Georgia pays $225K to settle lawsuit with anti-gay pastor

ATLANTA (AP) – Georgia officials have agreed to pay $225,000 to a man who said his job offer was rescinded after videos emerged of him giving sermons criticizing gay rights and evolution.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that Georgia Department of Public Health agreed last month to settle the religious discrimination lawsuit filed by Dr. Eric Walsh.

Walsh was a Pasadena, California health department official in 2014 when he was offered a job to run the Department of Public Health’s northwest Georgia operations.

That offer was withdrawn after videos surfaced in California of sermons that Walsh had given as a preacher describing evolution as a “Satanic belief.”

Officials have denied wrongdoing, saying they rescinded the offer because Walsh hadn’t reported his outside employment as a pastor, not because of the sermons.