Oklahoma GOP candidate suggests it's OK to stone gay people to death

Oklahoma GOP candidate suggests it's OK to stone gay people to death
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Scott Esk, a Republican candidate for Oklahoma's state legislature, says on his campaign website that "rights come from God — not from government." One of those rights, apparently: Being free to stone homosexuals to death.

As the The Moore Daily discovered, Esk last summer responded to another person's Facebook post about the Pope with scripture passages seemingly condoning the harsh punishment of gays. When someone asked him if he meant "we should execute homosexuals (presumably by stoning)," Esk responded in the affirmative.

"I think we would be totally in the right to do it," he wrote. "That goes against some parts of libertarianism, I realize, and I'm largely libertarian, but ignoring as a nation things that are worthy of death is very remiss."

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Esk clarified to The Moore Daily that God did indeed condone death by stoning in the Bible, but added, "I have no plans to reinstitute that in Oklahoma law."

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Jon Terbush

Jon Terbush is an associate editor at TheWeek.com covering politics, sports, and other things he finds interesting. He has previously written for Talking Points Memo, Raw Story, and Business Insider.