What It Means to Forgive Our Enemies and What It Doesn’t 

In the wake of the slaying of Charlie Kirk, many Americans across the country are confronted with an unprecedented tragedy. Although most of us have experienced loss of some kind, Kirk’s death feels different, not just profoundly sad but profoundly wrong.

This is why most of us going through the five stages of grief—denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance—find ourselves stuck at anger. We are angry at Kirk’s murderer, the leftists celebrating Kirk’s death, and the leftist ideologies that fuel this evil. 

This lingering anger inspires three different ways to respond: passivity, revenge, or forgiveness. 

Invoking lofty terms like “unity,” “peace,” and “coming together” and decrying “political violence,” many ostensibly moderate voices have essentially called for passivity. Yes, Charlie was shot down in cold blood for expressing conservative Christian views. Yes, many leftists have cheered this on in the same way they cheered on murderer Luigi Mangione, virtually begging for more leftist violence against conservatives. Yes, Kirk’s murderer was brainwashed by extreme leftist online content that is still up and running. 

And yet, for the proponents of passivity (passivists), true Christian charity and civil decency demand that we ignore all this, see leftist reactions and rhetoric as valid exercises of free speech, and do nothing. Indeed, they will show more righteous indignation at conservatives proceeding to cancel leftists, defunding their NGOs, and expressing their outrage at politicians and celebrities who spread harmful lies. They believe that good Christian conservatives who feel this way should do some soul-searching, check their hostility, recommit to American principles, and keep their heads down—like they’ve done every time before.

Needless to say, this kind of response is wholly inadequate and only guarantees more such violence in the future. The popularity of this response only makes sense when one understands that the secular Left had so much power and influence that it was practically impossible for conservatives to do anything but accept their narrative.

It is only during this past year that conservatives had enough power and influence to question the given narrative, in large part due to the herculean efforts of Charlie Kirk. This is so unusual that leftists don’t even know what to make of conservatives not collectively lying down and taking the abuse. For the first time in their lives, they are being challenged for the lies and stupidity coming out of their mouths.

Naturally, this has encouraged certain voices on the Right to indulge in decidedly un-Christian revenge fantasies. They envision a glorious civil war where gun-toting right-wingers triumph over leftist weaklings and usher in a new American Golden Age, or they imagine a public execution of Charlie Kirk’s killer and automatic imprisonment for all of his sympathizers. Others are thinking of starting their own militia and brutalizing leftist agitators and intimidating leftist leaders. 

However, just as passive acceptance of leftist violence is unacceptable, so, too, is fighting leftist violence with rightist violence. Besides the logistical and legal difficulties of mounting a violent offensive against leftists and their leadership, this will only perpetuate a cycle of hate where each side retaliates against the other interminably. The only way such a conflict would be resolved is a strongman taking over the government and subduing the population. Although some might relish this outcome, an actual civil war would be disastrous for everyone and ultimately fail to resolve our current differences.

This leaves forgiveness as the best way forward. Unfortunately, this term has been so co-opted by passivists that even devout Christians bristle at it. For too many and for too long, forgiveness equates to letting malefactors off the hook and ignoring the crime.

But true forgiveness doesn’t mean this at all. Rather, it is a process by which a person recognizes an injury, seeks to understand it, responds accordingly, and thereby finds healing. In practice, this means that if someone hurts me, instead of fighting back and perpetuating the cycle of violence, I would name the injury, understand its causes and effects, keep away from the perpetrator and seek legal redress, and, finally, forgive that person. 

At no point in this process am I forgetting what was done to me, nor am I seeking to reconcile with the attacker. I am also not waiting for his apology; my forgiveness is primarily for me not him. If we do happen to become friends because he sees the errors of his ways, stops hurting people, and wishes my good as I wish his good, then reconciliation is possible. If he refuses to change and continues to hurt others, then I will protect myself and others and neutralize the threat he poses. I might have personally forgiven him and have already begun to heal, but justice must prevail. 

Something like this needs to happen with the shooter of Charlie Kirk and the evil that drove him to murder. In order to heal, stop stewing in anger, and move on, we must forgive them. This would entail recognition of the crime, understanding it, referring the criminal and any accomplices and instigators for legal punishment, and forgiving all of them since “they know not what they do.” 

At no point should anyone wait for an apology from the Left, nor should anyone expect to win favor with them by being lenient with Kirk’s murderer. We should seek every legal remedy to prevent another murder of this kind, and if that means capital punishment for the shooter, shutting down subversive content online, silencing public sympathizers, and systematically stigmatizing the ideology that motivated the shooter, then so be it. Justice must prevail to deter future violence. 

The season of mourning will not last forever. At some point we will need to heal and recover for the next trial. This is what Jesus Christ commands and what His brave disciple Charlie Kirk would want of us.