LBC radio host James O’Brien was taking no prisoners during an on-air segment about gay sex this week.

Mr O’Brien was hosting a debate about religion and homosexuality when one caller, Daniel, called up to insist that Christian teaching is clear that gay sex is sinful.

But the radio host was curious to hear where these pronouncements come from – given Jesus makes no mention absolutely of the subject, and the only verse of the Bible to clearly condemn homosexuality, Leviticus, is full of bizarre archaic diktats that are not Christian teachings.

Daniel said: “The Bible is quite clear about homosexuality, and what is a sin and what isn’t. It’s in the Old and the New Testament.”

O’Brien cut in: “The New Testament, you can find a couple of quotes from St Paul with reference to modern interpretations of what Sodom and Gamorrah represents, but just remind me – just tell me the things that Jesus said about it.”

However, the caller appeared unable to recount any teaching from Jesus about gay people, probably because there aren’t any.

Stalling for time, he said: “Well, in 1 Corinthians…”

O’Brien added: “That’s a letter written by someone who never met Jesus.

“1 Corinthians is a letter that St Paul wrote. What did Jesus say, on the record, in the Bible about homosexuality?

“It’s a simple question. What did he say? You can say nothing, because that’s the true answer, or you can carry on blustering.”

The caller opted for the latter.

He said: “When Paul spoke, he was speaking through Paul. God, Jesus, he was speaking through Paul.”

O’Brien would not let it go, however.

He added: “I will give you all the time that you need to answer the question I’m asking. Either you repeat the words that Jesus said, or you say, he didn’t say anything. You’ve got to choose. Did he say anything, and if he did, what were the words?”

Clearly unable to concede the point, the caller again tried to detract, referring to other parts of the Bible – but the host kept on the same point.

In total he asked the question an incredible 27 times, across a 5-minute segment – at one point breaking into song to repeat the question over and over.

He sings: “What did Jesus say? What did Jesus say? What did Jesus say about people who are gay?”

With no answer forthcoming, Mr O’Brien probed: “Why do you care so much about gay people? You phoned up on an issue that is about gay people and religion.

“You’ve clearly identified yourself as religious, but I want to know about the other bit of the debate.”

When the caller ignored that question too, the host attempted to cut off the segment, saying: “You have a great day, may God go with you.

“You can’t answer the question about Jesus and you won’t answer the other question that I’m asking, which is kind of the point.

“It leads me to conclude that what you’re really terrified of Daniel is something that is going on inside yourself.”

We couldn’t have put it better ourselves.

Mr O’Brien’s LBC colleague Maajid Nawaz received a PinkNews Award in 2017 for his discussion of LGBT issues and Islam on his LBC show.

The Muslim radio host, a leading campaigner against extremism, regularly takes on callers who claim that their religion teaches them to oppose LGBT equality or persecute LGBT people.

Nawaz is the founding chairman of counter-extremism think-tank Quilliam, and before renouncing his Islamist past, was a member of Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir, which led to his imprisonment in Egypt.

After receiving the award, Nawaz dedicated the award to any LGBTQ person who has been persecuted and hit out at “bigots” who would be confused by a Muslim winning an award for promoting LGBTQ issues.

He said: “I’ve actually never really won anything so imagine how confused it will make the bigots that this British Muslim won his first award for LGBTQ issues.

“I try to use my show as a platform to advance these sorts of social causes, and when I heard in a survey, the last survey that was conducted in January this year, that 52 percent of my fellow co-religionists, British Muslims, advocated the criminalisation of homosexuality in this country. I was both embarrassed and infuriated and frustrated and outraged and angry.

“I wanted to use the show as a platform to do something about that because the survey before that found that 0 percent of British Muslims found that being gay was ever morally acceptable.”

“This award here isn’t for me or for Sandra or for the LBC show, it’s for every LGBTQ identifying person that has been murdered by extremists across the world simply for being – it is those 10 countries across the world that still carry the death sentence, all of which are Muslim-majority countries, simply for being gay, where people are killed by the law, by the state, by the statute.

“And until we carry on with the kind of leadership that tonight has shown unless we carry on, we cannot begin to change that kind of criminal conduct, is the only word to describe it. But this is for anyone out there who has been discriminated against because of who they are.”