Ted Cruz is citing the Bible and preaching on Twitter in defense of gay people, and it's quite something

Ted Cruz is citing the Bible and preaching on Twitter in defense of gay people, and it's quite something
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  • Sen. Ted Cruz preached tolerance for gay people during a Twitter spat with a pastor.

  • "Let he that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her," Cruz tweeted.

  • Cruz had previously condemned Uganda's harsh new anti-gay legislation.

Sen. Ted Cruz on Monday cited the Bible and quoted verses in defense of LGBTQ+ communities, a stark departure from his decidedly conservative position on gay rights.

A Florida pastor, Tom Ascol, tweeted a Bible verse that suggested every gay man should be put to death, to which Cruz responded: "Your biblical analysis is in error."

The Texas senator then invoked another Bible verse to support his argument.

"Jesus told us to 'render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. We are talking the laws of man, not the Old Testament laws of God,'" Cruz tweeted.

He then added: "Do you really believe that the US govt should execute every person who is gay??"

Cruz also mentioned another Bible verse — "let he that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her" — to argue that it was cruel and hypocritical to judge others for sinning.

Ascol later told Newsweek that the point of his question was not to suggest that gay people should be executed but to "determine if the senator believes that when God criminalized homosexual conduct in the Old Testament that our Maker was guilty of prescribing a law horrific and grotesque law."

He told Newsweek that he was "grateful" for the discourse with Cruz and welcomed "further conversation with him about these important matters."

Cruz's religion-driven pro-LGBTQ+ tweets came just days after he unexpectedly called new legislation in Uganda — which allows for gay people to be sentenced to death for their sexuality — "horrific" and "wrong."

Cruz speaking out so strongly in favor of LGBTQ+ communities is a far cry from his earlier position on the matter, such as when he said the US Supreme Court was "clearly wrong" about its 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges ruling, which legalized marriage equality.

"Obergefell, like Roe v. Wade, ignored two centuries of our nation's history. Marriage was always an issue that was left to the states," he said in a July episode of the "Verdict with Ted Cruz" podcast.

And in November last year, he voted against the Respect for Marriage Act, a move to provide federal protection for marriages of same-sex and interracial couples. He said it would be an "attack on religious liberties," The Texas Tribune reported.

Representatives for Cruz didn't immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside regular business hours.

Read the original article on Business Insider