Georgia officials will pay $225,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by a health administrator who claimed his job offer with a state department was withdrawn after videos surfaced of him giving sermons criticizing gay rights and evolution.
Dr. Eric Walsh had been offered a job to run the Department of Public Health’s northwest Georgia operations in 2014 when videos surfaced in California of sermons that Walsh had given as a Seventh-day Adventist preacher describing evolution as a “Satanic belief.”
Walsh’s case earned national attention in September when he filed a complaint with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in Atlanta, charging the state of Georgia with “unlawful religious discrimination” and retaliation.
The state health department admitted to no wrongdoing or liability in its settlement agreement, and spokeswoman Nancy Nydam said the state rescinded his job offer because he violated California law by failing to disclose his outside work to his last employer.
“Dr. Walsh’s religious beliefs had nothing to do with the decision to withdraw the offer,” said Nydam, who added that Walsh disclosed his religious beliefs during his job interview.
Still, Walsh and his supporters claimed the case was a watershed moment for religious freedom advocates.
Jeremy Dys of the First Liberty Institute, the conservative legal defense organization that brought Walsh’s case, said in a statement it was a “clear and resounding victory for religious freedom.”
And Walsh added that “it’s worth it to have my name cleared and to ensure that all Georgia government employees know they have religious liberty.”
