Was Charlie Kirk for the stoning of homosexuals? No, but …

Stephen King had to ask for forgiveness. “I was wrong and I apologize. I deleted the post,” wrote the US horror bistor author (“Misery”/”Es”) on the short message service X. There King wrote there shortly after the murder of Trump activist Charlie Kirk on Wednesday: “He advocated the stoning of gays, I say’S only “.

The ZDF correspondent Elmar Theveßen had also made this claim and has been exposed to massive hostility since then. The former US ambassador in Germany, Richard Grenell, even called on a tweet to refer to the country.

In fact, Charlie Kirk never demanded the stoning of homosexuals. This is erroneously derived from a video from June 2024, in which Kirk quotes a corresponding Bible site. At that time he reacted to a statement by the lesbian-Christian influencer Rachel Anne Accurso alias Miss Rachel.

At that time, this had wished the LGBTQ community a “Happy Pride Month” and stated why it considers homosexuality to be compatible with the Christian faith. “My belief is really important for me and that’s why I love my neighbors,” accurso said with reference to the commandment of charity at Matthew 22, verse 39 in the New Testament. There Jesus says that the second most important commandment of God is to love fellow human beings “like yourself”.

Kirk replied in his podcast, Accurso was “not completely wrong”, but “if you love God, you also have to love his law”. Then he quotes from the Old Testament from the Leviticus book. It is written there that a man “who lies with another man like a woman” should be stoned.

Loving people in the Christian sense means “to tell them the truth”, not to confirm or encourage them in their sin, “Kirk continued.

The deep religious Trump activist thus took a view that can often be found in Christian fundamentalists. That homosexuality is a sin and thus against the will of God. This position is derived from an understanding of the Bible, which is rejected by many modern Christians: the teaching that the Bible literally inspired by God and is therefore infallible.

The grotesque derivations would have to lead such an opinion, Charlie Kirk was shown by a student in Cambridge. After Kirk rejected the homosexual marriage with reference to the Bible, the student quoted a number of passages from the Old Testament, which can only be understood in a historical context. For example, the warning in Exodus that those who work on the (holy) Sabbath should be killed. Or the ban on pork in Levitis 17, whose consumption should also be punished with the death penalty.

In the modern Bible interpretation (exegesis), Bible sites are therefore initially put in the historical context, also as an expression of society at that time, and then only “translated” into the present. The main yardstick is the New Testament, which is seen as a testimony of a modern understanding of religion – in contrast to the often archaic views of the Old Testament (“eye about the eye, tooth for tooth”).

Defenders of Charlie Kirk’s statements about homosexuality often lead his appearance in the field of homosexuals. At an event, he replied to a Trump fan on his demand to exclude gays from the Maga movement, in a sharp tone, this was a basic falsch. He also accepted homosexuals in his own movement “Turning Point”. Even more: In a tweet from 2019, he praised an initiative by President Donald Trump and his then (gay) Germany message Richard Grenell, homosexuality in more than 70 countries.

With Christian fundamentalists, this is also a frequently found attitude that is only apparently contradictory. Homosexuality is rejected, but homosexuals are treated with respect at interpersonal level, because you are defined as a “sinner”, which you can ideally help again to God.

He kept making it clear that Kirk thought homosexuality was a sin. Last in June of this year: At that time he posted a video on Instagram, in which a young man presented himself as a “former” homosexual at one of his events, who found out to heterosexuality thanks to Jesus. “Everyone has temptations as you have,” replied Kirk at the time. “Some are more susceptible to gambling. Others are compulsive liars.” You don’t have to give in to these “temptations”.

Here it becomes clear: Kirk basically refused homosexuality. It is the classic definition of homophobia.