Antigay Pastor Wants Gay Appointee Removed For 'Hell' Message

An Iowa pastor said a newly appointed member of the Sioux City Human Rights Commission told him to "burn in hell" three years ago, and that the man should be fired from his position for doing so.

Scott Raasch recently apologized for sending Rev. Cary Gordon a staunch message as the reverend became a voice for the campaign to remove three Iowa supreme court justices who ruled in favor of marriage equality. Raasch, who is gay, was responding to a letter that Gordon sent to fellow pastors in 2010 that compared the American Civil Liberties Union to Nazis, according to Raw Story.

Shortly after the letters were made public, Raasch told Gordon in a Facebook message, "there are many people that deserve to burn in hell, including you and your entire family."

Gordon said Raasch's counter-letter was "threatening, hateful, anti-religious, slanderous, and amoral" in a blog post last week.

Raasch has since publicly apologized.

"I feel badly about this," he said according to the Associated Press. "I don't want to get off to a bad start. I think I can do a good job on this commission."