Right Wing Pastors Claim “Homosexuality” Worse Than Slavery

A pair of controversial right-wing Evangelical pastors have come under fire after stating that homosexuality is a worse sin than slavery. Scott Lively and Tennessee Pastor Richard May made the inflammatory statement on Lively's Breaking News Bible Study program.

"Which is worse, slavery or homosexuality?" May asked Lively.

"Homosexuality by far," Lively replied.

The Breaking News Bible Study episode was littered with similar jaw-dropping instances of bigotry and ignorance. After Lively opened the show by noting some listeners had found spiritual significance in an upcoming eclipse, the host and his guest May then launched into an hour of offensive similarly off-the-wall observations.

Lively noted the abuse he suffered at the hands of his "severely mentally ill" father. According to him he got past it because he wasn't the type to sit "in a chair and crying about what a terrible lot I got in life." As Lively told it, his experiences as a cis straight white male with a difficult home life were just as difficult as those suffering from slavery and terrorism. May, of course, agreed.

"The Bible is clear that slavery is an unfortunate event, but so are bad kings and wars and famines," May added. "It's not something to lose your mind over."

Lively had earlier spoke of "a demonic element" in what he described as "a war going on in the Democratic party" between the "hard, hard left communists" who support Bernie Sanders and the "socialists" who favor Hillary Clinton, and that this war has been running "in parallel with the entire left bloc's attack on Trump."

This is not the first controversy for Lively. In 2012 he was sued in a Massachusetts federal court by the Center for Constitutional Rights on behalf of the non-profit LGBTQ+ advocacy group Sexual Minorities Uganda. The court eventually ruled in 2018 that Lively had violated international law when he traveled to Uganda and advocated the government to institute inhumane sentences such as life imprisonment and even the death penalties for LGBTQ+ persons, but that the court could not pass judgement against Lively because the acts had taken place on foreign soil.

While the pair did not advocate punishing LGBTQ+ persons with the death penalty on Lively's most recent show, his guest felt just as strongly as he did about whether the horrors of slavery come close to people engaging in same-sex relations.

"I mean, come on, guys," May said. "Our priorities are all mixed up."

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