Roy Moore Has Appeared on Radio Show of Pastor Who Calls for Gays People to Be Executed and Says That AIDS Is ‘God’s Retribution’
The leader in the race for the nomination to be the Republican Party’s candidate for the U.S. Senator from Alabama, Roy Moore, has a history of appearing on the radio program of a right wing Christian pastor who calls for gays people to be executed and says that AIDS is “God’s retribution.”
Moore, who resigned as the state’s Supreme Court chief justice after being suspended until the end of his elected term over his actions against same-sex marriage, at least five times has appeared with Pastor Kevin Swanson, as CNN reports. As recently as February Moore appeared on Swanson’s show.
Just how anti-gay is Pastor Swanson?
In late 2015 Swanson held a political religious liberty conference, attended by Sen. Ted Cruz, Mike Huckabee, and Bobby Jindal.
MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow reported on Swanson’s conference, saying a “significant portion” of what was talked about during the event “was the exact contours, the exact language of what they believe is a biblical commandment that gay people in the United States should be rounded up and executed.”
“It really was a ‘kill the gays’ call to arms,” Maddow observed. “This was a conference about the necessity of the death penalty as a punishment for homosexuality.”
Here’s what Swanson said during that conference:
“In fact in Romans 1 Paul affirms that this particular sin is worthy of death,” Swanson says of homosexuality in the video above. “The Old and New Testament, I believe both speak with authority and we outta receive it.”
So vile and offensive are Pastor Swanson’s remarks that even Sen. Ted Cruz’s campaign was forced to say he should not have appeared with Swanson.
But Roy Moore has shown no intention of distancing himself from Swanson.
In response to a request for comment on Moore’s appearances with Swanson, Moore spokesperson Brett Doster told CNN: “Appearing in any interview is never an endorsement of the interviewer. Responding to CNN is a great example.”
Moore has made a career of being virulently anti-gay. It is a cornerstone of his political image, regardless of how he now tries to suggest he merely follows the law.
CNN adds that “Moore himself has been outspoken against LGBT rights, calling homosexuality an ‘inherent evil,’ as well as ‘abhorrent, immoral, detestable, a crime against nature and a violation of the laws of nature and of nature’s God’ in a 2002 opinion he issued as chief justice. Moore was suspended as chief justice in 2016 for instructing Alabama’s probate judges to defy a federal court order to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.”
On his Senate campaign website Moore says:
As a husband, father, and grandfather, I know the importance of the future we leave to our posterity.Â
A strong family based on marriage between one man and one woman is and should remain our only guide and model. I oppose abortion, same-sex marriage, civil unions, and all other threats to the traditional family order.
Federal funding for Planned Parenthood or any form of abortion should be stopped.
We must remain a moral and virtuous people, “One Nation under God.” I support freedom of worship and the recognition of that God upon Whom we have always relied in peace and war.
Moore is leading in the race against Luther Strange, who was appointed to fill the seat when Jeff Sessions became Trump’s Attorney General. Earlier this month it was reported Moore did not know what DACA is.
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Hat tip: Raw Story
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