Pastor fighting to keep realtor license after complaints about biblical social media posts

A Virginia realtor is dealing with the potential for having his license revoked over social media posts as issues mount in regards to the standing of free speech for these working in actual property and different professions.

Wilson Fauber, a Staunton, Virginia-based realtor with a profession spanning 4 many years, appeared earlier than the Virginia Affiliation of Realtors on Wednesday in a listening to to find out whether or not he violated the Nationwide Affiliation of Realtors’ Customary of Follow 10-5. Adopted in 2020, the usual declares that realtors “should not use harassing speech, hate speech, epithets, or slurs primarily based on race, colour, faith, intercourse incapacity, familial standing, nationwide origin, sexual orientation, or gender id.”

“This all began, you can say, with a publish that Wilson made on social media in 2015,” Fauber’s legal professional, Michael Sylvester of the Founding Freedoms Legislation Middle on the Virginia Household Basis, informed The Christian Put up. 

Noting how the publish got here because the U.S. Supreme Court docket was contemplating whether or not same-sex marriage was a constitutional proper within the Obergefell v. Hodges resolution, Sylvester pressured that Fauber supplied his evaluation on the matter in his capability as a Christian minister. Sylvester defined that Fauber “posted the biblical view on marriage,” sharing ideas from the Rev. Franklin Graham on the matter. “He by no means confronted any … blowback or pushback,” Sylvester mentioned. 

Fauber’s social media publish highlighting the biblical place on marriage got here up when he was working for public workplace eight years later. Requested if he “nonetheless stands by his Christian beliefs on this matter,” Sylvester informed CP that his shopper answered within the affirmative: “He loves everybody. He serves everybody. He doesn’t hate anybody, he doesn’t discriminate in opposition to anybody, however he stands with the Phrase of God.” 

Earlier this 12 months, Fauber’s social media posts grew to become the topic of a criticism lodged with the Virginia Affiliation of Realtors over the purported violation of the Nationwide Affiliation of Realtors’ Customary of Follow 10-5. Sylvester expressed disappointment that the Virginia Affiliation of Realtors didn’t dismiss the criticism as “frivolous” however moderately “issued an announcement just a few months afterward in April saying that if the allegations are true, then Wilson could have violated this new hate speech rule.”

“Our place is that Wilson mentioned nothing that constitutes hate speech. As an alternative, he comes from a coronary heart of affection and he serves everybody,” Sylvester countered. 

The listening to, which was anticipated to final no less than 4 hours, consisted of “the presentation of witnesses and cross-examination about [Fauber’s] spiritual expressions.” Sylvester expects a choice about his shopper’s future throughout the subsequent week. If the Virginia Affiliation of Realtors sides in opposition to Fauber, he has the choice to enchantment throughout the affiliation.

Sylvester views Fauber’s state of affairs as one thing that would have an effect extending far past the actual property occupation. “What Wilson’s downside is is everybody’s downside as a result of this identical normal of follow, 10-5, that we’re speaking about has been held up by some as a mannequin that maybe different professions ought to undertake as properly,” he warned. 

Sylvester expressed concern about the potential for pastors who’re additionally legal professionals having “their sermons or their social media posts put underneath nice scrutiny once they’re making an attempt to behave within the ministerial capability” if “their skilled authorized associations tried to constrain their speech.” Insisting that “you can think about the identical factor about physicians” who additionally function pastors, Sylvester recognized Fauber’s case as “the tip of the iceberg.” 

“We wish to head it off now earlier than different associations undertake comparable drastic guidelines,” he added. Fauber agreed that Customary of Follow 10-5 was problematic and referred to as for its repeal: “It’s actually an invasion of privateness. It’s a drastic overreach as a result of the Nationwide Affiliation of Realtors has voted to provide themselves the ability in the event that they want to police realtor social media of any sort.” 

Based on Fauber, “If I had been to learn a scripture resembling Leviticus 18:22 and simply shut the Bible and never make any remark in any respect, if somebody — and I’m a realtor and a minister — and if somebody is offended by that, even when they’re not within the service however somebody tells them that I learn that passage of scripture, then any individual, you don’t need to be a realtor, any individual can file a criticism in opposition to that minister-realtor and be in the identical footwear that I’m in proper now. And that shouldn’t be; that’s an invasion of my privateness. 

Fauber recognized the penalties for these discovered to have violated Customary of Follow 10-5 as fines starting from $5,000 to $15,000 and elimination from the Nationwide Affiliation of Realtors and their state Affiliation of Realtors. He acknowledged that such a plan of action might end in realtors shedding entry to the A number of Itemizing Service, which he characterised as a vital instrument that realtors have to make use of to remain in enterprise: “In case you wouldn’t have entry to the A number of Itemizing Service, you’re out of enterprise.”

Sylvester described the A number of Itemizing Service as “the database that actual property brokers go to seek out out all types of details about homes which can be up on the market and to listing homes on the market” and “the important thing instrument for the commerce as an actual property agent.” He maintained that “to have that entry revoked can be career-ending for thus many actual property brokers.”

That is significantly true for Fauber as a result of though there are a few dozen personal A number of Itemizing Companies not affiliated with the Nationwide Affiliation of Realtors, none of them exist in his space. 

Fauber shouldn’t be the primary realtor to have his license challenged over his views on contentious social points. Sylvester detailed how a Georgia-based realtor named Julie Mauck, who “spoke at a college board assembly in opposition to sure graphic and gay content material being utilized in her public college system,” confronted an “ethics criticism.” Whereas Mauck “misplaced at her first listening to with the Georgia Affiliation of Realtors,” she finally secured a “favorable consequence” after interesting the choice.