Brian Tamaki is refusing to backtrack from his comments that gays cause earthquakes, adding all adulterers to his list of people he says cause natural disasters.
In an inflammatory sermon posted to Facebook before Monday's earthquake, Mr Tamaki told his congregation that the world "convulses under the weight of certain human sin".
"The land actually speaks to God. Out of the soil - Abel's blood spoke to God from a murder. The earth can speak. Leviticus says that the earth convulses under the weight of certain human sin," he said.
"It spews itself up after a while - that's natural disasters. Because nature was never created to carry the bondage of our iniquity."
Speaking to Willie Jackson on RadioLIVE, Mr Tamaki claimed the media had misrepresented his comments, but went on to say he still believed gays, adulterers and child abusers caused natural disasters.
"I believe that it was probably right for me to give a biblical perspective. The fact is that some of these natural disasters – earthquakes particularly, flooding and volcanic eruptions, extreme weather patterns - can be caused according to the word of God by the actual rise in the degradation of sexual sin on the Earth," Mr Tamaki said.
"I make no apologies for the word of God."
He also claimed he had gay friends and gay family and "they know that we love them", but provided no further details.
Mr Tamaki said he still believed the Christchurch earthquakes were caused by gays.
"The church [in Christchurch] had a homosexual priest in it … that's no coincidence," Mr Tamaki said. "That church was razed to the ground."
"I'm not a hate preacher - if you have a look at the fruit, that speaks for itself."
More than 31,000 people have signed a petition calling for Destiny Church to be stripped of its tax-free status and declared a hate group.
Newshub.
