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text: state that fired pastor demands his sermons notes this is an excessive display of the government overreaching its authority published  mins ago bob unruh about   archive bob unruh joined wnd in  after nearly three decades with the associated press as well as several upper midwest newspapers where he covered everything from legislative battles and sports to tornadoes and homicidal survivalists he is also a photographer whose scenic work has been used commercially print dr eric walsh photo first liberty 
  the state of georgia is demanding copies of the sermons and related notes of a lay pastor who was fired by the department of public health after it investigated what he said in his church 
  but dr eric walsh is resisting issuing a statement via his legal team that he will not comply with the demand from state lawyers 
  the states demand is in response to a lawsuit filed by walsh against the department of health charging discrimination based on his religion and other civil rights violations 
  hes getting support from a pastor who successfully fought off a demand by houston officials for copies of his sermons 
  walshs ordeal began in may  when he accepted an offer as to become district health director with the state agency only a week later a state official asked him to provide copies of sermons he had preached as a lay minister with a seventhday adventist church 
  lee rudd the agencys human resources director then assigned staff members to listen to the youtube recordings immediately two days later walsh was fired 
  at that point lawyers with first liberty institute joined forces with the atlanta legal team of parks chesin  walbert to file a federal lawsuit against the state agency 
  police state usa how orwells nightmare is becoming our reality chronicles how america has arrived at the point of being a de facto police state and what led to an outofcontrol government that increasingly ignores the constitution order today 
  now in response to walshs lawsuit the state delivered a request for production of documents that demands among a flood of other paperwork copies of his sermon notes and transcripts 
  this is an excessive display of the government overreaching its authority and violating the sanctity of the church said jeremy dys senior counsel for first liberty 
  no government has the right to require a pastor to turn over his sermons said walsh in a statement released by his lawyers i cannot and will not give up my sermons unless i am forced to do so 
  officials with the georgia department of health declined to respond to a wnd request for comment instead referring a reporter to the state attorney general who did not respond to a request for comment 
  walshs lawyers scheduled a news conference as a display of support 
  on the guest list was pastor dave welch of houston one of five pastors whose sermons were demanded by a lesbian mayor during her campaign to establish protections for her sexual preferences in city code 
  wnd broke the story when the city launched its action against the pastors and also reported when rush limbaugh described parkers actions as possibly one of the most vile filthy blatant violations of the constitution that i have seen 
  the mayor at the time annise parker withdrew the demands amid a flood of protest  
  in a prepared statement wednesday on walshs case welch said i cant believe im saying this but georgias demand is even worse than when the mayor of houston demanded  different categories of materials including sermons from  us 
  welch the executive director of the texas pastor council said what is happening to walsh is worse than what happened in houston for multiple reasons 
  first this is state government coming after a pastor not just a rogue mayor in one city he said also the state is demanding much more material sermons sermon notes all documents without even topical or time limits it could even include margin notes in this pastors preaching bible its almost as if they are ransacking the pastors study this sweeping demand is ominous and a threat to every pastor every church every denomination and every citizen of faith in america 
  leaders of concerned women for america legislative action committee part of the nations largest public policy womens group with  members also came to walshs defense 
  penny nance ceo said the words of reverend dr martin luther king jr that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere still reverberate today  especially as we witness the gestapolike tactics of his native state the state of georgias blatant attack on religious freedom as they discriminate against another pastor dr eric walsh is indeed a threat to every american whatever our religious beliefs 
  can there be a clearer violation of our first amendment right to religious freedom than for the state to monitor examine and retaliate against a person because of the sermons they share 
  wnd reported earlier on the case brought against the state after its officials reviewed walshs sermons and then fired him 
  no one in this country should be fired from their job for something that was said in a church or from a pulpit during a sermon dys told fox news when the case was filed he was fired for something he said in a sermon 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 the original state investigation of walshs sermons apparently was sparked by one complaint from an official with a county democratic party and gay activist 
  state officials also joked about informing walsh of his firing 
  the telephone call was between dr patrick oneal an agency official and kate pfirman an agency financial officer the call was captured on an answering machine which also caught their conversation after they thought they had hung up 
  pfirman said and im gonna be very  im gonna try to come off as very cold because i dont want to say very much if i try to make it warm  ive thought that through its gonna just not  theres no warm way to say it anyway 
  then there was laughter from both parties 
  oneal then said to inform walsh youre out and there was another round of laughter 
  its very funny pfirman said 
  the voicemail 
  in the houston dispute voters ultimately soundly rejected parkers ordinance giving gays and transgendered people special rights