Possible Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee on Sunday argued that Christians could have “gay friends,” while still opposing marriage equality because it was a biblical principle.

During an interview on CNN, Huckabee refused to say whether he thought homosexuality was a choice because he said that the bigger issue was how the law was being changed to legalize same-sex marriage.

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“We don’t change law because some people in a black robe decided the fact that they don’t like the fact that 70 and in some cases 80 percent of a state’s population have affirmed natural law marriage,” the former Arkansas governor opined.

But Huckabee said that gay people could “be his friend” even if he disagreed with their sexuality.

“I don’t drink alcohol, but, gosh, a lot of my friends — maybe most of them — do,” he explained. “You know, I don’t use profanity, but believe me, I’ve got a lot of friends who do. Some people really like classical music and ballet and opera, it’s not my cup of tea. I would like think there’s room in America for people to have different points of view without screaming, shouting, wanting to shut their business down.”

Huckabee encouraged Republicans to invite LGBT people “in the tent” as long as the party did not change it’s position on equal marriage rights.

“For me as it was for President Obama in 2008, this is not just a political issue, this is a biblical issue,” he insisted. “And as a biblical issue, unless I get a new version of the scriptures, it’s really not my place to say, ‘Okay, I’m just going to evolve.'”

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“It’s like asking somebody who’s Jewish to start serving bacon-wrapped shrimp in their deli. We don’t want to do that,” Huckabee continued. “Or asking a Muslim to serve up something that is offensive to him or to have dogs in his backyard.”

“We’re so sensitive to make sure we don’t offend certain religions, but then we act like Christians can’t have the convictions they’ve had for over 2,000 years.”

Watch the video below from CNN’s State of the Union, broadcast Feb. 1, 2015.