Over 30,000 Petition in Protection of Former Police Officer’s Free Speech Rights

In an enormous present of public help for former police officer Jacob Kersey, petitions containing over 30,000 signatures will likely be delivered Friday to the mayor and metropolis council of Port Wentworth, Georgia, calling on metropolis officers to apologize for infringing his First Modification rights.

Kersey, a 19-year-old police rookie, was pulled from obligation and pressured to resign in January over a Fb put up he wrote on his private account upholding a biblical view of marriage. He later stop the Port Wentworth Police Division.

Becoming a member of Georgia pastors in delivering the petitions in help of Kersey will likely be former U.S. Rep. Jody Hice, R-Ga., now senior adviser to Household Analysis Council President Tony Perkins; Bishop Garland Hunt of The Father’s Home, a church in metropolitan Atlanta; and former Atlanta Hearth Chief Kelvin Cochran, who confronted his personal disaster over spiritual freedom.

>>> Associated: Rookie Georgia Police Officer Explains Why He Resigned After Pushback Over Views on Conventional Marriage

The saga started in early January when Kersey was known as in by his superiors and advised that he may lose his job except he eliminated a put up he wrote on his private Fb web page, which acknowledged: “God designed marriage. Marriage refers to Christ and the church. That’s why there’s no such factor as gay marriage.”

After Kersey refused to delete the put up, he was positioned on administrative depart whereas a police division investigation was performed.

The police division later claimed that Kersey’s put up raised “considerations” concerning the “objectivity and the efficiency of your job duties when a member or suspected member of the LGBTQ+ neighborhood is concerned.”

However, the division discovered no proof “to ascertain a violation of any insurance policies.” Following a subsequent assembly along with his superiors, Kersey determined to resign “after he was advised he may face termination for future social media posts that others discover offensive.”

After Kersey’s story broke, Household Analysis Council began a petition for members of the general public to check in help of the previous police officer’s First Modification rights. The petition thus far has garnered near 31,000 signatures.

“I’m simply actually humbled,” Kersey advised The Washington Stand. “The truth that God, in his divine plan, noticed match to make use of me as a vessel on this, to face for spiritual liberty and to face for biblical fact. The truth that over 30,000 People would take the time to signal and stand with me in each of these issues is reassuring, and I do know there’s many extra People on the market who would agree with all of us.”

Kersey went on to explain how he noticed God at work by way of his controversial expertise with the Port Wentworth Police Division.

“I believe God has actually used this [situation] to proceed to sound the alarm on the assault on spiritual liberty,” he noticed. “Mine’s not the one case. Clearly you will have coach [Joe] Kennedy, you will have the fireplace chief Kelvin Cochran, and others like [Christian baker] Jack Phillips—that is simply one other story to affix these people. I believe it’s simply God utilizing it to sound the alarm to hopefully wake individuals up.”

Kersey additionally expressed his view that his state of affairs may current a possibility for the church in America.

“It’s [a] problem [for] the church, pastors and religious leaders, particularly right here in Georgia, to contemplate what’s essential,” Kersey advised The Washington Stand. “Is it essential to face for biblical fact and spiritual liberty, or is it essential for them to fill the pews? I believe that’s actually the place we’re at proper now right here within the state of Georgia. And I believe a whole lot of pastors, not simply right here however throughout the nation, are being challenged with that as nicely.”

“What’s essential to them?” he requested. “I believe I’ve seen God at work in each methods. He’s inspired his individuals, he’s challenged his individuals, and I believe he’s empowering his individuals to be daring and stand for the reality in love.”

As for his plans, Kersey expressed openness to God’s promptings:

I’m trusting God for subsequent steps, and that’s one thing I’m nonetheless praying about. The Lord can do above all we are able to ask, suppose, or think about, so the reply I’d provide you with now if the Lord opens doorways and he works his plan, particularly by way of this occasion the place we ship these petitions, there’s no telling what the Lord’s going to do by way of this. … I’m trusting God to open the fitting doorways and lead me down the fitting path. Proper now, what’s essential is to share this story [to] encourage individuals.

When requested if he had any phrases of recommendation for these contemplating taking a public stand for his or her religion however who’re afraid of the backlash they may obtain, Kersey emphasised a grounding in Scripture.

“I encourage everybody to test their motives,” Kersey stated. “We have to know why we’re doing what we’re doing. I believe the rationale why any believer stands up for the phrase of God is as a result of that’s our map, that’s our information, that’s the approach that God has set for us to stay—to shine, and to be salt. So, now we have to make sure that we’re tethered to Christ first, since he’s on the heart of all the pieces we do, earlier than we do it. If we’ve completed that … now we have no purpose to worry.”

Kersey continued:

So when Devil tries to convey no matter it’s towards us, to silence us, to make us cowards, to make us worry, now we have to recollect we’re not trusting in our personal means, we’re not trusting in our personal knowledge and our personal information, we’re trusting in what the phrase of the Lord says and his guarantees and his Holy Spirit. … Don’t cower, don’t worry, don’t conceal your gentle below the bushel, however as an alternative ‘put it on the lampstand for all to see, that you could be give glory to your Father in Heaven.’

A member of Technology Z, Kersey went on to handle the rising epidemic amongst many in his era who’re fighting psychological well being and private identification points:

There positively is an identification disaster. Particularly for younger individuals, I believe it’s vitally essential that we keep in mind that our identification is in Christ. For the early church, they actually struggled with dropping their identification … however Paul clearly stated, ‘There’s no slave or free, there’s no Jew or Gentile, there’s no barbarian or Scythian, however we’re all one in Christ.’

For the church at this time, while you come to know Christ, there’s no porn addict, there’s no liar, there’s no drunkard, there’s no gay, there’s no transgender, there’s no American, there’s no Chinese language, there’s no Russian—we’re all one in Christ. If we discover our identification within the issues of the world, then we’re going to nonetheless be eager for one thing, as a result of what we’d like is Christ. Christ fills that identification.

So my encouragement to younger individuals is: Uncover your identification in Christ. And remind your self of that day in and time out. As a result of Devil’s going to proceed to attempt that can assist you discover your identification in different issues, and now we have to reject that. We now have to seek out our identification in Christ, and we are able to start to find that once we learn the phrase and permit the Holy Spirit to talk to us.

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