Ron Brown, football coach for the University of Nebraska, is under attack for testifying against a proposed measure in Omaha City which would outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

In his 3-minute testimony last month, Brown told council members that each would be held to “great accountability for the decision you are making.”

“The question I have for you all is, like Pontius Pilate, what are you going to do with Jesus?” Brown asked. “Ultimately, if you don't have a relationship with him, and you don't really have a Bible-believing mentality, really, anything goes. … At the end of the day it matters what God thinks most.”

Brown's testimony prompted Barbara Baier, a member of the Lincoln Board of Education, to call for his firing, the AP reported. She noted the University of Nebraska's policy banning discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in a letter to university administrators.

“He says terrible things about members of my community – citizens of this country, people who have not committed any crimes,” Baier said. “He compares gays and lesbians to people who have committed crimes, people who are desiring to go and cause the destruction of the American family, and nothing could be further from the truth.”

Brown says he was born again in 1979 and heads the Christian ministry FreedMen Nebraska. He evangelizes on his radio show and during appearances on a cable-access channel in Lincoln. He also writes a column for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes' magazine and has authored several Christian-based self-help books.

Brown has been an assistant football coach at the University of Nebraska for 21 years. He was replaced in 2004 and rehired in 2008.

Gay rights groups called for Brown's firing in 1999 after he condemned being gay on a Christian radio show.

“To be fired for my faith would be a greater honor than to be fired because we didn't win enough games,” Brown told the AP. “I haven't lost any sleep over it. I realize at some point, we live in a politically correct enough culture where that very well could happen.”

“I have simply said that based on the Bible, homosexuality, the lifestyle of homosexuality, is a sin,” he added. “That has created a flame within itself. But I've decided I'm not going to be afraid of people calling me a bigot or a homophobic or narrow-minded out of a simple, gentle, compassionate expression of the truth of God's word. I'm not going to be bought off by that.”