Charlie Kirk uttered “racist remarks, i.e. remarks hostile to minorities” and “belonged to the right-wing extremists in the U.S.A.” That was the assessment of the Washington bureau chief for German public broadcaster zdf, Elmar Theveßen, a day after the popular American commentator was assassinated. These and other comments led Special Presidential Envoy Richard Grenell to demand the withdrawal of Theveßen’s visa to the United States.

But Theveßen is just one of many who have voiced such views. Germany’s liberal-conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung wrote on September 11 that Kirk “inspired young people to support Donald Trump, racist ideas and Christian nationalism.”

This criticism was not only for the murdered Kirk, but also American conservatism—more specifically, conservatives’ belief in the Bible.

In “Germany’s Reaction to Charlie Kirk’s Killing Was Beyond Disturbing,” Britain’s Telegraph noted:

Even when the country’s most decorated presenters attempted solemnity, the mask slipped.

On zdf heute journal, the fortress of Germany’s mainstream media, presenter Dunja Hayali began: “Kirk’s murder cannot be justified by anything.” A decent start. But then, in the same breath, she reminded viewers that Kirk was guilty of “abhorrent, racist, sexist and misanthropic statements,” branding him a “radical-religious conspiracy adherent.”

This seems to be the journalistic trick: pose as balanced, then twist the knife. The result? Millions of ordinary Germans, who take prime-time anchors at their word, are invited to conclude that while murder is technically bad, this particular victim was barely human in the first place.

In the lead-up to World War ii, Jews were no longer regarded as fully human, so the German people shrugged their shoulders once they started to be deported and killed. We should be deeply alarmed by these signs of history repeating itself.

But why are German media and politicians dehumanizing an individual like Kirk? Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung substantiated its accusations with this “evidence”:

The campus speaker campaigned against abortion, even in cases of child rape, and advocated for the construction of a wall on the southern border and for “America First.” … Kirk advocated for a “Christian nation” and said in 2024: “We cannot have freedom if we do not have a Christian population.” He also expressed similar views on gender relations and family issues. Kirk advised women to ignore “beta males” and said that parents should never allow their daughters to take the pill.

Theveßen accused Kirk for similar reasons. Interviewed by talk-show host Markus Lanz on September 11, Theveßen claimed, “Kirk said, for example, that homosexuals should be stoned to death … that women should submit to men ….”

Lanz couldn’t believe it: Homosexuals stoned? Theveßen backpaddled, saying that Kirk referenced the Bible in this case and that he didn’t call for the same punishment today.

In other words, it wasn’t Kirk who called for the stoning of homosexuals; it was the Old Testament. Thus, Theveßen wasn’t accusing Kirk but rather the Bible of being “hostile to minorities.”

The trouble with Kirk, in the eyes of German commentators, is that his worldview was guided not by mainstream opinion but by the Bible. Not every belief Kirk had came from the Bible, but many of those he was criticized for did.

• Kirk opposed abortion because he believed that an embryo is a human being that we don’t have the right to kill. The Ten Commandments agree.
• Kirk believed that men should lead their families. The New Testament states emphatically, “Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.”
• Kirk believed that one cannot change his or her sex. The Bible states that God created male and female.
• Kirk even tried keeping the seventh-day Sabbath as the Bible commands.

Charlie Kirk represented one of the more conservative parts of American society that appealed to “God’s perfect law.”

Germany doesn’t have widespread Bible-based conservatism. It is unique to America. Many of Germany’s mainstream conservative figures have a completely different worldview than their American counterparts. For example, former Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg commented that many of Kirk’s beliefs “fundamentally contradict my own values.”

Guttenberg was brought up in a staunchly Catholic household with centuries of tradition to draw on. Yet his beliefs today are “fundamentally” different from many of those Kirk held—and certainly those of the Bible.

Europeans aren’t necessarily less religious than their American counterparts, but they are religious in a different way. While America was founded on religious freedom, today’s Europe was founded on religious suppression. Crusaders converted whole nations by the sword. The Catholic Church controlled religious texts. The Inquisition suppressed religious beliefs. If you wanted to break free from that suppression, you fled to America.

This persecution of Bible-based thought is reemerging today in different facets, but all of these attacks are inspired by God’s adversary, Satan the devil.

The Bible also contains specific prophecies about how Satan would attack the truths contained in the Bible.

Revelation 13 and 17 describe an empire, symbolized by a beast. Throughout the ages, this empire has dominated the European continent and came close to achieving world domination multiple times. The late Herbert W. Armstrong wrote in the January 1979 Plain Truth:

The Babylonian mystery religion (Revelation 17:5) became a Rome-based religion, persecuting true Christian believers. The Roman Empire was overthrown by northern barbarians in 476. There was a semi-Roman rule by the Vandals, Ostrogoths and the Heruli for nearly 200 years—but all three disappeared eventually as if the earth had swallowed them.

Meanwhile the Roman Church, still claiming Christianity, now known primarily as the Roman Catholic Church, had gained prominence and power. In 554, its pope brought Justinian, who ruled the Roman Empire of the east at Constantinople, to Rome for a resurrection of the Roman Empire—then known as the Holy Roman Empire—with the popes claiming infallible divine rule over the state. Church and state were united—the Roman religion was enforced.

There were ups and downs in the continuing Holy Roman Empire-reaching peaks in a.d. 800 under the French King Charlemagne, then later another upsurge under the German Otto the Great, still later the Habsburg Austrian dynasty rising to a peak under Charles v, and finally the Holy Roman Empire coming to its end under Napoleon, who “met his Waterloo” in 1814.

European conservatives have not built their beliefs on the Bible—the Roman religion prohibited Bible knowledge. Without the Bible as a foundation, any traditions are just the traditions of men and subject to change.

This “Roman religion,” the Babylonian system, is prophesied to rise again to suppress the truth of the Bible. To understand in detail how this will happen, read Who or What Is the Prophetic Beast?, by Herbert W. Armstrong.