Texas pastor, Rick Scarborough, seems to be getting more and more desperate and insane as the SCOTUS marriage equality ruling approaches. First, he took out a
full page ad saying that he and his followers (about 40K of them) would defy a favorable Supreme Court decision on marriage equality. Now, he is saying that he will set himself aflame if the ruling does not come down as he wishes. I don't think such rhetoric helps his case any.
From The Advocate:
Rick Scarborough, the antigay Texas pastor who already made headlines with a full-page newspaper ad announcing that he had at least 44,500 followers who pledged to go to jail to defend so-called traditional marriage, is now threatening to set himself on fire to stop marriage equality.
“We’re simply being preemptive and saying, no matter what the cost, we are not going to bow, we are not going to bend, and we will burn,” said Scarborough on a recent National Emergency Coalition conference call hosted by fellow antigay preacher E.W. Jackson.
“The preachers need to get out front, the leaders need to get out front, out front of these ordinary citizens and say, ‘Shoot me first,’” said Scarborough said, according to Right Wing Watch. The pastor was reportedly referring to business owners such as bakers and florists who claim to be victims of nondiscrimination laws (which would not be directly impacted by the pending Supreme Court decision on marriage equality).
You can listen to the audio of the exchange at the Advocate link.
From Pink News:
One-upping the Australian Christian couple who have threatened to divorce if the ban on same-sex marriage is lifted, the Texan appared to threaten to burn himself alive.
The preacher also claimed that religious leaders should offer themselves up to be shot dead.
He said: “The preachers need to get out front, the leaders need to get out front, out front of these ordinary citizens and say, ‘Shoot me first’.”
“The end game is the complete destruction of the church of the Lord Jesus, the replacement of it with this liberal theology that’s not a theology… it goes back to the Garden of Eden when Satan wanted to be God. We now have a race of humans that don’t want to acknowledge that there’s a God.
He previously claimed God should drop a nuke on the US, because it appoints gay ambassadors.
Pastor Scarborough has also
called AIDS "G-d's judgment". And, he is the author of the book,
Liberalism Kills Kids.
The relevant part of the video below begins at about 17:00, although the whole video is interesting (in a manner of speaking). They also manage to denigrate SPLC, ActUp, and persons with HIV/AIDS. And, they are clearly concerned about challenges to their tax exempt status. I'm amused by the comment that the "country was founded on natural law".