The former chairman of the Human Rights Commission has come out against extending rights to gays.

Bishop Goodwin Smith attacked Government?s pledge to amend the Human Rights Act to prohibit discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation.

He claimed proponents of the gay lifestyle have declared war against those who do not subscribe to it and said it divides families and churches.

?Those who are pushing the gay agenda do not have the right to impose their chosen lifestyle on the rest of society,? said Bishop Smith.

?If left unopposed, their efforts to mainstream the lifestyle will annihilate the family as we know it.?

Asked what had led him to believe gays were seeking to impose their lifestyle, Bishop Smith, who heads the six-church New Testament Church of God, said it was the start of a push for same sex marriage.

?The gay agenda is now making major advances into the church,? he said.

?Five major denominations are openly ordaining gay clergy and blessing same sex unions, causing a deepening division among Christians.?

Bishop Smith, who was removed as head the Human Rights Commission by Randy Horton when he took over from Terry Lister as Community Affairs Minister, said The Bible gives no sanction to homosexuality.

Asked why he found two same gender people minding their own business to be such a threat, Bishop Smith branded homosexuality a perversion alongside those who have sex with children.

Bishop Smith did not accept the argument that homosexuality was consensual while paedophilia was not. He said they should all be lumped into the same category.

?Basically these are perverted people.?

He added: ?My battle is not with gay people, it?s with the law. You cannot legislate morality. It happens within the individual.

?This gives them the right to rent wherever they want to rent without discriminating against them. It takes rights away from a landlord.

?It would appear that homosexuals have a special class of rights that many other citizens do not have.

?Giving them rights on the one hand and taking rights from the landlord and employer does not go well with me.?

He called for the church and followers to stop the move through prayer and political vigilance.

?The day is fast appearing when a pastor, speaking from the pulpit, will be in danger of committing a hate crime if he or she upholds the scriptural teaching about homosexuality, or refuses to marry a couple of the same sex.

?I firmly believe it is possible to stand on God?s truth at the same time that we love broken and sinful people.

?I believe there is a way we can love the sinner even as we oppose the sin.?

Government?s pledge to change the law has been welcomed by human rights and gay support group the Bermuda Rainbow Alliance but last night its head, Nikki Bowers, could not be reached for comment.