Texas Pastor vowed to set himself on fire if Supreme Court legalized gay marriage

It came as little surprise to many when Christian political activist and former Texas Pastor Rick Scarborough, speaking on the National Emergency Coalition's podcast last week, declared he would set himself on fire if the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage.

"We are not going to bow. We are not going to bend, and if necessary we will burn," Scarborough said before describing marriage equality as a Satanic plot. He suggested marriage equality advocates were fighting against God's word and that its opponents must prepare to fight until the death if need be.

Scarborough did not specify if he was referring to self-immolation or simply getting verbally burned for his controversial views, though he previously offered to sacrifice himself to help Oregon bakers who refused a same-sex cake order.

"It goes back to the Garden of Eden when Satan wanted to be God. We now have a race of humans that don't want to acknowledge that there's a God," he said.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of marriage equality by a 5-4 vote, settling one the biggest civil rights fights of this era. Marriages will officially be legal in three weeks, barring rebuttals from the losing side.

Neither Scarborough nor Vision America, the conservative Christian group he founded, has commented publicly about the landmark decision. NPR's Audie Cornish will interview Scarborough Thursday night where they are expected to discuss the ruling's impact on religious institutions. They may even touch on whether Scarborough meant to set himself on fire.

Scarborough has never shied away from expressing his anti-gay beliefs.

In 2013, Scarborough contemplated bringing a class action lawsuit against homosexuality on the grounds that gays are more likely to contract AIDS than smokers are to getting cancer. Earlier the same year, he said it "won't be long until we call pedophiles 'happy people."

The Christian political activist more recently demanded Supreme Court Judges Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Elena Kagan recuse themselves from same-sex marriage cases given that both have officiated same-sex weddings. Scarborough said their "impartiality may be reasonably questioned."