Murkowski challenger is pro-Trump pastor who says being gay is a 'choice' but people are 'born conservative'

Kelly Tshibaka, the Republican challenging Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, is a far right wing, pro-Trump religious extremist who believes being gay is "a choice" but being conservative is not.

Tshibaka has written in years past in support of so-called "ex-gay" groups like the now-defunct Exodus International, supported psychologically damaging "conversion therapy," said gay people were "molested" as children, and opposes separation of church and state, according to a CNN investigative report.

Tshibaka, a pastor who co-founded a Pentecostal Christian church with her husband, has also written in opposition of popular cultural media, like the "Twilight" books and movies, saying they are pathways for Satan.

"Hundreds of people reject homosexual lifestyles and come out of homosexuality every year," Tshibaka wrote in a 2002 article for the independent Harvard Law Record for "National Coming Out of Homosexuality Day," which she wrote was "a day dedicated to helping homosexuals overcome their sexual tendencies and move towards a healthy lifestyle."

NCRM found that day was celebrated by the anti-LGBTQ hate group Family Research Council as far back as 1996, as "a response to the Gay and Lesbian Vote Rally."

In support of "conversion therapy," Tshibaka wrote that "working with several thousand homosexuals, Exodus has found that the most common cause of homosexuality is sexual molestation during childhood."

Although not naming them, she also falsely claimed that "ex-gay," "reparative," or "conversion therapy" is "not a process that results in repression of continuing desires and attractions. Science has proven homosexual preferences can be authentically changed."

That is false. Every credible major medical organization that has weighed in on "conversion therapy" has warned against the practice, with most noting it is dangerous. Some who have undergone it have called it "torture," and some have died by suicide, citing the attempts to "convert" them.

"Homosexuals," Tshibaka also wrote, "can come out of homosexuality because their preference is not biologically mandated. Unlike race or gender, homosexuality is a choice."

Although Tshibaka believes being gay "is a choice," she also believes she was "born conservative."

"I began shooting guns at age five and grew up with Reagan as king," she wrote, also at the Harvard Law Record. "I attended the most liberal high school in Alaska and arguably the most conservative university in Texas. Some would say I was born conservative — it's not a choice."

In that same article Tshibaka touted her conservative bona fides, including her belief that the U.S. Constitution does not mandate separation of church and state.

"What does it mean to me to be a conservative? It means I love my guns. Big government is a big problem. Abortion cannot be justified. There is no wall of separation between church and state. Your money is yours alone. And we are bound by an overarching moral code that even the Supreme Court can't legislate around."

She also "wrote about the dangers of witchcraft and the occult, specifically targeting the 'Twilight' book and movie series, CNN's K-File reports. "She called it 'evil and we should not read or watch it.'"

"Some say this book is harmless, that it promotes Christian values, and that it does not promote anything wicked at all. But Satan does not usually look repulsive, horrific, and evil on the outside," she wrote in an October 2009 blog post.

"Make no mistake: 'Twilight' is a perfect example of how the enemy twists, perverts, and ridicules the things of God. This is his m.o. This is how he works," Tshibaka added.

And she claims there is "a link between drugs and witchcraft," writing: "Perhaps this explains why many people who have used illegal drugs experience demonic oppression."

Tshibaka co-founded a Pentecostal church, and one of the tenets of that Christian sect is speaking in tongues, as the official news site for Assemblies of God, the largest Pentecostal denomination, notes.