On Murder

Many, many people are devastated by the death of Charlie Kirk. He was an inspiration to millions, and he was truly loved.

I’m struck by touching words from Donald Trump Jr., who I don’t usually expect to be tender and open-hearted in public:

"I don’t even know how to begin to put into words the loss I am feeling right now over the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Charlie wasn’t just a friend — he was like a little brother to me - and to millions of people around the world…

This is an unimaginable loss. For me, for his family, for everyone who loved him, and for America. Rest in peace, brother. You will be missed more than words can ever say…"

My heart breaks for Charlie’s wife, and for his children, who are the same age my sons were when I was Charlie’s age. Around that time I was robbed at gunpoint, and although I wasn’t injured physically, it was a terrifying experience that I’ve carried with me. What if I had been shot and died? My older boys would’ve grown up without their dad, and my younger kids would never have been born. The Kirk family’s loss is staggering and horrendous. I pray for every heart to be opened in compassion for them, and all victims of brutality.

Donald Trump Jr.’s statement stood out to me though, not just because of how loving and moving it was, but because it reminded me of his post after another vicious attack a few years ago, another moment of horrifying political violence.

In 2022, a man broke into the house of Nancy Pelosi, with a plan to murder her. She was not home, but the intruder found her husband Paul, and tried to kill him, beating him on the skull with a hammer. He was severely injured but survived, the winner of a mortality coin-toss that targets of assault know too well.

After this event, Donald Trump Jr. posted a statement on social media mocking Paul Pelosi, a joke about his attack captioning a photo of a hammer and some underpants. The most benign interpretation of Trump’s post then is that it was a cheap, stunningly callous statement at the expense of someone who’d just been savagely victimized. At worst, Trump was actually cheering for the attempted murderer, and encouraging others to carry out such crimes.

Now, Don Jr.’s dear friend, his beloved co-worker in pursuit of political causes, has become the victim of a brutal attack that ended his life, widowed his wife and orphaned his kids. Today Trump is feeling the unspeakable pain of losing someone he cherished.

The vicious hatred that Trump thought was funny when it was directed at Paul Pelosi has now robbed him of his adopted little brother.

The pain that Trump and others who love Kirk are experiencing today is something I would never wish on anyone, and I believe we must all learn and remember the stark and grim reality here:

The rancor and spite that animates assassins and would-be assassins means death to us all.

It is folly to delight in murder, to revel in brutality, first because it sows rot in our own souls to do so, and second because the horror and pain we wish upon others may soon come for us, and for our beloved.

The only correct response to such dehumanizing violence is to resist it, to defy it through a commitment to compassion and love. This will entail courageous noncompliance with oppressors, while daily choosing not to imitate evil-doers, especially those we most long to hate.

Jesus once said, ‘he who lives by the sword will die by the sword’. (Matthew 26:52) When the Lord said this, he didn’t engage in a discussion of who was good or evil, or what kind of person might be deserving of a violent end, satisfying some sense of justice. That’s not to say Jesus didn’t want justice in the world or recognize the violent framework that undergirded his society.

But his lesson in that moment was a simple one, directed at anyone who thinks murder is a solution to the problem of murder: It isn’t.

Right now there are people who despised Kirk who are celebrating his death, while some who lauded him are planning vengeance on imagined enemies. My prayer is for the grace of Christ and the spirit of peace to still the hands of those who are reaching for the sword today.

Dear God, turn our minds from destroying what we hate, to building and nurturing what we love.