A former Georgia police officer who was suspended from his job following a Facebook post he made detailing his stance on marriage has now resigned from the force.
Jacob Kersey, 19, was placed on administrative leave on January 4 following his refusal to remove the post. While sharing his Christian beliefs about gay marriage, Kersey wrote this:
“God designed marriage. Marriage refers to Christ and the church. That’s why there’s no such thing as homosexual marriage.”
In an interview with the Daily Signal, Kersey said that while he was not fired for this post, his decision to leave was based on the rules set in place by his superiors, which barred him from freely sharing his faith online. Kersey described the rule, saying the following:
“If someone somewhere considers an opinion I have—that isn’t a direct quotation from Scripture—to be offensive, then that would be a fireable offense.”
Maj. Bradwick Sherrod made that message perfectly clear in a letter that was shared by Fox News Digital, in which he explained the new rules to Kersey, writing:
“As we have discussed previously, please be reminded that if any post on any of your social media platforms, or any other statement or action, renders you unable to perform, and to be seen as able to perform, your job in a fair and equitable manner, you could be terminated.”
For Kersey, this was a step too far and a condition of employment by which he was not willing to abide. Following a meeting with the higher-up at the department, Kersey had this to say:
“I did nothing wrong, and they told me that, that’s the reason they did not fire me. They wanted me to come back to work, but they were trying to create a new department policy that would prevent me from saying anything that someone somewhere could consider offensive.”
“That is such a dangerous precedent: that if you’re off-duty on your own time, that you could say anything — even something religious, even something at church — if someone somewhere gets offended, you can get fired for it.”
In the end, he told Fox that his ability to perform his lawful duties had been compromised by the leadership’s lack of support for the young police officer.
“I didn’t feel confident that if I were to go out there on the streets and enforce the law, that my command staff was going to have my back. It’s just too dangerous of a job to do that. And I did not think it wise to go back to work under those circumstances.”
Going into the field without complete confidence in you team is a recipe for disaster, and Kersey recognized that immediately. While he clearly seems upset to no longer be a police officer, Kersey also isn’t looking back and wondering what could have been at his old job. According to him, he seems to have no regrets following his decision to resign:
“I think if you compromise your integrity and your religious beliefs and your faith to win, then you’ve lost, and I just couldn’t do that.”
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