OTTAWA - Pressure is mounting on NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair to apologize for anti-evangelical comments he made in the wake of a controversy over a Canadian group's teaching that homosexuality is a sin.

When media started reporting on the group Crossroads, which gets government funding for digging wells in Uganda, Mulcair slammed "these types of evangelical groups with vision that goes completely against not only Canadian values, but Canadian law."

The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC) says an apology would be "well received" given that it had a good relationship with the NDP when Jack Layton was leader.

"We would hope that Mr. Mulcair would invite the conversation and accept the fact, as we do, that there is space in the Canadian public square for all Canadians," said the EFC's Don Hutchinson.

Andy Bannister, an apologist with Ravi Zacharias International Ministries, also says it would be better for Mulcair to say sorry.

"I find it very, very interesting when political leaders make these comments it's always Christians who get attacked," he said, noting that religions like Islam escaped Mulcair's scorn, despite taking a hard line on homosexuality.

Conservative MP John Williamson says Mulcair has damaged his own party.

"I don't think it was a very smart thing for him to say, insulting millions of Canadians like that," he said.

Still, NDP MP Megan Leslie says if you're going to get government funding, you can't teach that homosexuality is sinful.

"It doesn't fit in with our Canadian values," she said.