The leader of a US anti-gay group, and a pastor invited to talk on his program, have said it is okay to eat pork and shellfish, but not to have gay sex, despite both being classed as sinful in the Old Testament.

Peter LaBarbera of Americans For Truth About Homosexuality, invited Oklahoma pastor James Taylor, onto his show, during which they say, despite both being listed as “abominations” in Leviticus, eating pork and shellfish is okay because of the invention of refrigerators, but gay sex is not, because there is no equivalent to refrigeration.

During the program, they discussed a summit they attended about health care and the LGBT community, and were offended by a suggestion made in a pamphlet they were handed linking gay sex with eating shellfish an pork, all of which are classed as “abominations”, the worst sin possible.

The pamphlet, which included research from Kathy McCallie of the Church of the Open Arms, was accused of attempting to “mix” the different sins together, by making the link, and drawing a comparison based on the bible’s use of the word “abomination”.

Mr Taylor said: “Some things are cultural and there are also some things that have happened now in terms of refrigeration and health concerns and those are some of those things that are there. But the reality is it doesn’t change the fact that God has said a man shall not lie with a male like a woman and vice versa and he uses the word abomination, which is the strongest word in the Bible for hate that you can come across.”

He continued: “So that’s the problem, they want to pick and choose what they want to have and then to dismiss it as this isn’t what the Bible says, it’s foolishness.”

Suggesting that homosexuality was a “lifestyle choice”, Mr Taylor suggested it was natural for there to be “resistance” against it.

“If you want to be that type of—live that lifestyle, that’s your choice. If you are going to swim upstream, you better expect there to be some resistance. If you are going against what is the norm per se, there’s going to be some type of resistance.

In an attempt to claim that homosexuality is a “choice”, Mr LaBarbera also described homosexuality as “a behaviour which leads to disease”.

Mr LaBarbera also said that the Church of the Open Arms pamphlet “promoted homosexuality and even gender confusion.” He also described gender reassignment as “awful sex changes”, during which the body is “mutilated to be come something you cannot be, the other sex.

LaBarbera said: “Homosexual behavior is wrong, it’s changeable, we know that, there are many people, people like DL Foster, now here’s a black man who can never change his skin color but the changed his homosexual behavior.”

The website for Church of Open Arms says: “Our mission is to follow in the reconciling ministry of Jesus, as an inclusive, justice-seeking community.”

Peter LaBarbera, and another guest, previously likened homosexuality to alcoholism before comparing homosexual “behaviour” to that of the shooter in the Sandy Hook shooting.

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