A representative of US hate group Family Research Council has said he doesn’t know whether gay people should be executed.

In a segment on the group’s radio station, Craig James spoke to a caller who suggested gay people who sued anti-gay businesses should be put to death.

Mr James said: “I don’t know about the executing, but I do know that we have to be bold and firm and much stronger. God doesn’t tell us and calls us that we have to be timid and to stand for our beliefs.

“I’m doing a course right now in seminary and it’s the history of the early church and it’s fascinating, there’s been lots and lots and lots of men and women who have died for their Christian beliefs since the beginning and now we are in a time in this country and in this world where we must be bold and stand for God and His truths.”

Mr James was hired by the Family Research Council after being sacked by Fox Sport for saying gay people would have to “answer to the Lord for their actions”.

Last week the group talked about the possibility of a constitutional amendment to ban trans people.