Gay people to blame for Hurricane Harvey, say evangelical Christian leaders

Claims made despite overwhelming evidence that supports climate change as probable factor in devastating storm

A minority of evangelical faith leaders accused the LGBT community of provoking the extreme weather pattern (AFP)

A number of Christian leaders have blamed LGBT people for causing Hurricane Harvey.

Despite overwhelming evidence that supports climate change as a factor in the devastating storm and subsequent flooding, a handful of evangelical leaders have ludicrously suggested the LGBT community are to blame.

Minister Kevin Swanson, who holds notoriously homophobic views, said Houston had sinned by having a "very, very aggressively pro-homosexual mayor."

“Jesus sends the message home, unless Americans repent, unless Houston repents, unless New Orleans repents, they will all likewise perish,” he told his radio show. “That is the message that the Lord Jesus Christ is sending home right now to America.”

His comments come just days after Christian radio personality Rick Wiles linked Houston's progressive attitudes with the storm.

"Here’s a city that has boasted of its LGBT devotion, its affinity for the sexual perversion movement in America. They’re underwater," he said.

Ann Coulter, right wing media pundit and climate change sceptic, also weighed in to the debate.

"I don't believe Hurricane Harvey is God's punishment for Houston electing a lesbian mayor. But that is more credible than 'climate change'," she wrote on Twitter.

But her comments were met with a punchy comeback from Annise Parker, a former mayor of Houston who was one of the first across the US to hold a position of power and be openly gay.

"Darn it, I thought no one knew I had a super power over weather," she wrote.