Pastor alleges he lost job due to conservative religious beliefs

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Dr. Eric Walsh, a Seventh Day Adventist preacher who also has background in public health, says he was offered a director’s position with the Georgia Public Health Department after undergoing a lengthy interview process.

Walsh was initially hired in May to head a six county department, contingent on a simple background check. But when his future employers heard some of his online sermons, that’s when things got complicated.

According to Frank C. Giradot, a columnist for the Pasadena Star-News who’s listened to “hours” of Walsh’s sermons online, the preacher harbors some rather extreme beliefs:

• Oprah Winfrey is harboring the spirit of the anti-Christ
• The devil set up Catholicism
• Rapper Jay Z is a disciple of Satan
• Single mothers are ruining their children
• The distribution of condoms to a public in need leads to higher AIDS rates
• The pope is the anti-Christ

Not surprisingly, the preacher’s views have been characterized as divisive and discriminatory, but Walsh feels he is the real victim here. So much so that he’s now filed a formal charge of discrimination against the Department of Public Health.

“I was shocked at what happened,” Walsh said during a press conference in Atlanta Tuesday. “Quite frankly, I didn’t know in the United States of America that something like this could happen when your work record is stellar.”

His “stellar” record includes controversy at a previous job in Pasadena, California, where students staged protests against him being a commencement speaker candidate — choosing an openly gay screenwriter to take his place. Walsh ultimately resigned from that job, just two days before the Department of Health withdrew their offer; effectively leaving him unemployed.

Some would argue that perhaps Dr. Walsh is experiencing a bit of karma. But despite the backlash that seems to follow him, he maintains, “People of faith should not be required to sacrifice their religious beliefs just to get a job.”

And legally, he may have a case.

Lee Parks, Walsh’s attorney, said Walsh also plans to file a civil rights suit against the state. “You don’t have to agree with what he says, but you have to agree that he has the right to say it,” Parks said.