Anti-gay pastor facing human rights trial to run for Massachusetts governor

Scott Lively says people need candidate to say 'abortion is murder, and homosexuality is condemned by God'


“After long contemplation and prayer I am convinced that I should run for Governor of Massachusetts.”

So writes Scott Lively, who faces trial for crimes against humanity in Uganda, specifically for his alleged support of the African country’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill.

Lively says he will run as an independent.

Among his reasons for throwing his hat into the gubernatorial race, Lively says the state’s voters need a candidate who can “clearly and unapologetically articulate Biblical values without fear or compromise.”

Lively adds, “They need a candidate who will tell the simple truth that abortion is murder, and homosexuality is condemned by God (but that Jesus forgives and heals those who repent).”

He continues, “Massachusetts is the bluest of the blue states: the first to adopt socialized medicine and ‘gay marriage,’ the national model for promoting homosexuality to children in the public schools, and the most aggressive defender of child-killing through abortion.”

Lively says he can weather any criticism that will come his way as he makes a run for political office.

“As a long-time favorite target of extreme ‘gay’ and leftist slander I have skin thicker than a rhinoceros and cannot be intimidated or manipulated by critics or the media.”

He says he’s not a politician, so “don’t expect me to campaign like a politician.”

He says he’ll do “nothing more than travel the state to offer what I believe are Biblical solutions to Massachusetts’ problems — and leave the rest to Almighty God.”

An American judge rejected the evangelical pastor’s request to have the crimes-against-humanity case against him dismissed, Pink News reports.

The suit against Lively, filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) on behalf of Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), accuses the Abiding Truth Ministries president of waging a “decade-long campaign . . . in coordination with his Ugandan counterparts, to persecute persons on the basis of their gender and/or sexual orientation and gender identity.”

In the ruling, Judge Michael Ponsor said “widespread, systematic persecution of LGBTI people constitutes a crime against humanity that unquestionably violates international norms.”

Recently, Lively reportedly wrote an open letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin telling him that his anti-gay gag law banning “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations” among minors might not be enough.

According to BuzzFeed, Lively told Putin, “few political agendas in the history of mankind have marshaled the tenacity and resolve of the homosexualist movement. Its activists are driven by an implacable militancy and a zeal to advance their own self-serving interests that rivals even the most fanatical religious cult.”

 

Natasha Barsotti is originally from Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean. She had high aspirations of representing her country in Olympic Games sprint events, but after a while the firing of the starting gun proved too much for her nerves. So she went off to university instead. Her first professional love has always been journalism. After pursuing a Master of Journalism at UBC , she began freelancing at Xtra West — now Xtra Vancouver — in 2006, becoming a full-time reporter there in 2008.

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