Scott Esk
Right-wing candidates from Oklahoma making homophobic and stupid comments are nothing new. So last week, when Oklahoma state House candidate Scott Esk said he thought it was OK if the state stoned gays to death, it was hardly news. Even the state’s mainstream media made fun of the stupidity. This in a state where the one of the Fox TV affiliates edited out 15 seconds of Cosmos that mentioned evolution.
“Ignoring as a nation things that are worthy of death is very remiss,” said Republican candidate Scott Esk.
He did clarify to Salon magazine that he wouldn’t try to amend Oklahoma law to call for the death penalty for gays. Oh, well, that qualifies him to be a responsible state representative.
Of course, he only favors such things because God said so. It’s right there in the Bible.
What’s worth noting is Esk’s limited understanding of the Bible. It’s easy to read the first line without knowing anything about history, context or other things written in the Bible. I’m assuming God wrote those other things in the Bible too.
First, while it does condemn those who are gay to death by stoning, the Bible also says (straight) adulterers should be stoned to death. So is a man having sex with your mother-in-law or daughter-in-law. So is raping a virgin who’s engaged.
Being a stubborn or rebellious son or cursing your parents? Stone him to death.
Religious crimes are also punishable by death — things like not keeping Saturday holy. Oh, sure, in English it says “the Sabbath,” but in the Bible, the Hebrew word is Saturday. Si is trying to convert someone to a different religion is punishable by stoning.
Then there’s how those laws were carried out. The court that heard those cases was called the Sanhedrin. Rules on imposing the death penalty were strict. Four eyewitnesses were required to convict. Confessions were not admissible. A court that convicted more than one person in seven years was considered draconian.
Also, if biblical law conflicted with civil law, civil law prevailed.
However in the case of Mr. Esk, although he’s confessed to his crimes, I’m sure we can find at least four witnesses who have seen him not keeping the Sabbath (Saturday, as it says in the Bible) holy and he sure does seem to be trying to convert people to his religion. That’s two capital offenses. I’m not sure we can just let those go so easily.
