TULSA, Okla. – An Oklahoma magazine discovered this week that current Tea Party State House candidate Scott Esk endorsed stoning gay people to death. “I think we would be totally in the right to do it,” he wrote last summer in a Facebook post. “That [stoning gay people to death] goes against some parts of libertarianism, I realize, and I’m largely libertarian, but ignoring as a nation things that are worthy of death is very remiss.”

When pressed recently to explain the post, Esk admitted that he may have been overly harsh. “As a libertarian, I believe in personal choice,” he said. “Therefore I think it only fair that gay people be given a choice between stoning and crucifixion when they are put to death.”

Asked why he thought gay individuals deserved to be put to death, Esk spoke with passion about his faith. “That was done in the Old Testament under a law that came directly from God and in that time there it was totally just. It came directly from God, he said. “I know what was done in the Old Testament and what was done back then was what’s just. … And I do stand for Biblical morality.”

Esk explained that his decision to accept for crucifixion as an allowable alternative to stoning came after much soul searching. “On the one hand, our Lord Jesus was crucified, and I wouldn’t want any gay person to feel close to Jesus,” he said. “But on the other hand, death by stoning is relatively quick while a crucifixion can last for days. It’s really all about maximizing the suffering of the gays.”

He said some of his fellow Republicans who were Hell-bent on stoning or nothing were out of step with the times. “I understand the desire to pelt gays with heavy stones until they die, but we have to remember to think like Jesus,” he said. “And I’m pretty sure Jesus would find it in His heart to crucify a gay if they asked.”

Pressed if he would lobby for legislation that would condemn gay people to a Biblical death if elected, Esk hesitated. “I never said I would author legislation to put homosexuals to death,” he clarified. “But I didn’t have a problem with it.”