Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) defended his criticism of Uganda’s anti-gay law that calls for the death penalty in certain cases following pushback he received from a Florida pastor.
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have rebuked the law that Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni signed last week. The law calls for the execution of those guilty of “aggravated homosexuality,” defined as homosexual acts performed by those who have HIV or performed with children, disabled people or those who were drugged.
Cruz was one of the many to denounce the law, tweeting that it is “horrific & wrong” and calling on “all civilized nations” to condemn what he referred to as human rights abuse.
Tom Ascol, a pastor and the president of the religious organizations Founders Ministries and The Institute of Public Theology, responded to Cruz’s post the day after and quoted a passage from the book of Leviticus from the Bible that says “If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death.”
“Was this law God gave to His old covenant people ‘horrific and wrong’?” Ascol tweeted.
Cruz responded on Monday that he does not know Ascol and respects his ministry, but his analysis of the Bible is wrong. He cited a teaching from Jesus that the laws of mankind should be separate from those of God.
“We are talking the laws of man, not the Old Testament laws of God. Do you really believe that the US govt should execute every person who is gay??” he said.
Cruz also cited other biblical passages that he argued disprove Ascol’s analysis.
“Leviticus also tells us: ‘For anyone who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.’ Should the govt execute every child who’s disrespectful to his parents? That ignores Grace & the New Testament. As our Savior taught us, ‘Let he that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her,’” he continued.
The Twitter account for the Founders Ministries responded to Cruz’s post by commenting a video in which Ascol expanded on his initial tweet response to Cruz.
In the video, Ascol states that he is not calling for the death penalty for gay and lesbian individuals, only arguing that Cruz’s judgement is a “judgement against God” that denounces what God told to the people.
“The problem I have here is, Ted Cruz, a professed Christian, saying that what God did was an abomination, horrific and wrong. It can’t be those things if God prescribed it for his old covenant people,” Ascol said.
“If you got any Bible verses that embarrass you, you got a real problem with God,” he continued.