Georgia Department of Public Health officials exchanged almost 100 pages of "glowing interview reviews" about a man they decided to hire as the agency's director before suddenly discovering he also preached Christian sermons, prompting them to fire him before he even started work, according to a new submission to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
The evidence is being assembled for a case against the state agency on behalf of Dr. Eric Walsh, whose online sermons were reviewed and analyzed by state officials after they discovered his Christian perspective, according to documentation by Liberty Institute, one of the legal groups working on Walsh's behalf.
As WND reported, a recording of a telephone conversation between two state officials involved in the hiring of Walsh was exposed, showing them strategizing to withdraw the job offer to Walsh and then laughing about it.
Walsh filed an EEOC complaint, and the state responded with testimony claiming Walsh never was really hired.
Attorney Andrew Coffman, of Parks, Chesin & Walbert -- backed by Hiram Sasser, Jeremy Dys and Cleve Doty of Liberty Institute -- then submitted to the agency a massive file of evidence supporting the claim that the agency illegally based a decision to fire the new hire on his religious faith.
Included was nearly 100 pages of positive endorsements of Walsh's candidacy.
"Numerous internal email conversations between DPH officials make it clear that it was Dr. Walsh's sermons that concerned DPH," the attorney said in an accompanying letter. "In fact, DPH decision-makers engaged in multiple, and lengthy, email conversations regarding Walsh's sermons, but hardly any concerning the reason DPH now offers for his termination. The evidence in overwhelming."
Part of that evidence are numerous evaluations rating Walsh as "highly acceptable."
Among hand-written comments about Walsh added to the evaluation forms were "common sense," "down to earth," "don't do things 'the way we've always done them'" and "stewards of the public funds."
Yet, the letter to the EEOC explained, DPH Chief of Staff Howgate asked Walsh to send him links to his religious messages online. And just the day before Walsh's termination was announced, DPH Human Resources Director Lee Rudd ordered DPH officials to review his beliefs.
"OK … I have an assignment for several of us. We have to listen to his sermons on You Tube (sic) tonight. If we take a couple of hours each, then we should cover our bases. I will enlist Dwana (Prince) to help us. Kate (Pfirman, DPH chief financial officer) is going to listen to them as well," Coffman wrote.
The attorney said the fact that Howgate "asked for copies of Dr. Walsh's sermons may, in and of itself, constitute a violation of Title VII."
"Rudd informs his colleagues and subordinates that listening to Dr. Walsh's sermons is a mandatory 'assignment.' Such an assignment is so massive an undertaking that it would require the assistance of others and, even then, would take 'a couple of hours each' to get through them," Coffman's letter said.
The investigation was triggered by "an earful" to the department from those who "took issue with Dr. Walsh's religious beliefs," the letter explained.
Documents reveal one complaint came in from the co-chair of the county Democratic Party and a gay activist who threatened to "arrange protests if [DPH hires] Dr. Walsh," the submission explained.
"Notwithstanding the invented narrative found in DPH's letter, Dr. Walsh had his employment revoked because of the sermons he preached. That alone is an illegal employment practice," the letter said. "At the very least, the inescapable conclusion is that DPH senior officials considered Dr. Walsh's religion and expressions of that religion in making its employment decisions. That is, likewise, an illegal practice by a prospective employer."
To the federal agency charged with prosecuting illegal discrimination, the letter said, "DPH's primary concern, at least originally, was hiring the right person. Dr. Walsh was the right person. He was overwhelmingly impressive to those who interviewed him at the DPH – at least until Lee Rudd assigned senior staff to spend overtime hours reviewing his sermons."
For example, Dr. Jack Kennedy, the chief interviewer, "recommended directly" that Walsh be hired.
His comment was, "I feel quite certain that we will not be seeing a more qualified candidate for DHD any time in the near future.
"This is the same Dr. Kennedy, who, now according to DPH, became entirely disenchanted with Dr. Walsh when James Howgate asked county representatives whether they should terminate Dr. Walsh's employment on a hastily assembled conference call … the day immediately after Lee Rudd, Kate Pfirman, Justin Wade and Dwana Prince had spent several hours each the night before illegally reviewing and evaluating Dr. Walsh's sermons," Coffman argued.
"The evidence leads to only one conclusion: DPH, under pressure from activists and community stakeholders, went looking for an excuse by which they might convince the county boards of health to provide cover for their termination of Dr. Walsh."
The telephone call in which officials joked about informing Walsh of his firing was between Dr. Patrick O'Neal and Pfirman.
Pfirman said: "And I'm gonna be very – I'm gonna try to come off as very cold, because I don't want to say very much. If I try to make it warm – I've thought that through, it's gonna just not – there's no warm way to say it anyway."
Then there was laughter from both parties.
O'Neal then said to inform Walsh, "You're out," and there was another round of laughter.
"It's very funny," Pfirman said.
The voicemail:
"No one should be fired for simply expressing his religious beliefs,” said Coffman. “In America, it is against the law to fire an employee for expressing his religious beliefs – especially when that expression takes place at church. This kind of religious intolerance by an employer has no place in today’s workforce."
Walsh, who holds both a medical degree and a Ph.D., also serves as a lay minister with the Seventh Day Adventist Church, the complaint explains.
He had accepted the Georgia position, and his hiring had been publicly announced when "top officials" apparently were targeted by a campaign from activists to injure Walsh with statements about his faith and statements he has made in church, the legal team said.
They explain Walsh "was eminently qualified to lead the Georgia Department of Health, but has now been effectively blacklisted by the Georgia Department of Health because of religious messages he gave as a lay minister."