Dr. Eric Walsh Joins Tony Perkins on the Radio to Discuss the State of Georgia's Demand that He Hand Over His Sermons and Personal Bible

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 27, 2016
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WASHINGTON, October 27, 2016 -- Yesterday, Dr. Eric Walsh, lay pastor and public health expert, appeared on Washington Watch with Tony Perkins, a national radio show which airs on more than 240 stations across the country. On the show, Dr. Walsh and his Attorney, Jeremy Dys, discussed the State of Georgia’s demand that he hand over his sermons and personal Bible. Since 2014 Dr. Walsh has been battling the state of Georgia after he was fired from a government job because of the content of his sermons. Nearly 22,000 have signed a petition to Georgia Governor Nathan Deal asking him to intervene to correct this unjust demand.

In the interview, Dr. Walsh’s Attorney, Jeremy Dys, explained the state of Georgia’s demand, "This request has the full force of a subpoena and there is no subject matter limitation on it. There is no time limitation on this request, so that means that any sermon he has ever given at any time since he started preaching at the age of 18, he has to turn it over. It means that if he scribbled a sermon outline on the back of a napkin then he has to turn over that napkin. If he’s written in the margins of his Bible… that Bible now has to be turned over to the attorney general of the state of Georgia. This is a really remarkable intrusion upon the pulpit in the state of Georgia."

Jeremy went on to discuss the state of Georgia’s claim that Dr. Walsh was not fired because of his sermons, "Now that they’ve asked for his sermons as a part of the discovery request, I’m kind of sitting here going, ‘Well, if it wasn’t about his sermons that you fired him, why are you asking for his sermons?’ You see, what the government is doing here is akin to them kind of kicking down the door of his study and ransacking through his entire study looking for evidence – and it’s sort of a desperate attempt to cover up their illegal behavior. It was illegal for them to ask for his sermons in the first place, it’s illegal for an employer to consider an employee’s religion and make an employment decision, and now that they have demanded these sermons, they’ve violated the Constitution on top of all that."

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, the host of Washington Watch, responded, "This from the state of Georgia here in the United States of America! Nathan Deal is the governor down there and it’s his administration that is doing this. Unbelievable… This seems very excessive and obviously intrusive, breaching that wall of separation between the state and the church." concluded Perkins.

To listen to the full interview, click this link: https://soundcloud.com/family-research-council/20161026-eric-walsh

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