Posted on by Californiacontrarian

When Is Freedom of Speech Acceptable ?

When is it okay to express your religious views on social media? Whether you agree or disagree with the religious views of X, the issue here today is whether or not he/she has the right to express these views on Social Media without fear of retaliation from his employer. I guess an argument could be made that a private employer could restrict some employees’ views on Social Media, if those expressed views were affecting his private business. (For example, if the employee was effusively praising Hitler on Social Media and the business he was employed at was in a Jewish community, a reasonable argument could be made that because of the horrific treatment the Jewish people received from Hitler’s Third Reich that the employee could be made to restrict his hateful praise of Hitler.)

But what about if the “business” was a bureau of government, and the employee was expressing his non-violent views on something that his more liberal superior did not agree with. Could the employee be threatened with the loss of his job? Is it okay or not okay to be non-PC. To make this even more contentious, the views expressed on Social Media were “religious” views.

Now before I relate the details of what happened to Jacob Kersey in Georgia, remember that this is not about whether you agree or disagree with the views of Jacob Kersey, but whether or not you agree with his right to express these views.

From BlazeNews:

“Rookie Georgia police officer Jacob Kersey resigned after his superiors threatened to terminate him for expressing his views on traditional marriage on 1/2/23. Kersey posted the following on Facebook … ‘God designed marriage. Marriage refers to Christ and the church,’ Kersey said in the post. ‘That’s why there is no such thing as homosexual marriage,’ the post concluded.

The next day, Kersey’s supervisor requested he remove the post; Kersey refused, and was warned he could be terminated if he did not comply, according to the Daily Signal’s reporting. Shortly after that, Maj. Bradwick L. Sherrod ordered him to ‘return everything he had that belonged to the city,’ and Kersey was placed on paid administrative leave while the city investigated.

Department leadership formalized its position in a letter to Kersey dated January 13, which was obtained by the Daily Signal. In the letter, Port Wentworth Police Department’s Major Sherrod says, in part, ‘After reviewing your Podcast and social media platforms. . .we did not find sufficient evidence to establish a violation of any policies. . . However, the posts, podcasts, and so forth found and considered in our investigation likely offensive to protected classes . . . 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 an equitable manner, you could be terminated.’”

Note that by review, “there was not sufficient evidence to establish a violation of any policies,” but yet Officer Kersey was still threatened with termination.

Now to me the question is whether or not Major Sherrod mainly disagreed with Officer Kersey’s views on marriage, or whether Major Sherrod did not agree with Kersey’s ability to speak his views. I guess freedom of speech apparently does not exist in Port Wentworth, Georgia or in the mind of Major Sherrod !

1/30/23

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