Christian conservative Mat Staver has lashed out at the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) for labeling Liberty Counsel, a group he founded, as a “hate group.”

The SPLC designated Liberty Counsel a “hate group” over its opposition to LGBT rights.

“With the expansion of equal rights for LGBT people, especially, the Liberty Counsel has come into their own, working to attempt to ensure that Christians can continue to engage in anti-LGBT discrimination in places of business under the guise of 'religious liberty,'” the group wrote. “Through lawsuits and its annual Awakening conference in Orlando, the Counsel attempts to enforce the idea that Christian beliefs and law trump all other law.”

Liberty Counsel filed a lawsuit against GuideStar, a charity information website, after it began including the designation on its listings. A judge dismissed the case last month.

GuideStar, Staver complained, had gone from “a neutral entity” to a left-wing “political activist organization.” He compared the addition of the SPLC's “hate group” designation to its listings to the Nazis requiring Jews to wear a yellow Star of David.

“Because of his liberal political activism, he decided to partner with the SPLC and slap these labels on [organizations],” Staver said, referring to GuideStar President Jacob Harold. “You have to ask yourself, why did he do it? Why was he trying to do it? What was his motivation? It’s very clear what his motivation was. His motivation in terms of what he said, what they did, how they did it is to harm these nonprofits, to put, essentially, if you will, a Star of David on them like the Nazis did to the Jews. Wanted to isolate them, identify them, and ultimately economically boycott them.”