Appearing on “The 700 Club” Thursday, television preacher and former Republican presidential candidate Pat Robertson assured his viewers that gay people are not really gay, they’re just confused due to “chromosomal damage” they suffered as children, and urged his LGBT viewers to “come out” as straight people.

“I am very pleased that we have many, many, many homosexuals watching this program and many of them are looking for love and acceptance and help,” Robertson said., “And I’m glad to report that we have thousands of these people who are saying, ‘Yes, we want to follow Jesus. We’re not happy with the lifestyle we’re in and we want to have a better way.’ I think it’s wonderful that that’s happening.”

ADVERTISEMENT

Robertson went on to explain that these thousands of gay people who supposedly tune into his program are not actually gay. “It’s not something that is natural,” he said. “And when people reunite with the Lord, the Lord will get their priorities the way it is supposed to be.”

Then Robertson continued: “A lot of people are into this homosexual thing because they’ve been abused by a parent, abused by a coach, abused by a sibling, abused by a friend. They’re little boys and little girls and they don’t know any better. And then they somehow think, ‘Well, I must be gay.’ They aren’t. They are heterosexual and they just need to come out of that.”

“There are others, maybe they’ve got some chromosomal damage, that’s different from heterosexuals,” he added. “And that’s of course what they claim in the homosexual movement. They say, ‘Hey, you can’t come out of this under any circumstances.'”

This video is from “The 700 Club,” aired Thursday, July 11, 2013, as clipped by Right Wing Watch.