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Who is Scott Lively? Anti-LGBTQ pastor says Donald Trump was too pro-gay so God removed him from presidency

Lively had previously reportedly said that homosexuality is 'abnormal, wrong, harmful and perverse,' and in the same breath compared it to child and animal rape

Radical anti-LGBTQ activist Scott Lively on Sunday said God stripped former President Donald Trump of the presidency because of his promotion of the LGBTQ agenda by giving a gay man, Richard Grenell, prominent positions within his administration. The pastor was speaking in the January 24 installment of 'Swamp Rangers' radio program with co-host Richard May

Grenell served as Trump's ambassador to Germany, a special envoy for Serbia and Kosovo peace negotiations and as acting director of national intelligence. According to Right Wing Watch, Lively added that Trump's judgment was good on almost every issue, "except on the homosexual issue, which I think is his biggest mistake” and "the reason why he lost the election". 

“He defied God on a fundamental tenet of the Bible and never repented of it,” Lively said. "If Donald Trump was, as I believe, God’s man in the White House for four years, why did God not preserve it? Because if God had given him favor, nothing that mankind could have done could have removed him from that office. And yet the one thing that he did during that time that would virtually guarantee God’s favor being removed was to put his own personal stamp of approval on behavior that God condemns in the harshest possible terms in the Bible, which is specifically male homosexuality.”

Throughout Trump's term, Lively was an ardent supporter of the former president. He had hoped that Trump would destroy the LGBTQ movement by enacting Russian-style anti-gay laws. But since that didn’t happen, Lively said God had no choice but to remove Trump from office. "Trump fully endorsed and backed and applauded [Richard] Grenell [who] was an outspoken advocate for the central doctrine of the progressive movement, which is queer theory," Lively added.

Earlier, Lively had reportedly said that homosexuality is "abnormal, wrong, harmful and perverse" and in the same breath compared it to child and animal rape. The pastor also supports laws criminalizing consensual same-sex relationships and preventing any government funds from being used to acknowledge the existence of LGBTQ people, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. He is also the author of 'The Pink Swastika', which claims that all of the Nazis under Adolf Hitler's control during World War II were actually homosexuals. 

Twitter doesn't fully agree with Lively's comments. "There are people who still care what Scott Lively has to say? That's probably the most newsworthy thing in that mess," one tweeted. "When are these tools going to learn that the words God and Trump don't go together," another added. 

Safe to say that Lively's comments also earned him hate on social media. "Crackpot Pastor Scott Lively Claims God Allowed Fascist Trump to Lose Election for Being Pro-LGBT," one tweeted. "Religious nut jobs like this Lively a-hole should ask God for forgiveness for being haters!" another concurred. "Another fucking moron who speaks for GOD. Nobody speaks for the creator you arrogant shithead, nobody!!! Least of all you, a negative, seducer of the dull minded," yet another user added without feeling the need to mince their words. And some others blamed these very ideologies damaging. "This is why there are so many more athiests than ever. This and the continued sexual abuse by priests toward young boys. It turns my stomach."

Lively has since come out and spoken in his defense. In a statement to Newsweek, Lively called both Right Wing Watch and the SLPC "extreme left-wing hate groups incapable of honesty". He also called them LGBTQ rights groups "equally leftist and thoroughly dishonest about Trump." Lively added that "Trump has struck a fairly smart balance on LGBT issues by showing basic respect" for people who experience same-sex attraction and "honoring relatively conservative 'gays' like Rick Grenell with appointment to high office," but added that ancient Biblical law curses any national leaders who endorse "homosexual sin."