A Port Wentworth police officer, in a jurisdiction just outside of Savannah, has resigned after superiors told him he could not share his personal Christian religious views on social media.
“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,” Jacob Kersey, the resigned officer, first told The Daily Signal media outlet, Earlier this month Kersey posted a 20-word message about his view of marriage on Facebook.
“God designed marriage. Marriage refers to Christ and the church,” he wrote, paraphrasing the Apostle Paul’s teaching in the Book of Ephesians. “That’s why there is no such thing as homosexual marriage.”
The next day, Kersey said he received a phone call from his supervisor, who told him that someone had complained about the post and to take it down. When Kersey refused, according to the Signal, the supervisor warned him that failure to delete the Facebook post on marriage could result in his termination. Kersey said he then was contacted by Lt. Justin Hardy, who said the police department didn’t want to be held liable in a “use of force” situation involving someone in the LGBTQ community. Kersey still refused to delete the post.
He was told that he was “being placed on administrative leave while the city investigated to see if I could keep my job,” Kersey said. “I was told that I was wise beyond my years, an old soul, and that they brag on me all the time, but that I couldn’t post things like that.”
Kersey also is quoted as saying his captain told him that his free speech “was limited due to my position as … a police officer.”
After a week of paid administrative leave, Kersey says he was told he could post Scripture verses, but could not work as one of the department’s officers if he continued to share his “interpretation or opinion on Scripture if it was deemed offensive.” So the 19-year-old officer resigned.
So far, the police department is refusing to publicly comment.
