Charlie Kirk was a great man. He aimed to change the hearts and minds of millions of young people towards Christ and conservatism, employing nothing other than his voice and intellectual curiosity to foster free speech and open debate with those who disagreed with him. For this, he was brutally murdered in front of nearly two-thousand college students and tens of millions more online. He took a bullet to the neck and bled out as his cowardly assassin ran away.
In the following hours and days, his wife Erika had to explain to their two children that they would not see their father again, and scores of Americans and people around the world mourned the loss of their fallen friend. At the same time, many leftists celebrated Kirk’s murder, in universities, at work, and online. They celebrated his death strictly because he was a conservative, strawmanning his opinions and twisting them out of context to justify his murder.
Speaking from experience, it was immensely painful to see so many peers whom I once called friends make light of Kirk’s assassination. A simple scroll through Reddit, Discord, Sidechat, Instagram, and other social media apps revealed this. Outing themselves as cowards, they cloaked their utter disregard for human life in typical Gen Z and Millennial sarcasm and irony. While most sane people viewed Erika’s speech mere days after her husband’s death as an incredible act of courage, some ludicrously asserted that it revealed her political aspirations or even her indifference to his murder. Similarly, some compared Kirk’s giant memorial service in Arizona to a “Nazi rally.” They wondered aloud whether Kirk deserved their sympathy and mocked Kirk’s young followers who were devastated by his murder.
It’s not unnatural to feel anger towards this attitude and these people. But what is a Christian to do? A recent article provides an eloquent answer, pointing to the need for forgiveness. Forgiveness is, indeed, the answer. In one of the most touching moments of the last few weeks, Erika forgave her husband’s killer. Many Christians may be reminded of when Pope John Paul II forgave his would-be assassin, Mehmet Ali Ağca. Others may be reminded of Jesus’s command to turn the other cheek. (Matthew 5:39; Luke 6:29).
However, we need to be clear about what and who we’re forgiving. Jesus taught us to love the sinner but hate the sin. He understood that demons are real, and that they occupy people. He looked for signs of humanity to forgive, like ignorance, proclaiming while He was on the cross, for example, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34). Thus, Christ’s teachings tell us that it is fair to forgive, but it is by no means fair to forget or misinterpret the truth.
So, we should forgive but never, ever forget those who mocked us while we buried one of our own; who cackled as we cried; and who taunted us while we comforted those most affected by this murder.
In practice, this means that we should recall the humanity of those towards whom we feel anger. We should remember that they are imperfect, just like us. We should pray for them.
As for our body politic, though, there can be no unity with those who wish violence on us. They must face harsh consequences. A republic cannot function if evildoers and murderers live among us, participating in the process when it benefits them and eliminating their opponents when it doesn’t. On the contrary, they must be completely and totally shunned from society with such vigor as our republic depends upon it—because it does.
This fight must have clear winners and losers. Those on the side of free speech must win, and we should unify with them; but those on the side of violence, on all sides but today most prominently on the left, must lose. The ultimate sign of victory will be when there are a million more Charlie Kirks, and those online lunatics who promote violence are extinguished completely.
I concede that it is an uncomfortable reality that our nation harbors millions of radicals who support political terrorism. Even more uncomfortable is the fact that many of these radicals are our friends, peers, and professors. But if we do not recognize this reality, we will put our lives and the lives of our like-minded family members and friends at risk. That is not a world I wish to live in. Instead, we must fight like hell to totally quash political terrorism and its foolish supporters from our country.