“My husband, Charlie — he wanted to save young men just like the one who took his life. … On the cross, our Savior said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.’ That man, that young man, I forgive him. I forgive him because it was 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 and always love. Love for our enemies, and love for those who persecute us.”

That message from Erika Kirk, the widow of the late Charlie Kirk, was one of the most powerfully moving public moments I’ve ever seen. She delivered an epic eulogy for her husband at yesterday’s memorial service in Phoenix, and 21 minutes into her 27-minute address, that was a highlight for the ages.

Mrs. Erika Kirk: ‘I Forgive Him’@MrsErikaKirk said, in between grief and sadness, that she forgives her husband’s killer, believing that is what Charlie would do. pic.twitter.com/d83dLmus0V

— The Daily Signal (@DailySignal) September 21, 2025

In echoing Jesus Christ on the cross, Kirk could no longer hold back her flowing tears. Before that moment, she paused to whisper a brief prayer — “God, help me.” When she had uttered those incredible words of forgiveness, she bowed her head briefly and sobbed, knowing the weight of what she had just done. The 73,000 people in the stadium rose to their feet and applauded, many freely crying.

Perhaps 100 million people heard the Gospel.

Heck, even The Washington Post editorial board wrote an article titled, “The Erika Kirk example.”

My prayer in the moment as I watched her strength was that Tyler Robinson would somehow hear this message of forgiveness and repent. I pray that Tyler, too, finds Jesus and can meet Charlie one day. What a glorious tribute to the power of Christ’s salvation that would be!

On Earth, Robinson must face justice for his evil deed. Time will tell if eternity is another matter.

For the misguided souls who excused or even cheered Kirk’s assassination, I hope Erika’s message disabused them of the preposterous fiction that Charlie was a hater or a fascist. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Erika Kirk’s entire speech was filled with the love and heartache of a grieving widow, the celebration of a life well lived and gut-wrenching grief over a life cut short. It was a moving tribute to a man she clearly loved with all her heart and soul, and she promised to carry on his work as the new CEO of Turning Point USA.

Earlier in her remarks, Kirk noted a chasm between the Right and Left. She didn’t explicitly mention George Floyd, the career criminal who died of a combination of drugs and heart failure under the knee of Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin, wrongly convicted of murder. But she didn’t have to.

After Charlie’s assassination, we didn’t see violence. We didn’t see rioting. We didn’t see revolution. Instead, we saw what my husband always prayed he would see in this country. We saw revival. This past week, we saw people open a Bible for the first time in a decade. We saw people pray for the first time since they were children. We saw people go to a church service for the first time in their entire lives.

She spoke eloquently of what Charlie stood for — faith, family, and free speech.

She talked about how difficult and challenging those things could be. “Being a follower of Christ is not easy. It’s not supposed to be,” she said. “Jesus said: ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.’ He said He would be persecuted. He said we would be persecuted. And Charlie knew that — and happily carried his cross all the way to the end.”

What a tribute she gave.

She wasn’t the only one, either. I lost count, but it seemed like two dozen people delivered eulogies, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance, and President Donald Trump.

Many, if not most, of them acknowledged and emphasized Charlie Kirk’s Christian faith. But Rubio delivered as clear a presentation of the Gospel as you may ever hear from a public official. He spoke of God’s creation, the desecration of sin, the need for a Savior, and Christ’s death and resurrection on our behalf. It was rousing and marvelous and unlike anything you’d ever expect from any other recent secretary of state.

Vance opened up personally to say, “You know, I was telling somebody backstage that I always felt a little uncomfortable talking about my faith in public, as much as I loved the Lord, and as much as it was an important part of my life. I have talked more about Jesus Christ in the past two weeks than I have my entire time in public life. And that is an undeniable legacy of the great Charlie Kirk.”

Time won’t permit me to cover much more of the five-hour service, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t touch on Donald Trump’s concluding speech. Frankly, I wish he’d spoken before Erika, but alas.

Trump had wonderful moments, rightly calling Kirk a “martyr,” as did many other speakers. He brought it home for listeners: “Charlie’s murder was not just an attack on one man or one movement — it was an attack on our entire nation. … The gun was pointed at him, but it was aimed at all of us, every one of us.” He brought hope, saying, “The assassin failed in his quest because Charlie’s message has not been silenced. It now is bigger and better and stronger than ever before, and it’s not even close.”

Unfortunately, Trump rambled for 45 minutes in a stemwinder that touched on a lot of his usual stump speech grievances or policy boasts. Worse, he flat-out contradicted the Kirks’ message: “He did not hate his opponents. He wanted the best for them. That’s where I disagreed with Charlie. I hate my opponents, and I don’t want the best for them. I’m sorry. I am sorry, Erika.”

At least he left the door open for Erika and others to “convince me that’s not right,” but what a small and petty moment at an otherwise truly moving memorial service.

I’ll close with the hope that Erika found even in the moment when she saw Charlie’s body.

“[I looked] directly at my husband’s murdered body. I saw the wound that ended his life,” she explained. “But there was something else. Even in death, I could see the man that I love. … I also saw on his lips the faintest smile. And that told me something important. It revealed to me a great mercy from God in this tragedy. When I saw that, it told me Charlie didn’t suffer. … One moment, Charlie was doing what he loved — arguing and debating on campus, fighting for the gospel and truth in front of a big crowd. And then he blinked. He blinked and saw his Savior in paradise.”

I hope and pray that everyone who saw Kirk’s memorial service and everyone reading this article welcomes Jesus Christ into your heart so that He, in turn, will welcome you into paradise with a smile.

(You can read Mark Alexander’s column, “Responding to Charlie’s Murder” here, and watch the memorial service in its entirety here.)

Follow Nate Jackson on X/Twitter.