The former Baptist pastor from Texas who vowed to set himself on fire if the Supreme Court ruled in favor of same-sex marriage in the Obergefell v. Hodges case on Friday is now saying he never meant for the statement to be taken literally.
Originally, Rick Scarborough, now a political activist through his group Vision America, said, "We are not going to bow. We are not going to bend, and if necessary we will burn," on the National Emergency Coalition Show, a podcast that is linked to the Staying True to America's National Destiny (STAND) group.
After the Supreme Court ruled in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage, Scarborough told KFYO News that he never really meant what he said about lighting himself on fire in the name of protest.
"I made that comment to paraphrase a spiritual song, 'Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego,' in which the three were given a choice - to bow to the image of Nebucahdnezzar or burn in a furnace," Scarborough said."'We will burn' means that we will accept any sanction from the government for resisting [Friday's] Supreme Court decision. We do not support any violence or physical harm."
Prior to his controversial comments on the podcast, Scarborough was in the news for pledging he would go to jail, along with prominent Republican politicians Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum and tens of thousands of other people, in the name of "traditional" marriage, according to The Advocate.
On the National Emergency Coalition Show, Scarborough also said that "preachers need to get out front, the leaders need to get out front, out front of these ordinary citizens and say, 'Shoot me first!'"
He added that same-sex marriage stems from a whole "race" of people that do not belive in God.
"We now have a race of humans that don't want to acknowledge that there's a God," Scarborough said.
HNGN has reached out to Vision America for a direct comment from Scarborough but he has not responded.
