Choosing Forgiveness

Bishop David Walker shared this Thought for the Day this morning (29th September 2025) on BBC Radio 4. He reflects on choosing forgiveness over revenge, even in the most difficult of circumstances:

Like a single blackened tree, picked out against a snowy winter’s landscape, it’s often the contrast that strikes home. It felt to me like that when, following the assassination of Charlie Kirk, in the USA, his widow addressed the ceremony to honour her husband. In a powerful and emotional speech, she spoke of how her Christian faith led her to forgive his killer. “The answer to hate is not hate. The answer to hate is, as we learn from the gospel, always love”, said Erika Kirk. Yet, speaking immediately after her, the US president declared his own attitude to his opponents to be one of hatred. When he later went on to demand legal action to be taken against one such opponent, former FBI director, James Comey, threatening others with similar reprisals, the contrast seemed to me complete.

Erika Kirk’s affirmation of love in the face of hostility and tragedy is, I believe, central to the Christian faith. Yet it is not the exclusive possession of Christians. Eight years ago, one day after a terrorist had killed 22 people, injuring and traumatising hundreds of others, at a pop concert in the city centre, I was asked to address the people of Manchester along with the millions watching on TV. I called then for our response to be love not hate, for the tragedy we had suffered to unite us, not divide us. Manchester held together. Across our diverse religious and faith traditions we discovered the vital fork in the road, where the path divides between revenge and resistance. Revenge comes only from hate, but the most powerful resistance to evil is that which is rooted in love. As Mrs Kirk tearfully affirmed, in the face of her appalling loss, love is the better way.

In increasingly polarised societies across the world, division and hatred can provide convenient political tools for those wanting to gain or hold onto power. Here in the UK, we’ve seen evidence in recent years of a rising tide of anger, often fuelled by a sense of injustice. Many have been seeking someone to blame, be it political opponents, or some sector of society seen as not sharing the same personal views or values.

Hard as it is to respond in love to a personal tragedy or terrorist atrocity, my own experience is that it’s much harder still when the sense of grievance and victimhood is ongoing, but appears unaddressed by those charged with the nation’s welfare. Yet it is into this darkness, that the words of Erika Kirk offer me a glimpse of a better way. A way that I hope and pray the USA, and all of us, can take.