Rev Jonathan Campbell of Newbuildings Independent Methodist Church, Derry, encouraged Christians to “take back the rainbow” during a recent sermon, citing God’s copyright ownership.

Campbell cited chapter 9, verse 4 of the book of Genesis in the Bible in support of his argument, ahead of Belfast’s upcoming Foyle Pride (August 19 – 26), reports Newsletter.co.uk.

“I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth,” reads the verse.

“God is saying, it’s my rainbow,” explains Campbell to parishoners. “It belongs to me. And it does. He owns the copyright for the rainbow. The copyright for the rainbow belongs to almighty god. Not to the LGBT movement.”

“Hands off the rainbow because it belongs to God.”

The rainbow flag that is a fixture of all Pride events was designed by American artist Gilbert Baker, who passed away earlier this year.

Baker initially designed an eight-colour flag in 1978 for San Francisco’s Gay Freedom Day, the forerunner to the modern-day pride parade. The rainbow flag was an attempt to provide queer marchers with a symbol to replace the divise Pink Triangle, which was designed by the Nazis during WW2 and used to signify gay concentration camp prisoners.

Baker’s original flag had eight colours, each representing a different aspect of humanity: pink for sexuality, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, turquoise for art, indigo for harmony and violet for human spirit