A Greek bishop has reacted to the parliament taking the first steps to legalizing same-sex unions rather badly.

Orthodox preacher Ambrosios of Kalavryta has called on his faithful to ‘spit’ on gay people as they are ‘freaks of nature’.

He said: Spit on them! Blacken them! Vote against them! They are not human! They are freaks of nature! Mentally and spiritually sick! They are mentally insane!’

He added: ‘Wherever you see them, spit on them! Don’t leave them in peace! They are dangerous!’

The bishop’s horrific blog post follows the parliamentary committee beginning to discuss a bill two years after Greece was fined by the European Court of Human Rights for failing to allow same-sex couples to enter into domestic partnerships.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has hoped to rectify this as soon as possible, but the strong religious groups and right-wing political groups are trying to stop the bill from becoming law.