Erika Kirk says she forgives the person accused of killing her husband : NPR

Erika Kirk, widow of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, mentioned she forgives her husband’s alleged killer.

“That man, that younger man … I forgive him,” Kirk mentioned, wiping away tears because the viewers at Kirk’s memorial at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., erupted in applause on Sunday.

“I forgive him as a result of it was what Christ did and is what Charlie would do,” she mentioned. “The reply to hate is just not hate. The reply we all know from the gospel is love and at all times love. Love for our enemies and love for many who persecute us.”

Final week prosecutors filed homicide fees towards 22-year-old Tyler Robinson. Officers mentioned Robinson had admitted to taking pictures Kirk to his roommate, saying in a textual content message, “I had sufficient of his hatred.”

Erika Kirk, who’s 36 and the mom of two younger kids, tearfully described the second she noticed her husband’s physique on the hospital in Utah, hours after he was shot within the neck whereas debating faculty college students at Utah Valley College.

“I noticed the wound that ended his life … I felt shock, I felt horror and a degree of heartache that I did not even know existed,” Kirk mentioned. “However even in loss of life, I might see the person that I liked. I noticed the only grey hair on the facet of his head, which I by no means informed him about. I additionally noticed in his lips the faintest smile. It revealed to me an excellent mercy from God on this tragedy. After I noticed that, it informed me Charlie did not undergo.”

Talking to tens of 1000’s of individuals on the stadium, Kirk mentioned she had discovered consolation in prayer and in addition in the way in which individuals had responded to her husband’s loss of life.

“We did not see violence, we did not see riots. We did not see revolution. As an alternative we noticed what my husband at all times prayed he would see on this nation: We noticed revival. We noticed individuals open a Bible for the primary time in a decade,” she mentioned, urging individuals to proceed doing so.

“Pray once more, learn the Bible once more, go to church subsequent Sunday, and the Sunday after that and break away from the temptations and shackles of this world,” Kirk mentioned.

Her remarks got here in hanging distinction to each the vp and president, who bookended her speech. Vice President Vance mentioned that “evil nonetheless walks amongst us” and that society “should not ignore it for a faux kumbaya second.” President Trump mentioned: “I hate my opponents and I do not need the most effective for them.”

Emphasis on the household

Kirk had one other message for the gang, saying that the “biggest trigger in Charlie’s life was making an attempt to revive the American household.”

“When he spoke to younger individuals, he was at all times keen to inform them about God’s imaginative and prescient for marriage and the way if they may simply dare to reside it out, it could enrich each a part of their life in the identical means that it enriched ours,” she mentioned.

She informed the lads within the viewers to observe her husband’s instance in a Christian marriage the place they’re the non secular heads of the household, who love and lead their wives and shield their kids.

“Please be a pacesetter price following,” Kirk mentioned. “Your spouse is just not your servant. Your spouse is just not your worker. Your spouse is just not your slave. She is your helper. You aren’t rivals. You might be one flesh, working collectively for the glory of God.”

Kirk in contrast her husband to a martyr who died doing the desire of God. She mentioned, whereas her husband had died far too early, “he was able to die, he left this world with out regrets” as a result of he had completed “100% of what he wished to do each day.”

“He died with incomplete work however not with unfinished enterprise,” Kirk mentioned.

Final week, Kirk was named the brand new CEO of Turning Level USA, the right-wing youth group that her late husband based.