The Gospel alive: How Erika Kirk’s forgiveness changed people’s hearts
Why it matters for Ukrainians to remember the power of Christian forgiveness.
On September 21, 2025, at the vast State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, tens of thousands gathered to bid farewell to Charlie Kirk – a well-known public figure, blogger, Christian, husband and father of two. Among those present were not only friends and colleagues, but also the nation’s top leadership: the President, the Vice-President and heads of key departments.
That massive farewell itself testified to one truth – the message of Christ still speaks to humanity and still has the power to unite people.
The most astonishing moment came when the widow, Erika Kirk, took the microphone and spoke words that literally rocked thousands of hearts:
“‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,’” she said, invoking the Savior’s prayer. “That young man… I forgive him. 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. The response to hatred is not hatred. The answer we know from the Gospel is love and only love – love for our enemies and love even for those who persecute us.”
The stadium rose as one. People who moments earlier had been debating the justice of execution were transformed. They stood and applauded – many through tears. Cameras caught faces that a moment before burned with ‘righteous fury,’ but the widow’s words quenched that inner fire. As though a window had opened in vengeful souls and a cool, clean breeze had rushed in.
The scandal of the Gospel
The Gospel is scandalous – first and foremost because it carries an unimaginable demand: forgive your enemies and even love them. In the modern mind this clashes with ordinary notions of justice.
We are used to the world’s formula: wrongdoing demands retribution. “An eye for an eye” is the world’s law. But Christ brought a different law – the law of the Kingdom: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who persecute you” (Matt. 5:43–45).
No religion prior to Christ taught such radical love. Many teachers spoke of compassion, mercy and honesty. But to say, “Love the one who hates you; forgive the killer of your husband” – that is uniquely Christian teaching. And Christ did not merely teach it – He lived it, praying on the Cross for His tormentors: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
Saint John Chrysostom wrote: “There is nothing stronger than love, for it turns enemies into friends; it conquers even those whom weapons cannot conquer… Love is Christ’s weapon – it does not kill, it quickens.”
From the fallen world’s perspective, forgiveness looks like weakness – an inability to take revenge. But in the Gospel forgiveness is the highest form of spiritual strength. Revenge feeds the passions; forgiveness is victory over them. Saint Basil the Great observed: “To hold back anger takes courage; to forgive the one who offended you – that is the courage of perfection.”
The power that transforms hearts
Why did Erika Kirk’s words hit so deeply? Because in every human soul there lies a thirst not for earthly vengeance but for heavenly justice – a longing for purity and light that transcends our offenses. “The human soul is by nature Christian,” Tertullian said. Even in the hardest hearts a spark remains that seeks love and peace.
When we witness true forgiveness, something dormant awakens – as if that act of mercy lets us recognize ourselves, revealing our true home not in earthly enmity but in the realm where love reigns.
Thousands came to the stadium burning with a sense of righteous anger. Can we blame them? A remarkable man was killed; a wife is left a widow; children were robbed of a father. Society demanded retribution; politicians called for execution; the world cried, “This evil must not go unpunished!”
Then a woman who had the fullest right to vengeance rose and declared, in words that fell like a bell in dead silence: “I forgive the killer of my husband.”
In that instant her superhuman love broke the chains of hatred binding thousands of hearts. Her words proved stronger than the calls for revenge, more persuasive than any argument.
This is the mystery of Christ – He does not conquer by the sword, but by love that transforms. Love that is stronger than death.
The machine of hatred
Why does an event so far away in Arizona matter to us in Ukraine? Because we, too, live inside a vast machine of hatred. It works day and night, feeding us images of the enemy, urging us to wish him dead, rejoicing when our capacity for compassion fades – not only toward those who kill, but even toward those who are simply different.
We are told: hatred is right; the more you hate, the “stronger” and more “patriotic” you are. But hatred destroys first and foremost the hater.
Christ said, “Whoever is angry with his brother is subject to judgment” (Matt. 5:22). Anger is a poison we drink hoping to harm another – yet it kills us. When you hate, you become a slave to the one you hate; you bind yourself with chains you cannot break.
Many among us live within a snow avalanche of hatred. We have grown used to it, believing it protects us, gives us strength to “fight.” But it becomes a prison. If we do not find the courage to forgive, we will remain its captives forever.
Forgiveness is not condoning evil
It is crucial to understand: forgiveness does not mean condoning the crime. Christ, in forgiving, never calls evil good. He calls sin sin, but He calls the sinner His friend. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son” (John 3:16).
Forgiveness is not the abandonment of just consequences – it is the refusal to let hatred corrode our souls and the refusal to let evil have the final say over who we are. Saint Stephen, the proto-martyr, prayed as he was stoned: “Lord, do not hold this sin against them” (Acts 7:60). Saint Silouan of Athos taught: “The Holy Spirit teaches the soul to love even enemies… He who does not love his enemies has not known God.”
Forgiveness frees us
We often think forgiveness is a “gift” to the other – that by forgiving we somehow absolve him of responsibility. This is false. He will still answer for his deeds. Forgiveness is first of all for us. It frees us from evil, lifts the burden of hatred, restores freedom and peace. When we forgive, we stop being slaves to pain, no longer hostages of another’s sin.
Forgiveness is standing before God and saying: “You are the Judge. You know the truth. I will not let hatred seize my heart.” In that moment we become free – and the path to higher, divine justice opens before us.
The center of Christianity is the Resurrection. “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain” (1 Cor. 15:14). But with the Resurrection Christ left a command that overturns the world’s order: love your enemies. Without that command, Christianity becomes mere ritual, robbed of its power to transform.
We believe in the Risen Savior because He conquered death – not by revenge, but by love. He descended into hell not with weapons of vengeance but with love that destroys the gates of Hades, and He calls us to follow the same way.
The road to peace
Today, amid so much malice and calls to hatred, we need this message more than ever. We cannot end war by slogans alone – but we can begin to dismantle the chief engine of all wars: hatred. The work must begin in our own hearts.
The tragedy in distant America concerns us because spiritual laws are universal. What happened in the Arizona stadium was not merely a “moving event” – it was proof that the Gospel still works now. A widow found the strength to forgive; by doing so she changed the hearts of tens of thousands who, for a moment, touched the reality of God’s love.
Her words are a message to each of us: human history can take another course. “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Rom. 12:21), wrote the Apostle Paul.
If we want peace – if we want our country to live – we need not only arms and diplomacy. We need hearts capable of loving even an enemy.
