Atlanta Pastor Andy Stanley, the son of a Baptist preacher who once hired armed security guards on horseback to protect his church from Atlanta gay pride, has rejected his father’s anti-gay stance and voiced his support for LGBT youth, reports Raw Story.

Stanley, who is pastor at North Point Ministries, one of the biggest churches in the U.S., said Christians must stop driving LGBT teens away from the church.

His father Charles Stanley, pastor of the First Baptist Church Atlanta, has said AIDS is God’s punishment for America’s acceptance of homosexuality. He also believes that being gay is a choice.

However, speaking at the Catalyst Conference in California last month, Andy Stanley said:

“There is not consensus in this room when it comes to same-sex attraction. There is not consensus in this room when it comes to gay marriage. We just can’t continue to look into the filter of our politics at our spirituality. It’s got to be the other way around — and specifically when it comes to this issue.

“If all the Christians for just one year, would quit looking at porn, would quit smoking weed, would quit having premarital sex, would quit committing adultery, would pay their taxes, and every church just foster one kid — in one year our nation would feel different.

“There are so many Christians, so basically — if we would just be better Christians, everything we would like to see changed for the most part would change.”

In the past, Andy Stanley has spoken out against religious right to discriminate laws because “serving people we don’t see eye to eye with is the essence of Christianity.”

He added”

“Jesus died for a world with which he didn’t see eye to eye. If a bakery doesn’t want to sell its products to a gay couple, it’s their business — literally. But leave Jesus out of it.”

Watch Andy Stanley speak at the Catalyst Conference, AFTER THE JUMP…