Forgiving the Unforgivable: Son Pardons His Father’s Murderer
Photos courtesy Jared Younger and CC South Pittsburgh, PA., unless otherwise noted
“Robert Bowers, you are completely forgiven by me,” declared Jared Younger, a member of Calvary Chapel South Pittsburgh, PA, to his father’s killer in court in early August.
Jared had sat in on the trial of Robert Bowers countless times since it began two months earlier. But on August 3, 2023, he was sitting in a different seat—in the jury box, along with others who would be giving victim impact statements that day.
Jared Younger (left) with his father, Irving Younger, who was killed by a gunman in the October 2018 mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, PA. Jared, raised in the Jewish faith, became a Christian at age 23 while living in Southern California.
It was the day after a U.S. District Court jury found Robert Bowers eligible for the death penalty; in June 2023 he was found guilty of murdering 11 people and injuring six in the shooting he perpetrated at the Tree of Life synagogue on October 27, 2018. Members of the Tree of Life, Dor Hadash, and New Light congregations, which shared the Pittsburgh, PA, synagogue, were shot in the attack. Jared’s 69-year-old father, Irving Younger, was among the congregants killed in the tragedy.
From the jury box, Jared could see the entire courtroom: Robert Bowers, the judge, the prosecution, the defense, and the face of each family member who shared a statement. Each speech brimmed with frustration and a deep sense of grief. Jared felt nervous. Arriving at the courtroom that morning, he received a hug—one of many hugs over the past two months from the other victims, some of whom he had known for decades. He thought of the statement he was going to share—a message about forgiveness and Jesus Christ—and a thought crossed his mind: I don’t know if these hugs are going to continue.
Suddenly, he heard his name called. Jared began his statement with a prayer. Then he used his time to share the Gospel message and express his forgiveness to Robert Bowers.
“For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” Matthew 6:14-15
Sharing Christ through Pain & Loss
Looking back on that day, Jared explained, “Any opportunity I get to talk about the Lord, I want to do it. I was wanting to demonstrate the love of Christ through the power of forgiveness.” Raised Jewish, he became a Christian at age 23 and attends Calvary Chapel South Pittsburgh, actively serving there. “I can’t do any of this apart from God. He’s definitely my strength and my motivation.”
In his minutes-long statement, Jared shared the Gospel story beginning with the fall of man in the Garden of Eden and ending with Jesus’s sacrificial death on the cross. “Every one of us have fallen short of the glory of God. We’ve lied, stolen, lusted, hated someone in our hearts, have taken God’s name and used it in vain. That’s why Jesus came, to bring the hand of God and man back together,” Jared said in his statement. He urged listeners to repent, quoting Romans 10:9: That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
Jared teaches from the Scriptures at CC South Pittsburgh, PA. After coming to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ as his Savior, Jared has been passionate about sharing the Gospel. He has been actively involved at the church since moving back home to Pittsburgh.
Jared had also shared the Gospel at his father’s funeral in 2018, driven by the story of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19-31. Jared realized that his father—with whom he had shared the Gospel but did not have a chance to lead to Christ—would want others to hear the Gospel, regardless of whether he was now with the Lord or not.
In court, Jared echoed some of the words he’d used at his father’s funeral: “There's a God who created everybody in this room. He knows every hair on your head, when you took your first breath, and when you will take your last. His name is Jesus Christ.”
Jared’s victim impact statement wove through the emotional pain he’d experienced the day of the shooting, the health problems he’s battled resulting from his traumatic loss, meaningful memories of his father, and his love for the other loved ones affected by the tragedy. His eyes filled with tears, Jared finally added, “I love everybody in this courtroom, and that man, Robert Bowers, is no exception.”
Jared (left) and his sister Jordanna in earlier years with their father, Irving Younger. Although Jared’s victim impact statement described the emotional pain over losing his father, he tearfully announced, “I love everybody in this courtroom, and that man, Robert Bowers, is no exception,” as he openly forgave Mr. Bowers in court.
“I said, 'Robert Bowers, you are completely forgiven by me,’” he recalled. He supported life in prison for Robert Bowers, as opposed to the death penalty. “I wanted to make it clear that the reason why he did this wasn't because he may have been mentally ill. It wasn't because he might have been abused or neglected and grew up in a broken home. It's because just like you and me, he's a sinner. [But] I still wanted to represent the love of Christ to him—and so to me, that looked like supporting the efforts of the defense for life in prison for him.”
The Tree of Life Synagogue was the scene of the mass shooting on October 27, 2018, and marked the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in U.S. history. On August 3, 2023, after a unanimous vote by jurors, a judge imposed the death sentence on Robert Bowers. Photo courtesy of PBS
Response to an Unexpected Message
After stepping out of the courtroom, Jared began to see the immediate reactions to what he’d shared. He could feel a shift in some of the other family members’ behavior toward him, and he wondered if it stemmed from his statement. Two friends who had come to support him told him that the man who’d been standing next to them had walked out angrily in the middle of Jared’s statement.
But almost immediately, other grieving family members came to offer the same kind of hugs that Jared had received from them before. Unfamiliar faces, too, including the husband of one of the sentencing jury members, offered kind words to Jared. Days later, he found he was still seeing positive outcomes. Having met Robert Bowers’s aunt over the course of the proceedings, Jared said that after his statement, he had an opportunity to speak to her. Learning that she was also a believer and was looking for a church, he referred her to a Calvary Chapel and recommended Christian studies and resources. Jared was also able to share his story at CC South Pittsburgh during the following Sunday service.
Tim Green, senior pastor of CC South Pittsburgh, encourages Jared after he shared with the congregation the tragedy of his father’s death and the message of salvation and forgiveness he included in his victim impact statement at the gunman’s sentencing.
Only by God’s Grace
Tim Green, senior pastor at CC South Pittsburgh, reflected, “We could actually see God's grace living in and through a person. The only possible way somebody could do this is by the power of the Holy Spirit. Although Jared, it seems, did something extraordinary, [God] is calling all of us to love like that and to forgive like that.”
View the testimony Jared gave at CC South Pittsburgh the Sunday after his father’s killer was given the death penalty.
Read Calvary Chapel Magazine’s earlier stories about Jared’s testimony and response to his father’s murder: Grieving His Father’s Murder, CC Believer Shares Jesus with Jewish Congregation; The Joy of the Lord is My Strength: CC Believer Triumphs Through Tragedy
Learn more about Calvary Chapel South Pittsburgh
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