Life, Death, and Empathy

Opinion

by

A United Methodist Insight Commentary | Sept. 11, 2025

Like everyone else this week, I’ve struggled with conflicting feelings about the assassination of Charlie Kirk. I didn’t pay much attention to Kirk, mainly because I avoid people, especially public figures, who actively promote hatred and division as he did.

What I can’t avoid is responding to those who are gloating over Kirk’s death. To my mind, there is no way to be a faithful follower of Jesus and post the kind of rejoicing at Kirk’s murder that I’ve seen across social media. I’m grateful for the Rev. Ginger Gaines-Cirelli, senior pastor of Foundry UMC in Washington, D.C., who posted Proverbs 24:17, “Do not gloat when an enemy falls; when they stumble, do not let your heart rejoice.”

Why am I not gleeful at the murder of Kirk, who in his lifetime posted utterly vile statements about immigrants, Muslims and gun control advocates among others? The nearest I can come to explaining how I’m processing the latest American assassination is this revelation from human rights lawyer Qasim Rashid on his blog, “Let’s Address This:”

So why have empathy for those who show none?

Because empathy is our inoculation to … hatred and fear. It is not weakness. It is strength. It is not acceptance of violence and bigotry. It is rejection of cruelty and hate. We have empathy, not dependent upon whether others behave like decent human beings—but because we are decent humans being. That is how we build a future committed to justice, not violence. We have empathy, because it is what keeps us human.

And that is something we cannot afford to lose.

Jesus put it this way in his teaching that we call the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:43-48):

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven, for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

John Wesley understood this great temptation to succumb to hatred. I suspect it’s why one of the historic questions we now ask of those seeking to be ordained is, “Do you believe you will be perfected in love in this life?”

“Being perfected” requires painful rubbing away of those traits that tempt us to sin. “Being perfected” means we often will find ourselves in situations we’d most hoped to avoid because they demand we change our attitudes and actions. “Being perfected” means we will face ambiguity and unsolvable problems and must learn to live with things we can’t control.

Like Rev. Gaines-Cirelli and Mr. Rashid, I’ve no doubt that political forces will seek to use Charlie Kirk’s murder to advance their agendas, many of which Kirk shared. The witness of saints past and present testifies that in this time, the Lord still requires that we love mercy and justice. To achieve those ends, we must walk humbly with God, who will sustain us through it all.

Postscript

At the same time Charlie Kirk was killed in Utah, a student opened fire at his classmates at Evergreen High School in Colorado. One of those classmates, thankfully not close to the shooter, was Samuel Stapleton, son of my friends the Rev. Amy Stapleton and Jennifer Coulter Stapleton. Jennifer is a longtime leader of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. She posted on Facebook that when shooting broke out, Sam not only removed himself but led his classmates to safety in nearby woods.

I’ve watched Sam grow up through his parents’ Facebook posts. He was an adorable little boy, deeply devoted to his younger sister Ruby, and now has grown into a tall young basketball player. He looks like the kind of son any parent would love to have. The kind of son too many parents have lost to gun violence, which occurs every day in this country especially among Black families.

Amid my gratitude and relief at Sam’s quick-witted, brave escape, I feel deep outrage at yet another school shooting. Contemporary poet Brian Bilston’s “America Is a Gun,” keeps running through my head.

No child should ever have to know how to escape a shooting at school, and yet it keeps happening. No family should lose a husband and father like that of Charlie Kirk, who was only 31, even if others find his work objectionable.

How long, people of God, will we let this abomination go on?

Cynthia B. Astle is Editor of United Methodist Insight, an online news journal she founded in 2011 as a media channel to amplify news and views for, by and about marginalized and under-served United Methodists.