Recently, I watched the live-streamed memorial for Charlie Kirk, the recently slain political activist and organizer of the Christian right. During his life in the public eye, I considered many of his ideas abhorrent, bigoted and cruel. I still do, but I’m not interested in litigating his legacy right now. I would like instead to turn to the competing moral visions for our country that took the stage during the memorial itself.

On the one hand, Mr. Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, spoke about her love and devotion to her husband and her faith. She spoke about her desire to foster civic discourse and social change. She forgave her husband’s killer and called for rejecting hate and choosing love, saying “The answer to hate is not hate; the answer, we know from the Gospel, is love and always love.”

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