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Dr. Eric Walsh |
By Douglas Ernst
World Net DailyA Georgia pastor has filed a federal lawsuit alleging he was fired from the state’s Department of Public Health one day after handing over sermons at the agency’s request.
Dr. Eric Walsh contends that a job offer he accepted by DPH was suddenly terminated after the agency was given sermons he delivered on creationism, marriage, sexuality and other issues. The Seventh Day Adventist lay minister is represented by First Liberty, a prominent law firm specializing in religious liberty.
“No one in this country should be fired from their job for something that was said in a church or from a pulpit during a sermon,” First Liberty attorney Jeremy Dys told Fox News on Friday. “He was fired for something he said in a sermon. If the government is allowed to fire someone over what he said in his sermons, they can come after any of us for our beliefs on anything.”
Walsh’s lawsuit alleges that after he was hired as a district health director on May 7, 2014, investigators scoured the internet for public comments and took notes on his “religious beliefs and viewpoints on social, cultural and other matters of public concern as expressed in the sermons and other public addresses.”
DPH’s job offer was rescinded on May 16, 2014.
“I don’t believe I did anything wrong,” Walsh told the network. “This has been very painful for me. I really am a strong believer in the Constitution, but now I feel like maybe all these ideals and values that I was raised to believe – the ideals this country was founded upon – no longer exist.”
Nancy Nydam, acting director of communications for the Georgia Department of Public Health, emailed the Blaze on Thursday as Walsh’s story spread online.
“Georgia Department of Public Health policy requires the disclosure and written approval of secondary employment held by its employees. Dr. Walsh was extended a conditional offer of employment by DPH, subject to passing a routine background check. During the background check process, DPH learned Dr. Walsh failed to disclose outside employment to his previous public health employer, which also was in violation of California law,” Nydam said. “Due to violation of both California state law and DPH policy, the offer to Dr. Walsh was rescinded. During his interview, Dr. Walsh disclosed his religious beliefs to DPH staff and indicated that he preached at his church in California. Dr. Walsh’s religious beliefs had nothing to do with the decision to withdraw the offer.”
Readers at the Blaze said the uncanny timing of the termination indicated nothing more than a bureaucratic smokescreen.
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