Erica Kirk speaking at the memorial service of her husband Charlie Kirk
Article printed in the October 2025 issue of Grapevine, the news sheet of the Nenagh Union of Parishes
I suspect few if any of us had heard of Charlie Kirk before his foul murder in America on 10th September. Aged 18, he set up Turning Point USA to advocate for conservative values on school and university campuses around the USA. He became deeply embedded in Donald Trump’s MAGA movement, cultivated friendship with many of its leaders, and is credited with encouraging many young people to vote for Trump in 2024. Since his assassination, MAGA is now trying to make him into a martyr for the MAGA cause, justifying persecution of their enemies.
Like most if not all of us, I detest Donald Trump. He claims to be a Christian, but his words and actions make a mockery of it. He is an avowed enemy of the liberal, democratic views I espouse. He is making our world a much more dangerous place, and blighting the lives of millions, not least in his own country. But Trump is an old man, two years older even than me. His confused and rambling speech, and erratic decision making, suggest he may be developing dementia. He will not last forever. What really concerns me is the MAGA movement he has created, which looks set on establishing an amoral autarchy to perpetuate a US government where might is right, and the purpose of the state is to punish opponents and enrich a coterie of billionaires.
I don’t seek to disparage Charlie Kirk’s evangelical Christian faith, but I am disgusted by his political views. He facilitated Trump, espousing Christian nationalism, young earth creationism, climate change denial, and islamophobia.
Charlie’s wife Erika, however, seems
to be made of different stuff. In an emotional eulogy for her dead husband at a
memorial service in Arizona before a crowd of more than 100,000, she bravely
offered forgiveness to the shooter who killed Charlie, saying,
"My husband, Charlie, he wanted to save young men
just like the one who took his life..."
"On the cross, our Saviour said: 'Father,
forgive them, for they know not what they do.' That man - that young man -
I forgive him. I forgive him because it's what Christ did. And it's what
Charlie would do."
"The answer to hate is not hate. The answer - we
know from the gospel - is love. Always love. Love for our enemies. Love for
those who persecute us.”
It is well worth watching or reading her speech, which you can find by googling ‘erica kirk full speech’.
I am deeply moved by her words. It
would have been so easy for her to express her grief through words of hate,
riling up the crowd to seek revenge. But she did not, she spoke of love and
forgiveness, truly Christian values. Unlike Trump himself, who spoke of hating
his opponents. I think her words in that febrile atmosphere may have prevented
an orgy of revenge attacks on people the MAGA crowd see as enemies. We shall
see, but as the new leader of Turning Point USA, I pray that she will continue
to speak words of love, not hatred, and help to bring a bitterly divided USA
back to sanity, back to Christian values, back from the brink. May God bless
her, may God bless America, and God bless every one of us.
