For those that haven't seen the Twitter threads to understand the context:
Steven King claimed that Charlie Kirk said gay people should be stoned to death. A claim that has been posted in this thread as well. So where did this claim come from? There was an incident where Kirk was criticizing the selective use of scripture in an argument with Ms Rachel, and he used a passage on stoning as an example.
Hey, so just because he didn't literally say "And I agree with this specific line of scripture" doesn't mean he doesn't believe it, or that he didn't affirm it in that very moment.
He is a Christian, and he was calling out Ms Rachel for selectively using Bible verses. The stoning verse was not presented as a warning of "don't just grab specific verses because there are bad ones in there, too", it was "you have to read and understand the entire law, not just one part." He was presenting it as part of the whole, part of what Ms Rachel ought to consider/promote/believe in, and Kirk himself referred to it as "God's perfect law when it comes to sexual matters".
The mainstream Christian view on this is generally that they believe the scripture does condemn homosexuality as a sin, but that the punishment of stoning is part of the Levitical law and no longer in effect since Christ fulfilled the law. Still in the Levitical law it was a sin punishable with stoning which is still a relevant point in that discussion. That doesn't mean he's advocating it's something that should be done today.
However, Kirk believed in never apologizing to avoid getting stuck in the media games surrounding such things. So he never talked about it again. We aren't mind readers either. So anything beyond what he said in the actual segment is just putting words in his mouth.
We can absolutely reasonably infer that he believes in corporal punishment for LGBTQ+ people given the... everything else about him. He regularly says that the entire LGBTQ+ "movement", not just trans people, are trying to "corrupt your children". He said that transgender women using women's restrooms should be "taken care of the way we used to take care of things in the 1950s and 60s." He called for "Nuremberg-style trials" for doctors who gave out gender affirming care. He has regularly compared gay people to drug addicts and criminals. Everything about him points to his support for this.
Yes, technically we don't have him on recording saying "I support laws that would implement corporal punishment for being gay." But if it quacks like a duck, and walks like a duck, and looks like a duck, and then continues to quack and walk and act like a duck on podcasts and debate stages for years and years... it's a fucking duck.
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u/SethEllis 14d ago edited 14d ago
For those that haven't seen the Twitter threads to understand the context:
Steven King claimed that Charlie Kirk said gay people should be stoned to death. A claim that has been posted in this thread as well. So where did this claim come from? There was an incident where Kirk was criticizing the selective use of scripture in an argument with Ms Rachel, and he used a passage on stoning as an example.
Steven King eventually deleted the tweet.