A Christian realtor in Virginia is facing the possibility of losing his real estate license after posts he made about his faith were dug up to draw him out of a City Council race. Wilson Fauber, who has been a real estate broker for over 40 years, decided to run for City Council in his hometown of Staunton. “During my journey running for Staunton City Council, some of the opposition from a different party decided that they were going to scour my Facebook pages and see if they could find any dirt on me. And they went back to 2015 and they found a Scripture that I posted from Leviticus … where the Lord clearly states that homosexuality is an abomination to Him,” Fauber told Faithwire.

He would ultimately lose the election and face even more troubles from the posts. Fauber stated that he received a message from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) about a complaint, with the belief that his posts were “hate speech.” The NAR implemented rules against hate speech in 2020. According to the NAR, realtors must avoid using “harassing speech, hate speech, epithets, or slurs based on race, color, religion, sex, disability, familial status, national origin, sexual orientation, or gender identity.” A hearing is scheduled for December 4^th to determine whether or not Fauber violated the NAR’s guidelines, which could result in fines and having his license suspended.

Fauber, who is also a licensed minister, stated the new rules were invasive. “The NAR has now given themselves permission to police real estate agents 24/7. It’s deeply troubling that an organization like the NAR can police my life, and complaints can be filed against me for reading a passage of scripture, even in church; that a person wouldn’t even have to be present to file a complaint about me. That’s far reaching,” he said. He obtained a lawyer through the Founding Freedoms Law Center (FFLC). “Apparently quoting the truth of the Bible is now enough to trigger a formal ethics hearing that could ruin a real estate agent’s career. In reality, ‘hate speech’ is nothing more than an Orwellian device used to silence others. Ironically, rules and regulations like these are put in place to hate and harm individuals with disfavored viewpoints,” the FFLC said in a statement supporting Fauber.

Despite the risk to his career, Fauber refuses to back down. “’I’m sure I’m going to be asked if I’m remorseful; I expect that to happen. And the answer is, ‘No.’ I am not remorseful. I’m not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and I will continue to boldly proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ,” he said. His attorney, Michael Sylvester, is hopeful the hearing will take no action against Fauber. “The hopeful outcome is that the ethics judges will recognize that Wilson hasn’t violated the rule and has never spoken against anybody in any online space or publicly. In the bigger picture, if quoting the Bible is hate speech then society has really reached a new low. Usually we admire our professionals, but now we are telling our professionals they need to leave their values at the door,” he said. “One would have thought that this 2020 rule would be to stop society’s greatest evil, but now it is targeting Christian ministers.”