A US pastor thinks any connection between Michael Sam, the first out draft pick of the National Football League, and Jackie Robinson, the first African-American to play in Major League Baseball, is Satan’s doing.

‘Robinson endured hatred and persecution because of his skin color whereas Sam’s homosexuality is a self-identification,’ Pastor David Prince writes on the Southern Baptist Convention’s website, according to Right Wing Watch.

‘Satan is pleased with the narrative that Michael Sam is the new Jackie Robinson,’ the pastor continues.

Prince adds ‘the Spirit of Christ met the challenge of Jim Crow’ and this same fervor must be used against ‘the sexual liberationist movement.’

The SBC is the largest Baptist body in the US. Its history includes defending slavery and opposing Martin Luther King, Jr.

In 1995, the SBC passed a resolution denouncing its past positions.