Tim Allen has shared that he forgave the drunk driver who killed his father in 1964 after hearing Erika Kirk’s eulogy at her husband Charlie Kirk’s funeral.
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“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,” the 72-year-old actor wrote on X Thursday.
“I have struggled for over 60 years to forgive the man who killed my Dad,” the Home Improvement icon continued. “I will say those words now as I type: ‘I forgive the man who killed my father.’”
“Peace be with you all,” Allen concluded.
According to Fox News, Tim Allen’s father, Gerald M. Dick, was killed by a drunk driver in a car accident in November 1964. Allen was 11 at the time.
Meanwhile, Charlie Kirk, a right-wing political activist, was fatally shot in the neck earlier this month while speaking on stage at Utah Valley University. He was 31 and is survived by his wife and their two young children: a 3-year-old daughter and a 1-year-old son.
The Message Erika Kirk Delivered at Her Husband’s Service That Inspired Tim Allen
During Kirk’s memorial service in Arizona on Sunday, attended by 200,000 people, including President Trump, Erika publicly forgave his killer.
Erika Kirk, 36, said through tears from a podium adorned with the presidential seal: “That young man — I forgive him.” She added, “The answer to hate is not hate.”
Erika told the audience that her late husband “wanted to save young men, just like the one who took his life,” explaining that she chose to forgive “because it was what Christ did — and what Charlie would do.”
In an interview with the New York Times, she also insisted that she would not seek the death penalty for Tyler Robinson, the man accused of fatally shooting Charlie.
“I do not want that man’s blood on my ledger,” she told the newspaper. “Because when I get to heaven, and Jesus is like, ‘Uh, eye for an eye? Is that how we do it?’ And that keeps me from being in heaven, from being with Charlie?”
After his death, Turning Point USA, Charlie’s nonprofit promoting conservative politics on high school and college campuses, appointed Erika as the new CEO and board chair.