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

[ad_1] <img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/1898x1265+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F6e%2F2f%2F1e65a0934b8ea50418ca6372b7ea%2Fgettyimages-2236152780.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/1898x1265+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F6e%2F2f%2F1e65a0934b8ea50418ca6372b7ea%2Fgettyimages-2236152780.jpg" class="img" alt="Erika Kirk, Charlie Kirk's widow, speaks at the memorial service for the right-wing activist at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., on Sunday." fetchpriority="high"/> Erika Kirk, Charlie Kirk's widow, speaks on the memorial service for the right-wing activist at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., on Sunday. Patrick T. Fallon/AFP by way of Getty Pictures disguise caption

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Patrick T. Fallon/AFP by way of Getty Pictures Erika Kirk, widow of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, stated she forgives her husband's alleged killer.

"That man, that younger man … I forgive him," Kirk stated, 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 stated. "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 costs towards 22-year-old Tyler Robinson. Officers stated Robinson had admitted to capturing 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 youngsters, 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 school college students at Utah Valley College.

"I noticed the wound that ended his life … I felt shock, I felt horror and a stage of heartache that I did not even know existed," Kirk stated. "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 instructed him about. I additionally noticed in his lips the faintest smile. It revealed to me a terrific mercy from God on this tragedy. Once I noticed that, it instructed me Charlie did not endure."

Chatting with tens of 1000's of individuals on the stadium, Kirk stated she had discovered consolation in prayer and in addition in the way in which folks 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 a substitute we noticed what my husband at all times prayed he would see on this nation: We noticed revival. We noticed folks open a Bible for the primary time in a decade," she stated, urging folks 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 stated.

Her remarks got here in putting distinction to each the vp and president, who bookended her speech. Vice President Vance stated that "evil nonetheless walks amongst us" and that society "should not ignore it for a pretend kumbaya second." President Trump stated: "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 folks, he was at all times keen to inform them about God's imaginative and prescient for marriage and the way if they might simply dare to dwell it out, it could enrich each a part of their life in the identical method that it enriched ours," she stated.

She instructed the boys within the viewers to comply with 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 defend their youngsters.

"Please be a pacesetter value following," Kirk stated. "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 stated, 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 finished "100% of what he wished to do day-after-day."