By DEXTER DUGGAN
A 20th-century novel whose title was only a number, 1984, written by George Orwell, warned of a future where people themselves were reduced only to numbers, little digits under the oppression of an utterly arbitrary ruler who claimed to know what was best.
Another cautionary 20th-century novel with a number, Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, pictured a future where books were considered so dangerous that people designated as “firemen” were assigned not to extinguish fires but to burn the books, sparing potential readers from having to consider uncomfortable thoughts.
Now that the 21st century has arrived, it appears that the forecasted oppressive future has begun to be realized, too. Ironically, in reality in one such case, a major Georgia fire chief himself was fired for writing a book on his own time that expressed historic, traditional Christian moral views.
What went up in smoke were his decades-long career and his freedom to be an author. Applying the high temperature to reach combustion were champions of “sexual diversity.”
Atlanta Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran had even risen as high as being the nation’s top fire official, nominated in 2009 by new U.S. President Barack Obama and confirmed by the Senate to be U.S. fire administrator.
However, Cochran went back to Atlanta the following year, 2010, after being begged to return to Georgia by the city’s mayor, Kasim Reed. In 2012, Cochran was named Fire Chief of the Year by Fire Chief magazine.
A city of Atlanta news release in 2012 said: “With 31 years of fire-service experience, Chief Cochran served as Atlanta Fire Chief from January 2008 through July 2009 before accepting an appointment from President Barack Obama to serve as U.S. Fire Administrator, where he was charged with overseeing, coordinating, and directing national efforts to prevent fires and improve fire response.
“Chief Cochran returned to Atlanta in May 2010 to join the leadership team of Mayor Kasim Reed’s administration. As fire chief, he directs the operations of a $74 million department with 35 fire stations and nearly 1,000 firefighters providing fire, rescue, and emergency services,” the news release continued, noting “dramatic improvements in response times and staffing” under Cochran’s leadership.
The news release also quoted Reed: “Chief Cochran’s pioneering efforts to improve performance and service within the Atlanta Fire Rescue Department have won him much-deserved national recognition. I applaud Chief Cochran and all of Atlanta’s brave firefighters for the commitment to excellence shown throughout the department.”
That record of achievement became meaningless when the ascendance of political correctness turned its glare on Cochran.
It’s the same sort of witch-hunting that imperils the livelihoods and consciences of other Americans including florist Barronelle Stutzman in Washington state, being threatened with personal and business financial ruin for declining to celebrate “same-sex marriage” against her Christian beliefs.
On February 18 the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) filed a federal lawsuit over Cochran’s termination, following an administrative complaint filed the previous month with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
The ADF, headquartered in Scottsdale, Ariz., defends religious liberty and traditional morality in the United States and with overseas affiliates.
In a statement, ADF said:
“The city and mayor of Atlanta terminated the employment of. . . . Cochran because of his Christian faith and beliefs. . . . Reed first suspended Cochran for 30 days and announced that he would have to complete ‘sensitivity training’ after activists who don’t agree with the fire chief’s Christian views on sex complained about a men’s devotional book Cochran had written on his personal time. Biblical sexual morality is mentioned only briefly in the 162-page book.
“After an investigation that included interviews with employees found Cochran did not discriminate against anyone, the mayor fired him anyway — citing as his basis, ironically, the need to tolerate diverse views,” ADF said.
In an interview with The Wanderer, ADF attorney Jeremy Tedesco cited the First Amendment to the Constitution’s protection of religious liberty and the fact Cochran is being punished for his faith.
Tedesco serves as senior legal counsel for ADF and its Center for Religious Liberty.
He said Cochran was “thrown out on his ear after 34 years of faithful service. . . . He was a consummate professional” who had run several fire departments in different cities.
The city and mayor are “in a really tough position to defend what they’ve done,” Tedesco said, expressing hope that the “court will ultimately rule” in favor of his protected liberty.
After the city investigated “whether he discriminated against LGBT people” — which resulted in “a report that fully exonerates him,” Tedesco said — he was dismissed anyway. “I know that’s just not the way he operates,” the attorney said, adding that Cochran reflects beliefs that are shared by all sorts of people.
The recent invention of unprecedented “same-sex marriage” apparently is regarded as quickly overthrowing all historical validation for traditional marriage.
When The Wanderer remarked upon this rapid change, Tedesco said, “It’s astounding how fast this has occurred” in society, requiring a “radical redefinition of America.”
It’s not simply enough that the change has occurred, he added, “but people must be in agreement with it” or else face penalties.
Another ADF news release said: “Though the city granted Cochran permission to publish a Christian book, the city nonetheless fired him simply for writing, in one chapter of the book, about the Christian principle that sex is reserved exclusively for marriage, the union of one man and one woman.”
Referring to such cases as Cochran’s and florist Stutzman’s, Tedesco said, “All of these cases in different degrees have captivated the country.”
If government can undertake such actions, Tedesco said, “The reality is nothing can stop the government from targeting” someone else for some other belief.
People don’t want a government that dictates what people can think, he said.
As to a timetable for action, Tedesco said the EEOC case, filed in January, may take six to eight months before a result, while the ADF’s federal lawsuit was filed only in February.
A Childhood Dream
An ADF news release quoted Cochran: “To actually lose my childhood-dream-come-true profession — where all of my expectations have been greatly exceeded — because of my faith is staggering….All Americans are guaranteed the freedom to hold to their beliefs without the consequences that I have experienced.”
In his EEOC complaint, citing the violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as amended, Cochran said that on November 24, 2014, he was informed by the Atlanta commissioner of the Department of Human Resources, the mayor’s chief of staff, and a member of the city attorney’s office that he was being suspended without pay for violating “unspecified policies of the City of Atlanta.”
Upon return from his suspension on January 6, Cochran said in his EEOC complaint, he was informed “the investigation revealed zero instances of discrimination by me against any other employee of the city. I was also informed that, despite having obtained authorization by the city’s ethics department to publish the book, that city policy required the mayor’s personal approval before publication.
“I was informed that all city employees interviewed in the investigation were asked if my faith influenced my leadership style. All employees responded that it did. I was informed that since my faith influenced my leadership style, as well as other issues concerning my book, I was given a choice to resign or be terminated,” he said.
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