Is this America — the land founded on a principle of religious freedom? The country begun by those fleeing persecution — by those, in part, bent on finding a home to freely worship?
Wake up, Americans. The First Amendment is under siege. And the latest, against the “prohibition on the free exercise of religion,” comes from Georgia by way of state bureaucrats who have insisted a lay minister turn over his sermons for government perusal.
“Please produce a copy of your sermon notes and/or transcripts,” wrote Attorney General Samuel Olens to attorneys representing minister Eric Walsh in his just-launched suit against the Georgia Department of Public Health, Fox News reported.
And Walsh’s response?
To his credit: No way.
“No government,” he said, in Fox News, “has the right to require a pastor to turn over his sermons. I cannot and will not give up my sermons unless I am forced to do so.”
Walsh heads up a Seventh-Day Adventist ministry.
He was hired in May 2014 by the Department of Public Health in Georgia to work as a district health director. But just a few days after his hiring, one of his employers – a government official – asked for him to submit copies of his sermons for scrutiny. Why? They wanted to see what Walsh was preaching in church about issues related to public health – namely, marriage, sexuality, world religions, science and creationism.
Quick side note: He’s a preacher who imparts wisdom about the Bible. The Seventh-Day Adventist Church website, for crying out loud, makes it clear on the home page: “Seventh-day Adventists accept the Bible as the only source of our beliefs. We consider our movement to be the result of the Protestant conviction Sola Scriptura – the Bible as the only standard of faith and practice for Christians.” What the heck did these government officials think he was preaching about these matters? That homosexuality is OK – gay marriage quite all right?
Quick side note to Georgia’s government: A little due diligence next time?
Enough digressing. Back to the story – and Georgia’s demand for Walsh to hand over his sermons.
Walsh did. And two days later, he was fired.
And shortly after that, he filed a lawsuit.
“He was fired for something he said in a sermon,” Walsh’s attorney, Jeremy Dys, said to Fox News. “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.”
Quite right.
For instance: Now that the Supreme Court has decimated the biblical definition of marriage by decreeing objections against men joining in matrimony to men, and women joining in matrimony to women are unconstitutional – despite the fact voters in several states made clear via resolution and duly passed legislation marriage was between a man and woman, only – the doors have opened to persecute nearly any preacher who dares to say otherwise.
“Pastors and rabbis across the country, especially in the state of Georgia, should be frightened that a state wold demand all the sermon notes and transcripts of a pastor,” Dys said, in Fox News. “This is unprecedented.”
Don’t be silly – the crumbling of the First Amendment would never happen in America? Walsh is an anomaly? There must be extenuating circumstances in his case that show the government acted properly?
OK, be an ostrich.
But the hits to the First Amendment, they are a’coming. And when they do, it won’t just be to religious liberty. Remember: There are four other individual rights contained in the First Amendment, and all will be impacted.
As Mike Huckabee, former Arkansas governor and twice-presidential candidate, tweeted: “GA pastor ordered to give sermons to govt–then gets fired from state job. GA is shredding 1st amendment. Wake up [Governor] @NathanDeal! Speak up!”
Speak up is right. Those who see the tidal wave need not only warn others, but face off directly against the storm. What freedom, when it’s gone, ever makes a speedy return?
