Rick Scarborough must be so proud. The homophobic former Baptist minister has been honored with The LaBarbera Award, named for Americans for "Truth" wack job Peter LaBarbera (the man who recently celebrated former gay editor Michael Glatze's ex-gay conversion).

Bestowed by Box Turtle Bulletin, the LaBarbera Award goes to cultural nitwits who deliver the "most outrageous, offensive, malevolent, crazy, excessive" statement. So, what did Scarborough do to deserve the prestigious award?

Scarborough wins the LaBarbera Award for telling Vision America readers that if they don't fight the hate crimes act, they'll have the "blood of the martyrs" on their hands:

Mark this down; the day that this law becomes federal statute, the open persecution of major conservative broadcast ministries like Focus on the Family and D. James Kennedy will begin, and it will not end until it arrives at a church near you. If you want to avoid having the blood of martyrs on your hands, then join tens of thousands of other Americans who still hold to the truths of God’s Word and…send a message to your senators and President Bush that you do not want this legislation. Finally, please… make the largest contribution you can to Vision America Action, our 501C4, to assist us in fighting this battle.

For those of you wondering what we edited out – the ellipses represent Scarborough's donation links. You won't be needing those, we hope