Rev Peter Mullen, the chaplain to the London stock exchange, is being criticized for suggesting on his blog that gay men should be tattooed with health warnings in order to dissuade homosexuals from having "deviant" sex.

Mr Mullen wrote: "It is time that religious believers began to recommend... discouragements of homosexual practices after the style of warnings on cigarette packets.

"Let us make it obligatory for homosexuals to have their backsides tattooed with the slogan SODOMY CAN SERIOUSLY DAMAGE YOUR HEALTH and their chins with FELLATIO KILLS."

He also suggests 'obscene' gay pride parades be outlawed.

A source said: "These comments are now being looked at internally within the Diocese and he faces disciplinary procedures."

The chaplain claimed he made the comments in jest.

He said: "I wrote some satirical things on my blog and anybody with an ounce of sense of humour or any understanding of the tradition of English satire would immediately assume that they're light-hearted jokes. I certainly have nothing against homosexuals. Many of my dear friends have been and are of that persuasion.

"What I have got against them is the militant preaching of homosexuality."

"Warning: full of shit" would seem an appropriate tattoo on this man's head.