Back in 2015, Senator Ted Cruz, along with fellow GOP presidential candidates Mike Huckabee and Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal, spoke at a conference in Des Moines hosted by a so-called pastor who advocates for the execution of gay people and who made his call for mass extermination onstage at the event.

Pastor Kevin Swanson, who has said in the past that Christians should attend gay weddings and hold up signs telling the newly married gay couples that they “should be put to death,” declared this week that Hurricane Harvey is God’s judgment on Houston and other cities that refuse to repent for their embrace of “sexual perversion,” according to Right Wing Watch.

“Jesus sends the message home, unless Americans repent, unless Houston repents, unless New Orleans repents, they will all likewise perish,” Swanson said on his radio program Thursday. “That is the message that the Lord Jesus Christ is sending home right now to America.”

Swanson said that it’s no coincidence that Houston was hit by the catastrophic storm because “it was persecuting pastors and churches” and recently had “a very, very aggressively pro-homosexual mayor.”

He also blamed the Texas legislature’s recent failure to pass a bill “that would have prevented cross-dressing men from using the women’s restrooms” because “they wanted to encourage the abomination of men attempting to dress like women and women attempting to dress like men.”

“I think that the entire state of Texas and the entire United States of America needs to take note of this,” Swanson warned, “and realize that there is a God in heaven, He brings His judgments and He calls nations to repentance, as He is doing right now.”

Swanson also noted that the remnants of the storm were forecast to brush New Orleans just as the city prepares for its annual “Southern Decadence” festival.

He said God is giving the city a “head’s up” before it hosts “the largest sexual perversion event in the country.”

“Is anybody paying attention in New Orleans?” he asked.

“Unless you repent, you will likewise perish,” Swanson proclaimed. “And repairing your houses in Houston after a hurricane is useless if you’re just going to go to hell.”