Right-wing pastor Tom Ascol criticizes Ted Cruz for condemning Uganda's anti-LGBTQ law and claims such laws are not “wrong” because God created them
Ascol's continued attack came during an appearance on Jenna Ellis' American Family Radio show
Written by Payton Armstrong
Published
On June 6, bigoted pastor Tom Ascol appeared on Jenna Ellis’ right-wing Christian radio program to double down on his recent criticism of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) for condemning Uganda’s anti-LGBTQ law on Twitter.
During the appearance, Ascol argued that laws criminalizing LGBTQ people cannot be “unjust, immoral, wrong, grotesque” because “God created laws for Israel that are very clear, saying that homosexuality is a criminal act.”
Ascol is one of the main leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention’s far right who has also emerged as a GOP power player as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former President Donald Trump vie for evangelical support in the 2024 Republican primary. He recently made headlines for criticizing Cruz’s condemnation of Uganda’s new extreme anti-LGBTQ law that mandates the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality.”
On May 30, Cruz called the Uganda law “horrific & wrong” on Twitter, and Ascol responded by citing a Bible quotation seemingly suggesting gay people should “surely be put to death.” Cruz responded directly in a Twitter thread on June 5, defending his criticism of Uganda’s law and asking Ascol whether he believes “that the US govt should execute every person who is gay??”
The next morning, Ascol responded to Cruz on the American Family Radio show of Ellis, a disgraced former Trump attorney who also has an extensive history of making virulently anti-LGBTQ remarks.
During the interview, Ascol again criticized Cruz’s condemnation of the law, saying his tweet was “actually a slam against God, who gave that specific law at one point in time to his old covenant people, Israel.” Ascol specifically took issue with Cruz's statement that “any law that criminalizes homosexuality is grotesque,” saying, “God created laws for Israel that are very clear, saying that homosexuality is a criminal act — and that cannot be an unjust, immoral, wrong, grotesque law.”
Ellis agreed: “That's such a great point.”
On American Family Radio, right-wing pastor Tom Ascol doubles down on criticism of Ted Cruz’s condemnation of Uganda’s anti-LGBTQ law
Citation From the June 6, 2023, edition of American Family Radio's Jenna Ellis in the Morning
TOM ASCOL (PASTOR, GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH): I believe that Ted Cruz is acting out of the best of intentions here; I just think he's misguided. And you're correct. This is a classic example of how confused not just our society at large is, but how confused Christians within churches are about the matter of God's law and God's gospel.
Of course we believe that the only way you can be made right with God is through faith in Jesus Christ, who came into the world, lived a life of obedience to God's commands, and died on the cross on behalf of all who trust in him. That's the gospel. That's good news. That's grace.
But the God who gave us the gospel also gave us his law. He's the one who determines what's right and what's wrong. And though he had special purposes for Old Testament Israel — he gave them special laws for that special time, and we should not try to recreate Israel because God had a purpose in place for them in their era — but those laws that he gave to them could not be horrific and wrong and grotesque because they came from God.
And that was my concern with what the senator said was any law that criminalizes homosexuality is grotesque, and God created laws for Israel that are very clear, saying that homosexuality is a criminal act — and that cannot be an unjust, immoral, wrong, grotesque law. And we need to look at that.
And if we understood law and gospel better in our churches, we'd be teaching it better and people like Sen. Cruz, who’s a member of a Baptist church in Houston, I believe, maybe wouldn't be so confused about it.
So that was my main contention, is wanting to show that what he said was actually a slam against God, who gave that specific law at one point in time to his old covenant people, Israel. And it has been some concerns. It has merit for us to consider about what is right and wrong for all time.
JENNA ELLIS (HOST): And that's such a great point.