Pastor Robby Gallaty dedicated his hour-long sermon on Sunday to explaining why Christians should feel free to discriminate against gays.

Gallaty told his Brainerd Baptist Church congregation that being gay is an offense to God.

“God said that the sins of the people [of Sodom and Gomorrah] had infected the very land in which they lived,” Gallaty said. “So what happens to the people who engage in this activity, this sexual immoral activity? Go to Leviticus 20, God gives us the punishment for engaging in these sins … 'If a man sleeps with a man as with a woman, they have both committed a detestable thing. They must be put to death. And their blood is on their own hands.”

Theologians, however, are not uniformly in agreement that the sin of Sodom was homosexuality. Many, if not most, explain that Sodom's sin was instead neglect of needy travelers.

Homosexuality, Gallaty claimed, is an “attack on the family and the marriage.”

He added that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation was not the same as racial discrimination.

“Here's the problem with the argument that you closed-minded Christians, one day you're going to come full circle, and you're going to realize that you're being judgmental just like racism was 50 years ago,” he said. “And we finally realized that racism was an issue for Christians.”

“And now you guys have repented and come full circle, and you're going to realize that you're as foolish as we were with the movement of racism. It's not the same. … A black man can't change his race. A white man can't change his race. A homosexual can stop engaging in homosexual acts. See, sexuality is a choice. Gender and race are not.”

“You're not a homosexual. Listen to me! You're not gay! You're not a lesbian! You're a child of God!” he added. (The video is embedded on this page. Visit our video library for more videos.)