Notorious anti-LGBT activist and recent Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate Scott Lively is doubling down on recent claims that homosexuality is worse than genocide. In a lengthy "explanation," the man who has earned international condemnation and even a crimes against humanity charge for his aggressive advocacy in nations like Uganda is now claiming that God is the one who can, does, and likely will employ mass killing in order to punish us for homosexuality. Here's a snippet and link to the full piece:

Humans tend to measure the gravity of sins based on the second commandment, and thus we think of murder, or perhaps genocide, as the worst of sins. From that human standpoint especially as related to public policy, mass murder is certainly worse than homosexuality. A serial abortionist, for example, is a far greater threat to humanity than a person who simply engages in sodomy. The comparison is not even close (unless you count those who intentionally or negligently spread AIDS or other deadly venereal diseases).



But from God’s perspective, the worst human sins are violations of the first commandment. “You shall have no other gods before me” tops the Decalogue, and its violation is certainly the greatest of all possible sins (a sobering thought for a society that has since the mid-20th century embraced the Antichrist doctrine of “religious pluralism” as its preeminent religious value).

...

Indeed, from Genesis to Revelation homosexuality is uniquely identified in scripture a harbinger of God’s wrath.



So, is homosexuality worse than mass murder from God’s standpoint? Read it for yourself. God’s justification of the genocide of the Canaanites by the hand of the Hebrews is found in Leviticus 18. It is a list of sexual sins, including incest, bestiality and, of course, homosexuality (which — even in this context — is singled out as “an abomination”), ending with the admonition: “Do not defile yourselves by any of these things; for by all these the nations which I am casting out before you have become defiled. ‘For the land has become defiled, therefore I have brought its punishment upon it, so the land has spewed out its inhabitants.”



God Himself employed [sic] mass killing to punish sexual perversion. Very harsh in human estimation, but who are we to judge God? (Importantly, killings by God are not technically murder since He is always justified in His actions.)

...

To the world, religions are just beliefs that people choose like football teams. Faith is perceived as akin to brand loyalty, but in the end all the teams are pretty much the same. But true Christianity is not a religion. It is the indwelling of God in each person who belongs to Him through Christ (Romans 8:9). We know the truth and it/He has set us free from control or intimidation by those who hate Him and therefore us.

Yes, from God’s perspective as revealed in His Word, homosexuality is worse than mass murder.

This is a whole other level of extremism. These are the kinds of dangerous words that truly do inspire zealots to perform crazy acts. There is no way Lively's personal seizure and twisting of the scripture in order to frame a gay teenager as worse in God's eyes than the mass murder of a human population can be portrayed as simply point-of-view activism. There is no defense.

This is the kind of of thing that all opponents of LGBT rights should step up and condemn. And don't give me that crap about Lively being disconnected from the larger conservative movement. Lively is still a regular guest on Bryan Fischer's American Family Association Radio show, which airs just two hours prior to Tony Perkins' own show on that same network. AFA Radio hosts politicians and Fox News commentators (Todd Starnes also appears regularly on Fischer's show) and assorted personalities from the conservative world. It is a shared audience, and Scott Lively is a regularly invited messenger.

Lively also speaks at Tea Party rallies, is honored at anti-LGBT activist benefits, is lauded in conservative publications like WND, works closely with groups like MassResistance, and flows freely through the ranks of anti-LGBT conservatism. At most, there is one degree of separation between Lively and the most mainstream anti-LGBT activist you see or hear in the conservative media space. Yet in ten years of doing this work, with Lively's rhetoric coarsening with every passing day, I have yet to hear even one of these folks speak out against this high profile member of their "team."

Which is fine. But as long as the same outlets that court and work with the "mainstream figures" continue to court and work with Scott Lively, those who let this truly dangerous rhetoric go by without saying a word are at least somewhat complicit in whatever fallout stems from these horrid views.