Dr. Eric Walsh is suing the Georgia Department of Public Health for firing him after reviewing his anti-gay church sermons.
Dr. Walsh, a Christian pastor of Pasadena, California, has a doctorate in public health and worked as an advisor on HIV/AIDS for President Barack Obama. In 2014, he was offered a position as the District Health Director for Northwest Georgia within Georgia’s Department of Public Health.
Walsh, a Seventh-day Adventist, accepted the job, but LGBT groups urged the department not to hire Walsh because of sermons he preached labeling homosexuality as a sin. He had also spoken against Islam, Catholicism and evolution.
The health department performed a background check on Walsh in which his sermons were reviewed, and then they fired him.
This past week, Walsh was given the right to sue the Georgia health department for religious discrimination, and First Liberty Institute filed the suit on his behalf. The lawsuit reads:
In May 2014, the State of Georgia’s Department of Public Health hired Dr Walsh as a District Health Director. But soon after Dr Walsh accepted the offer, state officials asked him to submit recordings of his sermons for their review. After inspecting his sermons, they fired him. First Liberty Institute filed a lawsuit against the State of Georgia on behalf of Dr Walsh because no one should be fired from his job for something he said in a sermon.
Evidence that will likely be used against the health department include emails exchanged between workers about listening to Walsh’s sermons, and a voicemail message in which one worker jokingly says to another about firing Walsh, “There’s no warm way to say it — you’re out.”
“I couldn’t believe they fired me because of things I talked about in my sermons,” Walsh wrote in a statement. “It was devastating. I have been unable to get a job in public health since then. By reviewing my sermons and firing me because of my religious beliefs, the State of Georgia destroyed my career in public service.
“I am a devout member of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, and, as a part of my sincerely-held religious beliefs, I believe in expressing my faith … My faith is important to me; I regularly speak about my faith at churches and religious conferences.”
Jeremy Dys, Senior Counsel for First Liberty, says Americans should be free to discuss their religious beliefs in church without worrying about facing backlash from their place of employment.
“If the government is allowed to fire someone over what he said in his sermons, then they can come after any of us for our beliefs on anything. We must ensure every American has the right to talk about their faith at church without getting fired or being barred from public service,” he said.
