Anti-gay pastor, target of federal lawsuit, launches campaign for Mass. governor

Follow breaking news @lgbtqnation

MASSACHUSETTS

Anti-gay pastor, target of federal lawsuit, launches campaign for Mass. governor

'The people of this state need a candidate who will tell the simple truth that homosexuality is condemned by God'

BRODY LEVESQUE | LGBTQ Nation

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

88 Comments ↓

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — Anti-gay Pastor Scott Lively, the leader of his own Abiding Truth Ministries, and who has dedicated his career and life to combating what he calls the “evil Satan inspired homosexual agenda,” announced Monday that he is entering the race for Governor of Massachusetts.

Scott Lively

Lively told LGBTQ Nation on Tuesday that he would be filing his required candidacy paperwork by the end of this week.

He said he sees himself as the “only candidate with strong global Biblical convictions,” in the state’s gubernatorial race, and that he would be running as an Independent because the state Republican Party was “too far to the left for his tastes.”

“The people of this state need a candidate who can clearly and unapologetically articulate Biblical values without fear or compromise. 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),” Lively wrote on his blog Monday.

He told LGBTQ Nation that strong Biblical-based Christian beliefs are lacking in public policy, as evidenced by both parties’ current positions on social issues.

Lively runs Abiding Truth Ministries, a Springfield, Mass.-based church dedicated to combating “the homosexual agenda,” and also operates the Holy Grounds Coffee House in Springfield.

In an interview with NBC News last month, Lively called LGBT people “dangerous predators, even killers,” who caught this gay “disorder” through “an evil game of tag,” a chain of abuse in which gays recruit kids into sodomy just as they were once recruited.

In this way homosexuality spreads like “a social cancer,” he claimed, until nothing remains of the Christian world.

Advertisement

Lively’s anti-gay rhetoric landed him in federal court last year in a lawsuit brought by Ugandan LGBT activists who alleged his message has brought death and despair to LGBT people in that country, and have influenced Ugandan lawmakers – backed by influential Ugandan churches – to introduce a pending draconian law that would provide a death sentence for “repeat offenses of homosexual behavior.”

Last month, the U.S. District Court Judge hearing the case ruled that the suit alleging Lively’s “crimes against humanity” had merit and could proceed.

Lively said the the lawsuit was unfounded and without merit, and told LGBTQ Nation he didn’t think that it would alter Massachusetts voters’ perceptions once they heard him speak out on the issues.

Should Lively’s candidacy take root with Massachusetts’ conservative voters, one political analyst noted that his campaign could draw off potential supporters from the state’s GOP front runner Charlie Baker.

Connect with LGBTQ Nation.

The Nation's most followed LGBTQ news magazine.