Bill Maher Addresses Erika Kirk’s Forgiveness, RaptureTok, and Persecution of Nigerian Christians

Referring to the South African pastor who predicted the rapture as “some nut,” Maher said, “And then, of course, Jesus flaked.”

“He knows each time a sparrow falls, but his own schedule’s a mess,” Maher added.

Prior to the panel discussion segment, Maher interviewed internet meme researcher Aidan Walker, focusing some of his questions on why young people, like the suspect who killed Charlie Kirk, are turning to violence.

Noting that the unfired bullet casings recovered after Kirk’s murder had words engraved on them, Walker said the casings could be understood as a “s***post.”

“It’s a nihilistic kind of attempt [from the shooter] to draw attention to himself and also to call into question the entire world that older people live in,” Walker said.

Maher continued discussing Charlie Kirk’s memorial service with Smerconish and Mace and later asked Mace for her thoughts on Christian nationalism. Mace, who identifies as a Christian, avoided answering the question directly but observed that Christianity is an answer to the nihilism that Maher was discussing with Walker.

Maher mentioned during the discussion that he grew up Catholic but is an atheist. “I have often thought that Christians have a persecution complex,” he said, having his team show a photo of a man at Kirk’s memorial pulling around a cross on wheels.

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At one point, Mace brought up the recent U.N. summit, stating that the president of Syria was there and was welcomed into the U.S. even though Christian villages are being burned down in Syria.

This comment caused Maher to think of Nigeria and to make his remarks on the persecution Christians are facing there. “And again, I’m not a Christian,” he said, “but they are systematically killing the Christians in Nigeria. They’ve killed over 100,000 since 2009. They’ve burned 18,000 churches.”

Nigeria was ranked No. 7 in Open Doors’ 2025 World Watch List, which ranks the top 50 countries in the world according to the severity with which Christians are persecuted in each one.

“Jihadist violence continues to escalate in Nigeria,” said Open Doors, “and Christians are particularly at risk from targeted attacks by Islamist militants, including Fulani fighters, Boko Haram and ISWAP (Islamic State West Africa Province).”

Stating the persecution is perpetrated by Boko Haram and that American media won’t talk about it because “the Jews aren’t involved,” Maher said, “This is so much more of a genocide attempt than what is going on in Gaza. They are literally attempting to wipe out the Christian population of an entire country. Where are the kids protesting this?”