The month of September witnessed sales increases of 36% for Bible purchases in the United States, according to a new report from the Wall Street Journal. While data is impossible to ascertain that explains why such a sudden jump occurred, it seems safe to say Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk’s death sparked a revival.
For context, and underscoring the massive leap in September sales, sales in the United States had been rising 11% for the first nine months of the year compared to the same period in 2024. Also underscoring the huge leap is that Kirk’s death did not take place until one-third of the way into the month of September.
In a way only possible by someone paid too much money to analyze what common sense suggests is a relatively simple explanation, the Wall Street Journal quoted a woman with her own take on the sales increase: “September brought a wave of troubling events—violence, geopolitical tensions and economic uncertainty—underscoring a pattern: In times of crisis, more people turn to faith for comfort and support,” Brenna Connor, an analyst at Circana BookScan, said, as reported by the WSJ.
Speaking before this sales data was ever made public, it was obvious to those within the America First movement and Trump administration orbit that Charlie Kirk’s death renewed a spark for Christian faith. The slain Kirk’s widow and Trump Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. both addressed the Bible’s newfound popularity at Charlie’s memorial service.
“After Charlie’s assassination, we didn’t see violence, we didn’t see rioting, we didn’t see revolution,” Erika Kirk said during a wonderful eulogy to her late husband. “Instead, we saw what my husband always prayed he would see in this country. We saw revival. This past week, we saw people open a Bible for the first time in a decade. We saw people pray for the first time since they were children. We saw people go to a church service for the first time in their entire lives.”
RFK, Jr. also related a story about the Bible making a comeback as a direct result of Charlie Kirk’s passing. “My 17-year-old niece left for Europe to go to college, and while she was packing her mother, Amaryllis, my daughter in law, noticed that she had put a Bible in her suitcase. And Amaryllis was curious about it. She asked her, and Zoe said to her, I want to live like Charlie Kirk.
Watch Kennedy deliver those remarks below:
Speaking more directly to the Wall Street Journal, others quoted in the same piece tied the surging sales to Charlie Kirk.
“While Bible sales have remained “strong” over the past two years, Kirk’s assassination “awakened a lot of people,” Mark Schoenwald, president and chief executive of HarperCollins Christian Publishing, said, the WSJ reported. “They started to think about what they believe and why,” Schoenwald added.
James Borrero, the owner of Cornerstone Christian Bookstore in Vineland, N.J., told the WSJ that Kirk being fatally shot has led to an “awakening.” “Ever since the Charlie Kirk shooting there has been an awakening, not only with Bibles but with all Christian-related items,” Borrero told the outlet. “Even people like my father who never knew about him were affected by his death.”