Pastor Wins Case vs. LGBT Group But Still Files Appeal, Saying Judge Defamed Him
A pastor who has just won a five-year legal battle against an LGBT group, which sued him for "crimes against humanity," is not done yet with the case.
Pastor Scott Lively of Springfield, Massachusetts said he is filing an appeal in U.S. District Court, charging that U.S. District Court Judge Michael Ponsor, although making the right verdict in dismissing the case, directed language at him that was mean, Mass Live reported.
Lively had been accused of helping political and faith leaders in Uganda fight off the LGBT proponents in the east African nation, according to LifeSite News.
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According to the site, the judge said he found Lively's views to be "crackpot bigotry," and that the pastor "aided and abetted a vicious and frightening campaign of repression against LGBTI persons in Uganda," that Lively's "persecutory efforts exploited a long history of Western homophobia in Uganda," and that he "built somewhat of an international reputation for his virulently hateful rhetoric."
Lively's appeal asks the court to maintain the original judgment dismissing the suit against him but amend Ponsor's ruling to eliminate "certain extraneous but prejudicial language immaterial to the disposition of the case and which the district court has no jurisdiction to entertain or enter."
Lively's attorneys, Horatio Mihet and Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel, said Ponsor "improperly littered his order with a prolonged tirade against Lively, badly distorting his Christian views and activism."
A case was filed against Lively in 2012 by the Center for Constitutional Rights on behalf of a Ugandan group called Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) charging that the pastor preached that homosexuality is like a disease that was being spread to children by "Western sadists" during his visits to Uganda from 2009 to 2012.
The suit charged that Lively "initiated, instigated and directed" the persecution of gay people in Uganda, which led to their imprisonment, physical injury and death.
On Monday, Ponsor dismissed the case not on merit but on a technicality, saying the suit lacked the jurisdiction for it to proceed in a U.S. court.
In a statement, Lively praised God for Ponsor's dismissal of the case, adding that he has forgiven the judge for his "excessive and inflammatory language."
However, Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, said it was improper for the judge to resort to "defamatory statements that are both illegal and unbecoming."
He said this is the reason why they have filed an appeal "to ask that these prejudicial and unnecessary statements be stricken."
