In response to a statement issued by the State of Georgia’s Department of Public Health, Jeremy Dys, Senior Counsel for First Liberty Institute said: “Prior to his employment by the State of Georgia, Dr. Walsh served at a local medical clinic a couple of Sundays a month during his time off. From the beginning of his previous employment, he disclosed to his employer that he was working at the clinic. His employer actively encouraged him to serve at the facility as a way to support community efforts of public health.
“The facts are these: after hiring Dr. Walsh, the Georgia Department of Public Health investigated Dr. Walsh’s sermons, took issue with the beliefs he expressed in them, and fired him. On May 14, the DPH asked him to submit copies of his sermons, and assigned multiple sermons to various employees to review. On May 15, they held a meeting to discuss the content of the sermons and his employment at DPH. On May 16, they terminated Dr. Walsh from his employment. The DPH’s position on Dr. Walsh was made clear when the DPH Chief of Staff communicated to Dr. Walsh on a phone call that he couldn’t ‘preach that’ and work in the public health field.
“The State of Georgia cannot now manipulate the facts to cover up the cold, hard reality – they fired Dr. Walsh for what he said in his sermons. No American should be fired for what they say in church.”
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