Wilson Fauber has been a well-respected real estate agent and broker in the Staunton, Virginia, area for 44 years, with no professional complaints ever filed against him. That is, until 2024, following an aggressive initiative by a political opposition group intent on damaging Fauber’s reputation by targeting his Christian beliefs.
“In 2015, I posted Biblical quotes on my personal Facebook page,” Fauber said. “Around the same time, Rev. Franklin Graham had created a post, and I re-posted with some additions for emphasis,” said Fauber, who is also an ordained minister. “The post thread contained Bible references and explanations from a minister’s perspective.”
The quotes, posted on behalf of Arise International Ministries from Fauber’s personal Facebook page, emphasized the biblical definition of marriage between a man and a woman. They were made before the Supreme Court had decided or heard oral arguments regarding same-sex marriage in 2015 — meaning that at that time, under law, marriage was between and man and a woman — and well before the National Association of Realtors (NAR) amended its ethics code language regarding hate speech.
Fauber knows of no complaints or claimed offense regarding his posts, until 2023, when he chose to run for Staunton City Council. Coining Fauber “the Hater,” an opposition group targeted his biblical beliefs. The group’s slander caught the attention of the NAR, of which Fauber is a longtime member.
A New Amendment to Code of Ethics
In 2020, the NAR adopted a new amendment to its code of ethics. Standard of Practice 10-5 compels realtors to avoid the use of “harassing speech, hate speech, epithets, or slurs based on race, color, religion, sex, disability, familial status, national origin, sexual orientation, or gender identity.” Suddenly, Fauber’s 2015 comments about marriage in the Bible, reiterated in a 2023 interview, became fair game for an ethics complaint.
“There were those who don’t like freedom of speech and freedom of religion and so they researched my Facebook accounts and found the post from 2015 and then a local reporter met with me to ask me if I still believed in the scripture I had posted,” Fauber said.
Fauber confirmed that he did. Those who filed the NAR board of ethics complaints referenced the front-page story, which showed that Fauber made related comments more recently than in 2015.
No Longer a Free America
The claim was filed in February 2024 and Fauber was notified in May, via email, not a certified letter, a short time before the scheduled hearing in June, he said.
“I had just days once I received an email through [my primary inbox],” Fauber said. “I had days to find an attorney.”
Due to certain ongoing health issues, the hearing was rescheduled and is now set for Dec. 4, when the board will determine whether Fauber violated the NAR code of ethics. If the allegations are proven, Fauber could have his membership suspended, losing access to the critical multiple listing service (MLS).
“It’s pretty much impossible to do the real estate business without the MLS,” Fauber said. “The MLS does more than allow a realtor to find a property, it includes when it’s sold, how many days it’s been on the market and other information, documents and restrictions.”
“When somebody brought him up on ethics charges, the board could have chosen to dismiss them, but they did not,” Cobb said. “We’re really in a situation where if someone’s personal faith posted on their personal Facebook speech becomes hate speech in the minds of an employer or an association, we don’t live in a free America, everyone should be concerned about that.”
“Wilson never injected this into his campaign,” said Michael Sylvester, FFLC litigation counsel. “He has to keep reiterating that he loves and wants to serve all people.”
Before November 2020, when the hate speech clause was adopted, the code of ethics all related to how real estate agents and affiliates worked with clients, Fauber said. Now that has changed.
“The NAR has now given themselves permission to police real estate agents 24/7,” Fauber said. “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.”
Not an Isolated Event
Fauber’s case is not the first time the NAR has been accused of anti-Christian action; in Montana this past February, Sen. Keith Regier, R-Kalispell, sponsored legislation to ensure Christian members of the NAR are free to express their beliefs following the fining and suspension of local pastor and realtor Brandon Huber.
In Virginia, phone calls of cases like Fauber’s come pouring in daily, Cobb said, regarding someone who has lost a job or suffered significant harm due to their faith.
The FFLC was founded in response to the state’s liberal legislature that was passing “blatantly unconstitutional” laws like the Virginia Values Act, Cobb said.
“We knew people even more than in the past were about to lose their freedom of speech and freedom of religion,” she said. “We are finding in fact that not just the laws we saw, but in general, there is every day a growing need for legal representation for people who are truly losing their jobs, their livelihoods, as a result of their faith.”
Christian realtor Hadassah Carter recently won her case against the Virginia Real Estate Board, citing harassment and discrimination for her beliefs. Carter included Bible verses and Christian phrases on her website and was subjected to monitoring and accused of violating Virginia’s fair housing statutes by the board due to her religious speech.
‘Society Has Really Reached a New Low’
“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,” Sylvester said. “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. One would have thought that this 2020 rule would be to stop society’s greatest evil, but now it is targeting Christian ministers.”
In the meantime, the harm done to Fauber’s reputation may be irreparable.
“I’ve earned an excellent reputation and am well thought of in the community,” Fauber said. “As with any accusation, people wonder if something is there; it creates some doubt. That seed has been planted in the community. After 44 years in the business and an excellent reputation, it’s very disheartening.” Threats of bodily harm against Fauber during the campaign led him to seek protection from the local police department, he said.
“If this can happen to Wilson it can happen to anyone and if we don’t stand up alongside, we may not have anyone stand with us when it happens to us,” Sylvester said.
Ashley Bateman is a policy writer for The Heartland Institute and blogger for Ascension Press. Her work has been featured in The Washington Times, The Daily Caller, The New York Post, The American Thinker and numerous other publications. She previously worked as an adjunct scholar for The Lexington Institute and as editor, writer and photographer for The Warner Weekly, a publication for the American military community in Bamberg, Germany. Ashley is a board member at a Catholic homeschool cooperative in Virginia. She homeschools her four incredible children along with her brilliant engineer/scientist husband.
Participants carrying a rainbow flag attend the annual gay pride. | Reuters/Annika Af Klercker/TT News Agency
A judge has ruled against a group of churches, schools and a pro-life pregnancy center challenging a Virginia law that adds sexual orientation and gender identity to state antidiscrimination law. Judge James E. Plowman Jr. issued a ruling from the bench last week in favor of the Virginia Values Act, which was passed by the Democrat-controlled state government in 2020.
Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring released a statement last Friday expressing support for the ruling, which will be entered as an order within the next few weeks.
“Our landmark civil rights protections will remain in place, and Virginia will remain a place that is open and welcoming to all, no matter what you look like, where you come from, how you worship, or who you love,” stated Herring.
“I was proud to support passage of the Virginia Values Act and am so proud of our work to successfully defend the law twice against legal attack.”
In late September of last year, Alliance Defending Freedom filed a lawsuit on behalf of two churches, three private schools, and a pregnancy care center against the Virginia Values Act. In the suit, Calvary Road Baptist Church of Fairfax County and its school, Community Fellowship Church of Staunton and its school, Community Christian Academy of Charlottesville, and Care Net of Loudon County claimed that the new law forced them to compromise various hiring and employment practices based on their sincere religious beliefs.
“[The Act] puts the Ministries in an impossible position: they must either abandon the religious convictions they were founded upon, or be ready to face investigations, an onerous administrative process, fines up to $100,000 for each violation, unlimited compensatory and punitive damages and attorney-fee awards, and court orders forcing them to engage in actions that would violate their consciences,” stated the suit, in part.
“Even merely posting their religious beliefs on their own websites could subject the Ministries to prosecution and exorbitant fines. These penalties could easily exceed a million dollars, ruin the Ministries financially, and make continuing their Christian missions impossible.”
In March, U.S. District Court Judge Claude M. Hilton rejected a separate challenge to the Virginia Values Act, another lawsuit filed by the ADF, this time on behalf of Robert Updegrove of Bob Updegrove Photography. In his decision, Hilton argued that the Updegrove lacked the standing to sue since the Act “has never been enforced against” him “or any other person.”
“In the almost nine months since the statute became effective, no complaint has been filed under the statute,”wrote Hilton in late March.
“No case or controversy exists when a person expresses a desire to change his previously compliant conduct to violate a new statute that no person, government or otherwise, has ever sought to enforce.”
American Family Association
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American Family Association
American Family Association (AFA), a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in 1977 by Donald E. Wildmon, who was the pastor of First United Methodist Church in Southaven, Mississippi, at the time. Since 1977, AFA has been on the frontlines of Ame
American Family Association
American Family Association (AFA), a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in 1977 by Donald E. Wildmon, who was the pastor of First United Methodist Church in Southaven, Mississippi, at the time. Since 1977, AFA has been on the frontlines of Ame
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American Family Association
American Family Association (AFA), a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in 1977 by Donald E. Wildmon, who was the pastor of First United Methodist Church in Southaven, Mississippi, at the time. Since 1977, AFA has been on the frontlines of Ame
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American Family Association
American Family Association (AFA), a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in 1977 by Donald E. Wildmon, who was the pastor of First United Methodist Church in Southaven, Mississippi, at the time. Since 1977, AFA has been on the frontlines of Ame
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