The pastor of popular megachurch in South Carolina told his congregation on Wednesday that homosexuality was caused by demons and ended his sermon by calling gay people to the stage so Jesus could “straighten things out.”

During his monthly “Unite” sermon, Redemption church pastor Ron Carpenter, Jr. addressed the issue of homosexuality for the first time since the U.S. Supreme Court declared that same-sex couples had a constitutional right to marriage.

“It is aligning yourself with the same sin as the father of rebellion, it is an abomination,” Carpenter explained, adding gay people lived shorter lives as a “due penalty” for their sexual orientation.

According to the pastor, adultery and even murder were natural sins of the flesh. But homosexuality was caused by demons in the “spiritual realm.”

After announcing that he would never officiate a same-sex marriage, Carpenter said that he knew why researchers had not found a so-called “gay gene.”

“Sin don’t have a gene,” he opined. “I disagree with people who say you can’t be born that way… an infant predisposed to alcoholism, an infant already predisposed to never holding down a relationship, an infant already predisposed to panic attacks, an infant predisposed to diabetes, and infant already predisposed to a twisted lifestyle.”

“That’s why Jesus said you have to be born again,” the pastor continued. “Because the first time I was born, I was born [bent], but here comes Jesus. Somebody touch your neighbor and say, ‘Jesus will straighten things out.'”

“I think with homosexuality, something got planted that wasn’t supposed to be there, somewhere in your bloodline or your family, something got planted,” he insisted. “Something God didn’t want there, something God didn’t intend. And the twist began. And every generation commits the sins greater than their father committed it. For the reason you can dance in the street is because your father had to hide in a closet.”

Carpenter urged “confused” homosexual members of his audience to come to the stage because they were in a “safe place.”

“Something happened to you as a child, somebody molested you, somebody abused you, somebody fondled you, somebody raped you,” he said. “And if I got one that says, ‘Pastor, I’ve been touched by this struggle, I’ve been touched by this turmoil. I was one of those that somebody did something in my youth and it confused me.'”

“I guarantee you if I have the first person that will get out of the aisle and walk, you will see 20 or 30 follow,” Carpenter told the congregation.

After the first man came, Carpenter prayed for him. And then more began to come.

“There’s some men here, you don’t want to come because of pride… Be a man right now and say, ‘Pastor, I’m confused!’ I see you coming! Don’t stop walking!”

“We’re not going to rush this. This is deep, deep, deep hurt,” the pastor remarked. “If we have to stay in this alter to midnight, we’re going to stay here.”

Begin watching the clip below at around the 1 hour and 12 minute mark.