Nearly 40,000 people have signed  a petition  backing a Christian pastor who is resisting demands to hand over his sermons to the state.

Walsh, a lay pastor who takes a traditional Biblical line on issues such as sexuality, was fired in 2014 from his job as a health administrator by the Georgia Department of Public Health. Officials had watched some of his sermons on YouTube.

Walsh, of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, was then ordered to hand over all his sermons, his sermon notes and his Bible and any other relevant documents going back to when he was just 18 years old to the state in a move criticised as an "unjust assault on people of faith."

He has continued to refuse to do so. 

The Family Research Council petition backing Dr Walsh says: "I stand with Dr Eric Walsh's freedom to believe and live according to his deeply-held beliefs.

"The demand that he hand over his sermons, sermon notes, and all pastoral documents including his Bible represents a government intrusion into the sanctity of the church, pastor's study, and pulpit.

"Heavy-handed tactics like this have the effect of intimidating and silencing people of faith everywhere. Such targeting of the pulpit by the government is unconscionable, and I urge you to use all means of your authority to correct this egregious overreach of the state into church affairs."

Walsh, who is being supported by First Liberty Institute, is suing for religious discrimination.

His lawyer, Jeremy Dys of First Liberty, told CBN: "It is illegal for an employer to consider an employee's religion in making their hiring and firing decisions.

"No one in this country, including Dr Walsh, should be fired for something they said in the pulpit.

"The pulpit is a sacred space...for them to intrude upon that sacred space is a gross violation of the Consititution and religious liberty in general."

Walsh himself told CBN: "My mom was a single mother and what got us through was our faith. What I learned at church taught me the value of getting an education and led me to want to serve those in need. That's why I became a doctor and I've held onto those beliefs ever since."

He added: "I couldn't believe they fired me because of things I talked about in my sermons. It was devastating. I have been unable to get a job in public health since then. By reviewing my sermons and firing me because of my religious beliefs, the State of Georgia destroyed my career in public service."

LGBT groups had protested when Walsh, who had been an advisor on HIV/Aids to President Barack Obama, was offered the job in 2014 running a district of the health department in Georgia. They were concerned that he was opposed to homosexuality.

The offer was then rescinded and Dr Walsh was also placed on administrative leave from his job as Pasadena public health director, so that officials could look into his sermons in which he described homosexuality as sinful and also criticised evolution, Islam and Catholicism, according to the Daily Caller. He then resigned from that job.

In a statement at the time, a Georgia health department spokesman said the background checks led to the job offer being retracted.