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Notes -
Here is the full episode that the clip about stoning is taken from. The clip starts around 1:02:00. He continues:
The New Testament revised how sinners ought to be treated (stoning them to death is definitively "un-Christlike"), but did not generally override the list of behaviors considered to be sinful; and Leviticus attests that gay sex is a sin. If you grew up anywhere in the West and not under a rock, you have understood this argument since you were a child. It's not hard to find videos where Kirk expounds on this very basic principle:
In another comment you called him "savvy", implying that he's dogwhistling to an audience who will understand that what he's really saying is they should go out and stone a gay. Well, it would have to be a very high-pitched whistle indeed to pierce through the background noise of the millions of Christians who have taken the same line for centuries in all sincerity – not to mention all the other times he himself modeled or advocated a firm but gentle stance towards gays and other gender non-conformists.
As for the affirmative action comments – OK, yes, he made a snide remark pointing out the obvious corollary of benefiting from affirmative action. But come on. You do realize this is the best that hordes of disgruntled leftists have been able to dig up, right? He was more civil than most commentators of similar stature, left or right. I was never a fan of his, but watching some of his videos now, it's striking how strong his commitment to politeness was – as far as I've seen, he never raised his voice or cursed at his interlocutor; he was content merely to let the fools he debated make fools of themselves, without piling on ridicule; he would consistently chide the crowd when they were heckling or otherwise being less than fully accommodating to his opponents; and his final appeal was often to love and never to its opposite. I'm no Christian myself, but these are exactly the sorts of qualities I've always admired about Christians, and he was pretty much a sterling example.
(The way he marketed himself – "handing out L's" – doesn't quite align with that, but my rejoinder is again simply: come on. He wasn't literally an angel, but by the standards of argumentative political content targeted at his audience's age and IQ bracket, he merits a place in one of the higher celestial spheres.)
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