Erika Kirk forgave her husband's killer. Before a crowd of nearly 100,000 in person, millions watching on streaming, Mrs. Kirk forgave the young man who is facing trial for his murder. She knew the truth: that the 22-year-old, video game obsessed young man was exactly the kind of person her husband was trying to reach.
That was Erika's mission too, as she so eloquently said during the massive memorial in Glendale, Arizona on Sunday. The two shared one mission. Erika won't be out on college campuses leading the charge, instead, as the head of TPUSA, she will have a coalition of warriors stepping out in front of her to pick up the sword where Charlie was forced to let it fall.
Charlie Kirk has been dead for nearly two weeks, his life cut short by a murderous assassin drunk on leftist outrage and lies. That accused killer sits in jail awaiting trial.
If he's convicted, he will face the ultimate punishment here on earth—a punishment he meted out on Charlie without trial. In sharing God's grace for the wretched man who stole her husband's life, Erika said something that I've been thinking of for several days.
Charlie Kirk would have fought for that young man's soul just as he has fought for so many others. If Tyler Robinson, the man who turned himself in on condition that it be done peacefully and that his parents could come with him, had taken his turn at the mic before Kirk at one of the open debate college events, he would have been treated with respect, dignity, and had the chance for an open exchange.
The assassin didn't take up that option, he picked up a rifle instead. Yet Erika Kirk, widowed mother to two young children, saw fit to forgive him, showing a mother's love to a man in desperate need of repentance through God's grace.
Sharing that grace, through God's love, is the only way forward for all of us. Vengeance and justice are the purview of both God and the law—and they will be had, but not in Erika's heart. There is still hope that he submits his life to God.
“Charlie passionately wanted to reach and save the lost boys of the West. The young men who feel like they have no direction, no purpose, no faith, and no reason to live,” she told the mourners. “The men wasting their lives on distractions and the men consumed with resentment, anger, and hate. Charlie wanted to help them. He wanted them to have a home with Turning Point USA.”
“My husband, Charlie, he wanted to save young men, just like the one who took his life. That young man. That young man," she said.
“On the cross, our Savior said, Father, forgive them, for they not know what they do. That man, that young man, I forgive him," she said, unbelievably. "I forgive him because it was what Christ did and is what Charlie would do.”
“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," she said, setting an example for all of us who seek vengeance even in our own lives for slights committed against us.
And we of Christian faith beg our God and say "forgive us our sins—as we forgive those who trespass against us."
The man who killed Charlie was the very kind of man Charlie was trying to save. So was the school killer in Minnesota, the child killer in Uvalde, the man who tried to kill Trump, the girl who shot up a Christian school in Nashville—all of these young shooters had souls worth saving.
These are the very people whose souls Charlie was fighting for. Before evil took hold of them and taught them to hate life, they were simply children of God, and that they remained. Robinson is still alive, he still has a chance to repent, unlike his massacring counterparts.
Forgiveness is a Christian truth, it is what we are called to do, but that doesn't make it easy. And a widow's forgiveness does not for a second abdicate the wheels of justice from carrying that out in a court of law.
Charlie showed up at colleges, in the belly of the beast, to talk to people who wanted to talk. He was called hateful, racist, misogynist, but just spending a small amount of time looking at his work shows that he was none of these things. The notion that he was, perpetrated by leftist leaders, is nearly instantly disproven with even a short perusal of his body of work.
Erika's speech disproved the lies, as did the worship service that was the memorial on Sunday. The room was electric with the energy of the love, burned into hearts with grief, that we all had for this man.
The impact of Charlie Kirk's life's work and legacy was felt fully in the State Farm Stadium. Charlie did so much for the American mission of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And now because it is armed with forgiveness forged in God's grace, that mission will grow and persevere.
