When the Culture War Becomes the Culture Jihad

In the wake of U.S. Supreme Court victories in favor of Jack Phillips, the owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop who had been targeted because he refused to bake a custom cake for a gay wedding, and high school football coach Joe Kennedy, who was fired for going against a school order not to kneel in prayer on the field after a game, you would figure (incorrectly) that the culture warriors might be rethinking their far-left positions on social issues.

No, instead, they are turning it up “to 11.” In this case, a Virginia real estate broker is potentially facing the end of his career, and, like Phillips and Kennedy, he didn’t think he was doing anything wrong. And, as you will see, he wasn’t.

It’s the case of Wilson Fauber, the next victim of the “Culture War.” As a Realtor, he is a career-long member of the National Association of Realtors, and that organization proprietarily controls access to the Multiple Listing Service that a member like Wilson uses to show his clients all the available listings of properties for sale and where he lists their properties.

Just in the past month, he has lost his membership, and the association has labeled him a “discriminator” until he undergoes “sensitivity training” administered by the Virginia Association of Realtors.

One wonders how this all came about.

Was it like Masterpiece Cakeshop, where he declined to serve a gay couple?

No.

Was it like Coach Kennedy, where he had been warned by his bosses that his public display of religion could result in his dismissal?

No.

So, what did Fauber do to bring this on?

Nothing.

That’s not a typo. He did nothing.

There is not one allegation that he discriminated against a buyer or seller regarding property, that he denied anyone his services, or that he even said anything discriminatory.

What he did was post a quote from the Bible to his personal social media account … eight years before allegations were made against him.

To be fair, the Bible passage he posted (reposted, technically speaking, as it was first posted by the Rev. Franklin Graham) was Leviticus 20:13, which does take a harsh view of “men laying with other men as with a woman” (which was apparently happening back then, too). But the post was only seen by his friends, and that was back in 2015.

When Fauber ran for Staunton City Council in 2022, his opponents found this post and made it central into their campaign against him. He lost.

So, case closed?

Not at all.

The post was eventually brought to the attention of—anonymously, of course—the National Association of Realtors as a violation of the organization’s “hate speech” prohibitions.

Under “Standards and Practices,” the organization prohibits Realtors (a trademarked word only applicable to members) from “using harassing speech, hate speech, epithets, or slurs based on protected classes.”

The prohibition was updated in 2021 to “apply to all activities, including personal, off-the-clock time.”

You read that correctly. The infraction occurred six years before the policy was ever put into place. So, Fauber “violated” a policy that didn’t exist at the time.

To be called a Realtor, you have to be a member of the National Association of Realtors. And in order to stay in that exclusive club (which you pay to be a member of), you subject yourself to the scrutiny of its ethics board.

While Fauber’s attorneys from the Founding Freedoms Law Center are preparing for the next step in his legal battle against the Virginia Association of Realtors (which administered the sanction based on the national association’s guidelines), we are left to consider the “suppression” ripples that each instance like this causes.

Despite the eventual victories in court of people like Phillips and Kennedy, how many businesses compromised their beliefs rather than get targeted like Masterpiece Cakeshop? How many coaches or teachers decided not to try to be an example of humility to the young people that were in their charge, lest they get fired like the coach? How many parents decided not to speak out at their school board meetings because the former attorney general of the United States might have started a dossier on them and the FBI might have investigated them as domestic terrorists?

You don’t even need to have done anything illegal or immoral to face firing or cancellation. In fact, you may have even done something entirely moral and stood up for your principles. But for the Left, it’s no longer a Culture War. It’s become a Culture Jihad.

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