As Public Advocate Warned: State of Georgia demands pastor turn over sermons
As Public Advocate Warned: State of Georgia demands pastor turn over sermons
Fox News is reporting:
A lay minister who is suing the Georgia Department of Public Health for religious discrimination has been ordered by the state's attorney general to relinquish his sermons to the government, according to federal court documents.
"Please produce a copy of your sermon notes and/or transcripts," Attorney General Samuel Olens wrote to attorneys representing Dr. Eric Walsh.
Dr. Walsh said he will not comply with the request.
"No government has the right to require a pastor to turn over his sermons," Walsh said. "I cannot and will not give up my sermons unless I am forced to do so."
Walsh, a Seventh-day Adventist lay minister had been hired in May 2014 by as a District Health Director with the Georgia Department of Public Health. A week later, a government official asked him to submit copies of his sermons for review. He complied and two days later he was fired.
His attorneys said the government was curious about sermons Dr. Walsh delivered on health, marriage, sexuality, world religions, science and creationism. He also preached on what the Bible says regarding homosexuality.
He has since filed a federal lawsuit charging state officials with engaging in religious discrimination.
Family Research Council president Tony Perkins condemned the state's demand calling it "an alarming display of government intrusion into the sanctity of the church, pastor's study and pulpit."
"This is something that I would have expected to see in a communist country, not America," Perkins told me. "Government scrutiny of speech in the pulpit is unconstitutional, and unconscionable."
Thank you Fox News for reporting:
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2016/10/26/state-georgia-demands-pastor-turn-over-sermons.html
Eugene Delgaudio president of Public Advocate said "A demand by government authorities to produce sermons given by a lay minister is no different than a dictate or edict issued by a corrupt despot in a third world country. The freedom to speak your religious conviction in a completely religious context outside your workplace must be protected in our country."