FRC lies about firing of Atlanta firefighter

• January 9, 2015
• civil liberties  
• religion  
• christianity  
• free speech  
• wingnuttia  

I just received an email with the subject “Stand with the Christian Fire Chief fired for his faith” from Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council (FRC). The first paragraph predictably plays the persecution card:

Religious liberty is dangling by a thread over a raging fire of government intolerance!

Perkins then moves on to an outright lie:

After more than 30 years of distinguished public service as a firefighter, Atlanta’s Fire and Rescue Chief, Kelvin Cochran was fired for his religious beliefs by Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed.

This Washington Times article Also grossly misrepresents the facts of the situation by opening with this sentence:

Atlanta Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran has been fired for authoring a Christian book in 2013 that described homosexuality as a “sexual perversion.”

Mr. Cochran was not fired for writing that book. He was fired because he distributed it to his employees and in other ways made it clear that non-hetero, non-xtians, were not welcome in his department. Thereby creating a hostile work environment. Here we have another example of a Christian who can’t resist proselytizing in inappropriate contexts. Much like “WranglerStar” does in his YouTube videos. Of the xtians who pray out loud on city street corners despite the Bible’s clear admonishment against such behavior.

The only thing that surprised me was the email didn’t include a plea for a donation so the FRC can continue to “protect” us.