Dear Cornerstone Family,
Greetings and blessings and in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I remember when the news broke. Dylann Roof, a twenty-one-year-old white man motivated by racial animus, opened fire at a Bible study at Mother Emmanuel Church in Charleston, SC, in 2015. Roof attended the Bible study before the shooting, interacting and disagreeing with various comments being shared by the participants. Then, during the concluding prayer, he opened fire, killing nine black members—including the pastor.
In a surprising twist, the families of the nine victims responded not with hate but with grace and forgiveness. During Roof’s bond hearing, one of the families looked at Roof and remarked, “I forgive you, and my family forgives you, but you need to confess to God and repent.” You could hear a pin drop in the courtroom. It was a powerful expression of the gospel.
At the memorial service of public figure Charlie Kirk, a similar moment happened. Near the end of the service, which was filled with gospel presentations, Erika Kirk, Charlie’s widow, approached the microphone. In the throes of grief, she spoke of her husband’s commitment to Jesus Christ. After pausing to collect herself, she continued, “On the cross, our Savior said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.’ That man, that young man,” speaking of Charlie’s killer, “I forgive him.” At those words, Erika wept as the stadium erupted in applause. It was a moving display of gospel hope.
Erika wasn’t quite done though. She wanted us to know how and why she can forgive Charlie’s killer. She continued, “I forgive him because it was what Christ did, and it was 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.”
No matter where one lands on the political spectrum, Christians have a unique opportunity in moments of tragedy and death to look neither left or right but up to God. To release the lesser concerns of men and nations and take up the eternal concerns of the Kingdom of God. In the case of the families of Mother Emmanuel and Erika Kirk, all we must do is rejoice—that for one precious moment a clear and powerful gospel witness was heard in the public square.
Now, in saying that, I know there are a half-dozen or more other questions that come to mind, which I obviously can’t address right now. I will, however, take time on the Life at the Corner podcast in the coming weeks to reflect biblically on how to respond in situations like these. I hope you’ll join me.
Until then, let’s refuse to let our political convictions eclipse our gospel witness. Instead, let’s be kingdom-first people. Holding fast to the truth of the gospel and illustrating its beauty by loving all our neighbors—black and white, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, Christians and those who hate Christians. For this is the way we have been loved.
“For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” –Romans 5:7-8
Your servant,
