Scott Esk, a Tea Party candidate in Oklahoma for the 91st district in the state house, appears to be endorsing an Old Testament Biblical practice of stoning gay people to death.

His view towards homosexuals and lesbians was revealed when Esk posted a reply to a friend's post of Facebook about Pope Francis's stand on the issue which radically differed from the standard stand of the Roman Catholic Church.

In his response, Esk copied and pasted several Biblical verses that referred to gay people, among them was Leviticus 20:14 which described people with same-sex orientation as detestable and demanded that they be put to death.

Another Facebook member sought clarification about his post, and Esk replied, "I think we would be totally in the right to do it ... That goes against some principles of libertarianism, I realise, and I'm largely libertarian, but ignoring as a nation things that are worth of death is very remiss."

Although he posted the reply in 2013, the Oklahoma magazine Moore Monthly sought another clarification on his stand, and the State House candidate told the publication, quoted by The Independent, that the practice 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 added, "I have no plans to reinstitute that in Oklahoma law. I do have some very huge moral misgivings about those kinds of sin."

Commenting on Esk's religious convictions and legislative plans, Moore Monthly magazine publisher Rob Morris said, "Even people that don't agree with things like gay marriage ... nobody wants the death penalty for gays."

No one cited to Esk that the Old Testament law was replaced by the greatest commandment in the New Testament, considered an update on God's laws through Jesus Christ, that stated the greatest is to love God and one's neighbour as one's self.

Also in the New Testament is Jesus challenge to townfolks who wanted to stone to death an adulterous woman that the one without sins should cast the first stone.

Esk is also in favour of punishing abortionists for committing murder and federal bureaucrats who try to enact the provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. He is against all forms of gun licences, wants to cut education funding and believes the EPA, FDA and OSHA should cease to exist for being unconstitutional.

While he wants to make divorce more difficult, Esk admitted in his campaign Web site that after 15 years of marriage, he too was divorced from his wife.

Oklahoma, a basically conservative state, introduced a prohibition on same-sex marriage in 2004, but a federal judge in Tulsa overturned the law in January 2014, declaring the ban unconstitutional.

The state's primary is scheduled on June 24.