Scott Esk, a Republican candidate in Oklahoma, was criticized after he said Christians would be "totally in the right" to stone LGBTQ+ people to death.
Esk made the remark several years ago in a Facebook conversation about the Pope saying he couldn’t judge LGBTQ+ people. At the time, Esk posted some Bible quotations, particularly part of Romans 1 in which there is a list of the kinds of sinners who are “worthy of death."
When a fellow Facebook user asked him if "we should execute homosexuals (presumably by stoning)," Esk replied "we [Christians] would be totally in the right to do it… Ignoring as a nation things that are worthy of death is very remiss.”
When asked about this remark by a reporter a year later, he doubled down, saying:
“What I will tell you right now is that that was done in the Old Testament under a law that came directly from God."
"And in that time, there was, it was, totally just came directly from God.”
Following this, he has posted several videos to explain both his homophobia and his criminal record for threats and harassment against his former church and pastor.
In one video he claimed he has “compassion on anybody in the grips of an insidious addiction, such as homosexuality.”
In another video posted earlier this year in response to his previous comments, Esk said:
"Well, does that make me a homophobe? Maybe some people think it does."
"But as far as I and many of the people, the voters of House District A7 are concerned, it simply makes me a Christian."
"Christians believe in biblical morality, kind of by definition, or they should."
Now that his words have resurfaced, Esk has become the subject of heavy criticism, particularly because he is running in the Republican primary runoff election for the Oklahoma state House on August 23.
Many were outraged and cautioned Oklahoma voters to vote accordingly.
In recent months, the Republican Party has pushed ongoing "groomer" hysteria accusing LGBTQ+ people of building relationships, trust and emotional connections with children so they can manipulate, exploit and abuse them.
Not getting the traction they needed with transphobia and White nationalism alone, GOP candidates and leaders have expanded their rhetoric to target the entire LGBTQ+ community as the 2022 midterms approach.
This has resulted in at least one Republican suggesting parents and teachers who support LGBTQ+ children should be "executed for treason."
@EdwardLawrence/X
