An “ex-gay” preacher, who claimed to have been “cured” of his homosexuality, who in February admitted to using the gay dating app Grindr, has spoken again to say that he did use it, but never for sex.

Matt Moore, a blogger for the Christian Post who frequently writes about having “come out” of the “homosexual lifestyle”, admitted in February, that he had been using Grindr to talk to gay men, which he said was “disobedient” to God.

He has now gone further to say that he did use Grindr, but defended himself by saying that he never used it to find sex, or to talk about sex.

“Basically I just wanted to see who was on it and who was around me,” he said in an interview with the Huffington Post. “I can honestly say that I didn’t have any kind of sexual conversations with anyone. Anyone who sent me any kind of explicit photos or conversations, I blocked immediately. The first time I got on it, I wanted to go out and I wanted to go to the gay bars in New Orleans. So I was trying to meet someone on there to basically tag along with. That was the reason I was originally on it.”

He also went on to say that he had never claimed to have turned “straight”, just that he left his “homosexual lifestyle” behind him, and that he is now a “blood-bought child of God.”

“I think the way the articles were written, they’re based on the assumption that when I became a Christian, I became straight and that I did not have homosexual feelings anymore and that my presence on Grindr was pointing out that I basically lied,” he said. “I had never, ever said any of those things.”

Moore also went on to say that he would no longer be blogging, and he previously said he had sold his computer, and blocked his phone from being able to access apps such as Grindr.

Linda Harvey, a US radio host who previously said that same-sex marriage encourages children to have gay sex and that gay people aren’t human and should therefore not be protected under the US constitution, recently referred to a book which she said could help gay peoples’ “same-sex desires diminish”.

She said that the book, A Young Man’s Journey: Healing for Young Men with Unwanted Homosexual Feelings, by “ex-gay” activist Floyd Godfrey, could help gay people “with envy, grudge-holding and other sinful attitudes.”

Ms Harvey also claimed that Jesus could be forced to marry another man if he was resurrected.