with Charlie. I hate my opponent and I don’t want the best for them.”"