The National Association of Realtors (NAR) is facing a legal pushback that allegedly censored a conservative Christian realtor for personal beliefs.
Critics have condemned the NAR ethics code, particularly Articles 10-5, serving as a “weaponization tool” used to further maintain the “persecution” of conservative Christianity. Some of these real estate agents who claim their rights and businesses are targeted are currently pursuing legal action against NAR or parties.
Virginia real estate agent and broker Wilson Forver, Arizona real estate agent Chad DeBrees and Georgia real estate agent Julie Mauk all said they intend to file it against the self-promotion conservative Christians who filed lawsuits or against the NAR, their local real estate agent, or the individual who brought about ethical complaints under Section 10 of the NAR.
Fauber discussed taking legal action against the NAR and the Virginia Association of Realtors (VAR) after ruling the crime of “hate speech” by posting biblical poems on his personal Facebook page a decade ago.
Fauber served his clients and worked in ministries for 44 years before early 2024 informing him that the National Association of Realtors had filed an ethical complaint against him for a Facebook post.
“This was born in 2015, when I reposted and reconstructed one of Franklin Graham’s posts,” Fauber, 70, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. On February 13, 2015, Fauber reposted an article by Pastor Franklin Graham, citing the biblical poem Leviticus 18:22, which Fauber said was “the heart of the incident.” (Related: Court rules supporting politicians accused of “hate speech” to tweet biblical poems)
Virginia real estate agents held a hearing in December. Ethics Code. Fauber and his attorney Michael Sylvester filed an appeal at the Founding Freedoms Law Center on February 13th that led to their second hearing. The appeals team confirmed the original ruling, and their decision is final.
“This sum is punished by a religious realtor for expressing his faith-based opinions on important moral issues,” Sylvester told DCNF.
Var considers Fauber a “discriminator” and according to the Freedom of Establishment Act Centre, he was sometimes “ordered” to “receive multiple re-education programs.” press release.
NAR “coolly refused” to provide a comment to DCNF, and VAR did not respond to DCNF’s request for comment.
“I’m told by my trade organization that I can’t talk about what it’s wrong and I can’t. And I’m fighting,” Fauber said. “I’m fighting, and I’ll continue to fight,” Fauber added that he is willing to take the case back to the Supreme Court.
They will not stop fighting for the protection of freedom of speech. This includes the freedom to preach and teach the Bible. pic.twitter.com/jlburb9wxc
– Wilson L. Fauber (@wilsonfauber) February 22, 2025
“They discovered they committed the crime of hate speech to me. That’s wrong. I didn’t discriminate against anyone, and I did not commit the crime of hate speech,” Fauber continued. “I don’t point my words or the Bible to the individual.”
Fauber argued that the opposition was true. “I’m a Bible-believing Christian, so hatred is directed at me,” Fauber added. “I continue to assert that the Bible believes from cover to cover.” (Related: Tyler: Persecuted American Pastors Fight for Freedom)
Association It is the largest trade in the United States and has 1.5 million real estate agents.
NAR has the power to effectively end his brokerage career with a fine of between $5,000 and $15,000, but details of the ruling’s outcome have not yet been released. Fauber could lose his membership to NAR, VAR, and his local association of Realtors. The expulsion from the NAR means Fauber loses access to Multiple Listing Services (MLS), a key communication and listing tool for people in the real estate industry.
Although NAR is not a government agency, you can argue that Fauber is not worthy of a government license.
According to Robhaan, a managing partner at a real estate consulting firm and a well-known real estate blogger for 15 years, committing a crime of ethics is just as serious as embezzlement of a real estate business.
Hahn confirmed with people in the real estate business about the need for MLS. “MLS is like LexisNexis for lawyers,” Hahn told DCNF.
Hahn interviewed many others in the real estate business facing similar “persecution.” “No one has been accused of making an anti-white statement, despite the code of ethics making it clear that you cannot discriminate based on religion.
The employer argued that sections 10-5 did not help protect clients from unequal services, as they already have the protections outlined in the Ethics Code.
New On Notorious Rob: Speech Code and NAR are deprecated. #real estate #freepheech. Posting for four years. If the only thing right is clever, all you need to do is… do it. SOP 10-5 will be discontinued.https://t.co/xyzia8oqn pic.twitter.com/r7he6hezop
– Robert Hearn (@robhahn) November 7, 2024
Hahn platformed Fauber and Arizona real estate agent Chad Devries. Both suffered the results after conservative Christians expressed their biblical worldview on LGBT issues. Both developed feelings outside of work hours on individual social media accounts for certain individuals. Both have served clients in the business for decades and work with gay clients.
“My gay clients are some of my best clients.” I said Hearn from his “Notorious Rob” podcast. DeBreeze also said in an interview that she has two gay children who are married to same-sex members. Someone filed an ethical complaint against him after Devries reposted several memes about LGBT issues on his personal Instagram account. He’s now bring the action The Arizona Association (AAR) and four other real estate agents who have brought 10-5 complaints against him.
“We used to be able to laugh in this country,” continued DeBrees. “Who decides who is right or wrong?”
Devries’ lawyer Ryan Heath told DCNF “Everyone should have the right to speak freely without fear,” and that AAR is “very upset for ideological purposes.”
The AAR did not respond to DCNF’s request for comment.
Hahn has it too Interview Montana real estate agent Brandon Hoover is another pastor who was accused of being “hate speech” for refusing to attend a “children free” food bank event in Missoula because his church does not support the use of LGBT inserts for lunch. read “Pride,” “Love always wins,” “Love is love.” Huber filed a lawsuit against a Missoula real estate agent organization in 2021. This was rejected by a Missoula judge in 2022.
Former Republican Montana Sen. Keith Leisure in 2023 sponsor Senate Bill 243 to allow Christian real estate agents to express their faith freely, according to Daily Montanan.
Another Christian real estate agent and Minnesota Minister Matt Moore left Real estate industry in 2021 on this same issue. “My current broker won’t allow me to continue working under her…if I’m still talking publicly about LGBTQ+ issues,” he told Faithwire.
Georgia Realtor Julie Mauk told DCNF that she also lost support from her broker after accusing some members of the Pride Group of people of saying “everyone in the LGBT community is pedophile.”
Mauck said this all stems from protesting the “sexually explicit” book “Flamer” in July 2023 at a local library that will be placed in the Children’s section. Mothers for freedom activists did not ask that protesters be moved to the adult section and only access to the children given to the children, although they had been removed from the library.
Mauck said that a local Facebook group posted her info and links to report her on Article 10-5 for this, and provided screenshots reviewed by DCNF.
Mauck was convicted at her first ethics hearing, but he appealed to the committee’s findings and won the appeal. Support from Union for FreedomMauck and her lawyer, Jonathan Vogel, are now pleading with the attacks, suing people who tried to “cancel” her, ruining her career as a real estate agent, or otherwise harming her reputation. Litigation. Mauck’s opening brief is March 20th. (Related: Musk-Vance Tag Team will deliver knockout blows to cancel culture and rehire Doge staff)
“We are fully supportive of the NAR Code of Ethics that protects Americans from housing discrimination based on race, color, religion, gender, handicap, family status, national origin, sexual orientation or gender identity,” an official from the LGBTQ+ Real Estate Alliance said in a statement. “because Real estate agent They face publicly when they work to attract clients and work on the best service. We believe that people who publicly discriminate in all aspects of their lives are in violation of Article 10 of the NAR Code of Ethics. ”
Critics of Article 10 also point out that Christian real estate agents don’t feel safe expressing their beliefs, but many associations of real estate agents have freely expressed support for LGBT events. One example is the Charlottesville Area Association (CAAR), which held the Fair Housing Symposium in November 2024, featuring “Drug Show and Fire Side Chat,” sponsored by CAAR’s DEI Committee.
Exclusive: Charlottesville Real Estate Agents Wake Uphttps://t.co/u0vm6101ce
– Rob Schilling (@schillingshow) November 15, 2024
Lee BrownThe longtime real estate agent and author of North Carolina, told DCNF that “NAR needs Doge. Big Time.” Brown was the vice president of advocacy in NAR in 2021, running for first vice president before being “stolen from the vote” for “social media posts considered an attack.”
“I’m a conservative Christian,” she said. “If I were the conservative Christians who kept my mouth closed, they might not have followed those social posts.”
Brown said he teaches the Code of Ethics and declared despite the fact that there are some real-life examples of discriminatory words from real estate agents that led to the amendment to Articles 10-5 in 2020., It then became a “weaponization tool.”
“The current way the language is made up of 10-5 is useless,” Brown said. Critics like Brown and others say the problem is that it’s “wide” and too “wide” and that some real estate agents are targeted for speeches more than others. “It’s a very animal farm.”
Brown said she must maintain her membership in order to continue her business, but she resigned from the NAR board because she didn’t feel she could “effectively serve” an organization that “can treat members as they are being treated.”
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