Americans who feel angry or hurt by President Donald Trump’s words and actions – such as his unsupported accusation that the “radical left” influenced Charlie Kirk’s killer – might find some calming wisdom in the words of Mr. Kirk’s widow. At a memorial service Sunday for the slain conservative activist, Erika Kirk said she forgives “that young man” charged with the Sept. 10 assassination.
Such quick mercy after a crime so calculated and callous was not only for Mrs. Kirk’s peace of mind. Like others who cherish forgiveness as the essence of universal love, she explained the religious origins of her profound choice:
“I forgive him because it was what Christ did,” the mother of two young children stated. “The answer to hate is not hate. The answer we know from the gospel is love and always love. Love for our enemies and love for those who persecute us.”
Can such acts of person-to-person forgiveness, especially so soon after a tragic killing, really bring restoration and reconciliation in an America so divided and too often violent?
At the very least, Mrs. Kirk’s mercy reveals how much she relies on individual spiritual reflection, rather than a president or other public figure, to influence the country during a crisis. She certainly did not call for the accused to be let off the legal hook or to show remorse simply as a result of her forgiveness. Rather, her reasons serve as a practical Christian counterpoint to the accused killer’s stated justification for the shooting, as written in a text message: “I had enough of [Kirk’s] hatred.” Her embrace of love helps diminish a common belief in evil as an inevitable power.
Last April, the United States saw a similar case of forgiveness after another horrific shooting – the 2019 mass murder of 23 people at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas. The courtroom forgiveness of some shooting survivors helped spare the gunman’s life after he pleaded guilty. The prosecutor decided to remove the death penalty and instead seek life imprisonment.
At its root, forgiveness is a plea for offenders to regain their divinely bestowed innocence by embracing the love offered them, as well as the errancy of past wrongdoing. Or as Yolanda Tinajero, whose brother was killed in El Paso, told the shooter: “I want you to see and feel all of us who have been impacted by your actions that has brought us all closer with God’s love, which shows you that this great city of El Paso is a very forgiving place to dwell in.”
