Poet Emily Dickinson once stated, “Words have power.”
The words of forgiveness spoken Sunday by Erika Kirk were so powerful, they led actor Tim Allen to forgive the drunk driver who took his father’s life more than sixty years ago, per Mediaite.
Kirk, widow of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, spoke about forgiveness at a memorial service for her husband in Arizona. Charlie Kirk was assassinated Sept. 10 in Utah.
“That young man, that young man…” Erika Kirk said before quoting from the Bible. “On the cross, our savior said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they not know what they do.’”
“That man, that young man, I forgive him,” she said.
Allen took those words to heart by forgiving the drunk driver who killed his father when Allen was 11 years old.
“When Erika Kirk spoke the words on the man who killed her husband: ‘That man… that young man… I forgive him.’ That moment deeply affected me,” Allen wrote on X.
“I have struggled for over 60 years to forgive the man who killed my Dad. I will say those words now as I type: ‘I forgive the man who killed my father,’” Allen said.
“Peace be with you all,” he concluded the post.
Allen’s father, real estate agent Gerald Dick, died in a 1964 crash caused by a drunk driver.
Tyler Robinson, 22, has been charged in Charlie Kirk’s murder.
He is facing several charges, including aggravated murder, felony discharge of a firearm, obstruction of justice, witness tampering and violent offense in the presence of a child, per Fox News.
