A controversial US Evangelist believes homosexuality is an illness, civil unions do not really exist, and he believes gays can be cured.

Bishop Tom Brown was a special guest at  evangelist church River of Love last Friday evening.  In the US, he has been accused of spreading hate speech by a reputable civil rights group several times since 2011.

His church is listed alongside such unsavoury organisations as the American Nazi Party, The All Whites Network and Aryan America. Mr Brown, however, shrugs it off saying he was not consulted prior to appearing on the list.

Like many evangelists, Mr Brown has some controversial views about homosexuality. However, this weekend he is in Malta to preach, and among other things will explain how he believes it is a full-blown mental disorder.

The World Health Organisation and the American Psychological Association both insist there is no evidence that sexual orientation is caused by anything at all and most attempts to find any causes have been largely inconclusive.

Confronted with research findings that suppressing sexual orientation can have serious negative health implications, Mr Brown was dismissive.

“You’re just making this up,” he said, before giving a series of unreferenced statistics, including how gay men live shorter lives, are more depressed, and more likely to kill themselves than any other minority.

Listen to some of his comments above. More in The Sunday Times of Malta and the e-paper on timesofmalta.com Premium.