A Virginia real estate agent is facing potentially career-ending ethics charges over social media posts defending Biblical marriage and women's sports without men.
Wilson Forver, a 44-year veteran real estate agent and ordained minister in Staunton, Virginia, is a member of the National Association of Realtors (NAR), which is his title. According to The Federalist, Fauver's career as a real estate agent is beyond reproach and “no professional complaints have ever been filed against him.”
opposition besmilch
But all that changed last year when Fauver decided to run for City Council. Rebels began combing through his Facebook posts to smear the man, whom they dubbed a “hater.”
What kind of “hate” did they find in Forver's posts?
“In 2015, I posted a Bible quote on my personal Facebook page,” Fauver told The Federalist. “About the same time, Reverend Franklin Graham was making a post, so I reposted it with a few additions for emphasis.”
Those posts were about the Biblical definition of marriage: one man and one woman. In fact, that definition was the law of the land at the time Fauver posted the poem. (Later that year, the Supreme Court would issue another ruling.)
“There were people who didn't like freedom of speech and freedom of religion, so they looked into my Facebook account and found posts from 2015. Then a local reporter met with me and said that the “I asked him if he still believed in the phrase,” Fauver said.
Following Fauver's positive response, the opposition filed an ethics complaint with the NAR in February. NAR revised its Code of Ethics in 2020. Currently, real estate agents are required to “avoid harassing behavior, hate speech, epithets, or slurs based on race, color, religion, gender, disability, familial status, national origin, sexual orientation, or sexual orientation. ” is required. Gender identity. ” Fauver's allegedly harassing posts were made before the amendment was adopted. However, his repeated mention of them in 2023, as published in newspapers, caused complaints. Additionally, according to the Richmond-based Establishment Freedom Law Center (FFLC), which is representing Fauver, the complaint states, The article cites a recent post in which Mr. Fauver criticized the state of affairs.” Upcoming hearings in NAR court.
hearing impaired
NAR sent an email to Fauber in May informing him of the hearing, days before the hearing originally scheduled for June. Citing health concerns, NAR postponed the hearing until Dec. 4.
Victoria Cobb, president of the Family Foundation of Virginia, of which FFLC is a subsidiary, told The Federalist:
When someone brought ethics charges against[Fauver]the board could have chosen to fire them, but they didn't. We actually live in a free America if personal beliefs posted on someone's personal Facebook page become hate speech in the minds of employers and organizations. We're in a situation where everyone has to worry about it. about it.
According to the FFLC, the consequences of a guilty verdict in court include “reprimands, fines, or the possibility of complete disqualification as a real estate agent.” Although FFLC does not intend to completely prohibit Fauver from acting as a real estate agent,
Without real estate agent status, your ability to make a living as a real estate agent is dramatically reduced. That's because, in most cases, real estate agents must be members of NAR to access an important tool: the Multiple Listing Service (MLS). Used by real estate agents to list properties and introduce them to customers. Therefore, for almost every real estate agent, losing the real estate agent position is a career-ending proposition.
“It's almost impossible to do real estate without an MLS,” Fauber told The Federalist. “The MLS not only allows real estate agents to find properties, it also includes when a property will be sold, the number of days it has been on the market, and other information, documents, and restrictions.”
Religious Real Estate Agent Rejection
No one other than Fauver, his lawyers and the court may know exactly what will happen at next month's hearing. “NAR's membership agreement requires confidentiality of anything said or decided during or as a result of an ethics hearing,” the FFLC wrote. “So if they discipline you in any way, you're gagged.” That's why Fauver is now going public with his story, the FFLC says. “He wants others to know what is happening to Christians like him in the real estate industry.”
Those Christians include Brandon Huber, a pastor and real estate agent in Montana. The local NAR chapter suspended him and fined him $5,000 for “expressing the church's views regarding homosexuality and the LGBTQ community,” the Daily Montanan reported.
Among them is Hadassah Carter, a Christian real estate agent whose efforts by the Virginia Real Estate Commission to quash his religious views with discrimination charges were, fortunately, unsuccessful.
Observed FFLC:
Apparently, just quoting a Biblical truth can trigger a formal ethics hearing that can ruin a real estate agent's career. In reality, “hate speech” is nothing more than an Orwellian device used to silence others. Ironically, such rules and regulations are put in place to hate and harm individuals who hold unfavorable viewpoints.
Perhaps Mr. Fauver's strong public stance against these tactics will cause the NAR to reconsider its woke speech norms.
“If this can happen to Wilson, it can happen to anyone,” said FFLC attorney Michael Sylvester. “If we don't stand together, there may be no one to stand by us when it happens to us.”
