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.”