A former Georgia police officer who was investigated for a non secular social media submit that claimed “there’s no such factor” as homosexual marriage mentioned he felt pressured to resign after he was advised he could possibly be fired for sharing his beliefs.

Jacob Kersey, 19, who give up 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 submit he made relating to his Christian perception about marriage.

“God designed marriage,” Kersey wrote within the submit that was flagged by his superiors following “an nameless grievance,” in accordance with a Jan. 13 letter of notification first reported by The Each day Sign and offered to Fox Information Digital. “Marriage refers to Christ and the church. That’s why there’s no such factor as gay marriage.”

Kersey wasn’t fired after the investigation however mentioned he determined to give up as a result of he was advised he might face termination for future social media posts that others discover offensive. He mentioned he has spoken with a legislation agency about potential authorized motion.

In his letter to Kersey, Maj. Bradwick Sherrod defined that whereas the division’s investigation into his social media posts “didn’t discover enough proof to determine a violation of any insurance policies,” his posts relating to “protected courses” such because the LBGTQ neighborhood “might elevate affordable issues 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 submit on any of your social media platforms, or another assertion or motion, renders you unable to carry out, and to be seen as capable of carry out, your job in a good and equitable method, you would be terminated,” the letter additional warned.

The main additionally reminded Kersey that same-sex marriage is authorized in Georgia and the US following the 2015 Supreme Courtroom choice in Obergefell v. Hodges.

“I did nothing fallacious, and so they advised me that,” Kersey mentioned of a gathering he later had with division management. “That’s the explanation they didn’t hearth me. They needed me to return again to work, however they had been attempting to create a brand new division coverage that may forestall me from saying something that somebody someplace might contemplate offensive.”

He mentioned he was advised he might submit direct Scripture quotations, however not his interpretation of them.

“That’s such a harmful precedent: that in the event you’re off-duty by yourself time, that you would say something — even one thing non secular, even one thing at church — if somebody someplace will get offended, you will get fired for it,” he mentioned.

Kersey, who famous he has carried out a podcast for seven years wherein he expresses his opinions, mentioned his chief likened his submit 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 didn’t really feel assured that if I had been to go on the market on the streets and implement the legislation, that my command workers was going to have my again,” he mentioned. “It’s simply too harmful of a job to try this. And I didn’t suppose it sensible to return to work below these circumstances.”

“I believe in the event you compromise your integrity and your non secular beliefs and your religion to win, you then’ve misplaced, and I simply couldn’t do this,” he added.

The Port Wentworth Police Division, which serves a city of roughly 11,000 folks within the Savannah metropolitan space, didn’t reply to Fox Information Digital’s request for remark.

Kersey mentioned different officers within the division privately communicated to him their assist, and he doesn’t fault them for not defending him publicly.

“I completely perceive why different officers don’t wish to communicate out,” he mentioned. “I’m a 19-year-old single younger man. I don’t have plenty of monetary tasks, so I’m capable of communicate out towards 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.

“We’re not speaking about Canada, or Russia or China right here,” Kersey mentioned. “We’re speaking about the USA; and even inside the USA, we’re not speaking about California or New York. We’re speaking about Georgia.”

He mentioned many have reached out to him to specific their “absolute disbelief that one thing like that is occurring in America and that it’s occurring in Georgia.”

Kersey mentioned he developed a respect and admiration for police once they usually “would deliver peace” to his household whereas he was rising up in a damaged residence.

He remembered lots of the officers concerned in his household’s home issues would exit of their method to present kindness to him when he was a boy, which he mentioned “made such an enormous distinction in my life at a really younger age.” These interactions finally impressed him to change into an officer himself when he obtained sufficiently old, he mentioned.

“I joined the police division, and for over eight months, I solely heard nice issues about my work,” he mentioned. “Folks had nothing however good issues to say about my work as a police officer.”

Kersey mentioned he stays unsure what his profession objectives are actually that he has left the division, although he mentioned he’s contemplating going again into legislation enforcement elsewhere, attending school or getting into the ministry. He hopes his story will encourage others to face up for what they imagine, he mentioned.

“In America, most of us won’t be known as to face bodily demise for our beliefs,” he mentioned. “However we is likely to be known as to face the demise of our goals, we is likely to be known as to face the demise of our popularity or we is likely to be known as to produce other folks suppose unhealthy issues about us. However what’s necessary is what God thinks about us.”