Two real estate agents, one in Montana and the other in Virginia, have been punished by local and national Realtors associations because, as bivocational pastors, both agents embrace Biblical views on marriage and sexuality.
The Liberty Counsel law firm is representing both men. In Missoula, Montana, Pastor Brandon Huber came under fire after a food bank his church had been supporting started giving LGBTQ coloring books to every child who attended a free summer lunch program.
Following conversations with the food bank, Huber and his church decided they needed to end their partnership with the food bank, and they posted information about their decision on social media. The church explained that it would serve any child in the lunch program, but it was choosing to partner with a different organization to provide the food.
Although the food bank partnership had nothing to do with Huber’s real estate work, a local resident filed an ethics complaint with the Missoula Organization of Realtors, asserting that the pastor’s comments would cause him to be biased in his real estate profession against people who identify as LGBTQ. Eventually, the organization fined Huber $5,000, ordered him to take pro-LGBTQ classes and stripped him of his license and access to the multiple listing service that agents use to access property listing information.
In Virginia, two pro-LGBTQ Realtors filed multiple ethics complaints with the National Realtors Association against Pastor Wilson Fauber because of the Bible verses, memes and sermons he posts on social media. As a result, Liberty Counsel states, the pastor has been “persecuted and dragged through the mud, and had his reputation and real estate career ruined because of the National Association of Realtors’ ‘Hate Speech’ policies that blatantly discriminate against Christians.”
The National Association of Realtors recently changed its hate speech rule to clarify that it only applies to Realtors’ speech in their professional, not personal, capacity, and that Fauber is not guilty of hateful or harassing speech. But the association has fined Fauber for going public about the unfair ethics complaints, violating the association’s strict gag order rule. They have stated that if Fauber does not pay the fine within 30 days, he will be stripped of his Realtor membership indefinitely.
Liberty Counsel points out that the punishments in these cases are violations of the federal Fair Housing Act, which explicitly states that it is unlawful “to deny any person access to or membership or participation in any multiple-listing service, real estate brokers’ organization or other service, organization, or facility relating to the business of selling or renting dwellings, or to discriminate against him in the terms or conditions of such access, membership, or participation, on account of race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin.”
“Pastors and people of faith do not have to shed their religious beliefs to maintain a real estate license,” said Mat Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel.
An article on Liberty Counsel’s website adds: “As our caseload shows, the LGBTQ agenda is on the attack against Christians, fighting to force Bible believers out of their jobs, teaching roles and nearly every aspect of public life.”
