I had enough religion in my life raised in a Roman Catholic household and attending a Roman Catholic school. The left and Marxist atheists rely on Roman Catholics to “turn the other cheek” after it smites them. This kind of “if it feels good do it” emoting from Mrs. Kirk is scary close to the teenaged girls in Sweden and Norway who lined up at airports and docksides and rail terminals waving hand-lettered signs reading “welcome” to the illegal aliens as they arrived from Somalia. I’m sure these blonde-haired, blue-eyed girls believed in their heart of hearts it was the Christian thing to do, and that’s why they did it. Unfortunately, their hospitality got hundreds of them gang-raped and murdered. The left and Islam see forgiveness and offers of kindness and comity as a laughable weakness to be exploited. This “forgiveness” will be no different.
While I agree that there are many Christians who misunderstand and misuse the directive to forgive, and even to love their enemies, I think you’re entirely misreading this particular event. I believe Erika Kirk was right on target doing what she did, and in fact I was waiting and hoping for that moment, because I knew it would be the most important and powerful outcome of the entire event if she did it. By forgiving him PERSONALLY (the critical qualifier), she showed all watching who are not completely blinded by leftist evil the true difference between conservative Christian Americans and the vile leftists opposing us. And it’s far more than that: She showed any with even slightly open hearts the reality of Jesus and the power of his love for all of us.
Here’s where many others go off track beyond that personal forgiveness: They forget that the Bible also calls for GOVERNMENTS, who God has given the power of the sword, to use “the sword” (force, including deadly force) to PUNISH the evildoers. WE are to forgive individually, but governments are not called to forgive but rather to punish, for the purpose of maintaining justice and order.
And those naive blond German girls you mentioned are nothing like Erika. They made a similar mistake to the one I just mentioned in believing (assuming they’re Christians) that the Bible calls for illegal “immigrants” to be allowed into other countries at will, because there are passages that call us to be welcoming and loving toward ”the traveler.” This again is a personal directive, aimed at general strangers and “travelers” and NOT at invaders, which is what we’re really talking about there. And the Bible is clear that God has established nations, and that they have borders and are sovereign. In fact, He famously confused the languages of those at Babel because He saw Mankind attempting to coalesce into one global people, which being sinful would have greatly magnified their ability to spread sin and evil.
I am confident that Erika is sharp and knows this. What she did was a magnificent and powerful moment of showing true Christian love and forgiveness, and nothing more. The killer must be prosecuted and punished for what he’s done, and he fully deserves to die. When Jesus forgave the thief hanging alongside him on the cross, he didn’t use His power to rescue him from the rightful Earthly punishment for his crimes. Neither should the civic authorities forgive this assassin. But any individuals directly wronged by him are commanded to forgive him. That’s the core of Christianity and of God’s love.
God forgave us when we didn’t deserve it, even taking our punishment upon himself. We can’t do the latter because we’re not God, but we are told that if we don’t forgive others God will not forgive us. This life is but a vapor, as the Bible says. What happens here is important, especially the decision whether to follow Jesus or not, but this planet and this physical existence are like a vapor, here today and then suddenly gone. The totality of reality that we cannot yet see is infinitely more real and vast than what our physical limitations allow us to view at the moment.
“I’m sure these blonde-haired, blue-eyed girls believed in their heart of hearts it was the Christian thing to do, and that’s why they did it.”
It’s what I call “pathological compassion”. It’s very widespread and is the biggest cause of our current dystopian existence.
It destroys both the giver and receiver and degrades society as a whole.