A former Georgia police officer who was investigated for a spiritual social media put up that claimed “there isn’t any such factor” as homosexual marriage stated he felt pressured to resign after he was advised he might be fired for sharing his beliefs.
Jacob Kersey, 19, who stop the Port Wentworth Police Division earlier this month, advised Fox Information Digital that he was positioned on paid administrative go away Jan. 4 after he refused to take away the Fb put up he made relating to his Christian perception about marriage.
“God designed marriage,” Kersey wrote within the put up that was flagged by his superiors following “an nameless grievance,” in line with a Jan. 13 letter of notification first reported by The Each day Sign and supplied to Fox Information Digital. “Marriage refers to Christ and the church. That is why there isn’t any such factor as gay marriage.”
Kersey wasn’t fired after the investigation, however stated he determined to stop as a result of he was advised he might face termination for future social media posts that others discover offensive. He stated he has spoken with a regulation agency about potential authorized motion.
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Former officer Jacob Kersey stated he was successfully pressured to resign from his job after being advised he might be terminated for posting his non secular beliefs on social media.
(Jacob Kersey)
In his letter to Kersey, Maj. Bradwick Sherrod defined that whereas the division’s investigation into his social media posts “didn’t discover adequate proof to determine a violation of any insurance policies,” his posts relating to “protected courses” such because the LBGTQ neighborhood “might elevate cheap considerations relating to your objectivity and the efficiency of your job duties when a member or suspected member of the LGBTQ+ neighborhood is concerned.
“As we now have mentioned beforehand, please be reminded that if any put up on any of your social media platforms, or some other assertion or motion, renders you unable to carry out, and to be seen as in a position to carry out, your job in a good and equitable method, you could possibly be terminated,” the letter additional warned.
The foremost additionally reminded Kersey that same-sex marriage is authorized in Georgia and the U.S. following the 2015 Supreme Courtroom choice in Obergefell v. Hodges.
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The letter of notification despatched to Jacob Kersey on Jan. 13 informing him that same-sex marriage is authorized in Georgia and that he might be terminated for future posts on social media.
(Jacob Kersey)
“I did nothing improper, they usually advised me that,” Kersey stated of a gathering he later had with division management. “That is the explanation they didn’t hearth me. They wished me to return again to work, however they have been making an attempt to create a brand new division coverage that might forestall me from saying something that somebody someplace might take into account offensive.”
He stated he was advised he might put up direct Scripture quotations, however not his interpretation of them.
“That’s such a harmful precedent: that should you’re off-duty by yourself time, that you could possibly say something — even one thing non secular, even one thing at church — if somebody someplace will get offended, you may get fired for it,” he stated.
Kersey, who famous he has performed a podcast for seven years through which he expresses his opinions, stated his chief likened his put up to somebody utilizing the N-word slur. He selected Jan. 18 that he needed to resign to keep away from inevitable termination and potential hazard.
“I did not really feel assured that if I have been to go on the market on the streets and implement the regulation, that my command workers was going to have my again,” he stated. “It is simply too harmful of a job to try this. And I didn’t assume it sensible to return to work underneath these circumstances.”
“I believe should you compromise your integrity and your non secular beliefs and your religion to win, you then’ve misplaced, and I simply could not try this,” he added.
A residential space in Port Wentworth, Georgia, a city of roughly 11,000 individuals within the Savannah metropolitan space.
(Hal Bergman through Getty Photographs)
The Port Wentworth Police Division, which serves a city of roughly 11,000 individuals within the Savannah metropolitan space, didn’t reply to Fox Information Digital’s request for remark.
Kersey stated different officers within the division privately communicated to him their help, and he doesn’t fault them for not defending him publicly.
“I completely perceive why different officers do not need to converse out,” he stated. “I am a 19-year-old single younger man. I haven’t got a whole lot of monetary obligations, so I can converse out in opposition to this as a result of the one factor I’ve to lose actually is my job.”
He’s extra involved about what such insurance policies might imply for officers who’ve far more to lose.
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“We’re not speaking about Canada, or Russia or China right here,” Kersey stated. “We’re speaking about the US; and even inside the US, we’re not speaking about California or New York. We’re speaking about Georgia.”
He stated many have reached out to him to specific their “absolute disbelief that one thing like that is occurring in America and that it is occurring in Georgia.”
Jacob Kersey stated he wished to change into a police officer due to the optimistic influence officers made on him when he was rising up in a damaged house.
(Jacob Kersey)
Kersey stated he developed a respect and admiration for police once they typically “would convey peace” to his household whereas he was rising up in a damaged house.
He remembered most of the officers concerned in his household’s home issues would exit of their solution to present kindness to him when he was a boy, which he stated “made such an enormous distinction in my life at a really younger age.” These interactions in the end impressed him to change into an officer himself when he acquired sufficiently old, he stated.
“I joined the police division, and for over eight months, I solely heard nice issues about my work,” he stated. “Folks had nothing however good issues to say about my work as a police officer.”
Jacob Kersey advised Fox Information Digital that he hopes his story will encourage different individuals and particularly Christians to face up for his or her beliefs.
(Jacob Kersey)
Kersey stated he stays unsure what his profession targets at the moment are that he has left the division, although he stated he’s contemplating going again into regulation enforcement elsewhere, attending school or coming into the ministry. He hopes his story will encourage others to face up for what they consider, he stated.
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“In America, most of us won’t be referred to as to face bodily loss of life for our beliefs,” he stated. “However we could be referred to as to face the loss of life of our goals, we could be referred to as to face the loss of life of our fame or we could be referred to as to produce other individuals assume dangerous issues about us. However what’s essential is what God thinks about us.”