Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran spent his life answering the call, and [Tuesday], hundreds of Georgians returned the favor. The city’s 34-year squad veteran was inspired by the show of support at the Atlanta Capitol [Tuesday], where people from all backgrounds, ethnicities, and political parties stood alongside Cochran in protest of his outrageous firing. Like the sportscasters, educators, athletes, small businesses, wedding vendors, firefighters, and others who dare to think outside the far-Left box, Cochran was a victim of the same intolerance his Mayor claims to oppose.

The former Obama appointee, who had a long and distinguished record, finally had the opportunity to tell his side of the story at Tuesday’s rally. And, like so many before him, nothing but fierce hostility toward Christianity was at its heart. To a room full of reporters, Cochran made it clear: “I was fired for having the audacity to believe that sex was created for procreation and should be in the bonds of holy matrimony between and a man and woman.”

Ironically, the Mayor’s office, which flatly denies that this has anything to do with Kelvin’s religious views, was in the back of the room, busily handing out copies of the unbelievably hypocritical New York Times editorial that insists the exact opposite! So which is it? It’s pretty audacious of his staff to be handing out the Times piece while maintaining their line about “protocol violations.” As so often is the case when the public actually finds out what is really behind the so-called “equality,” the Left has gone into complete damage control – desperately trying to paint this as a single employment decision, when dozens of bakers, photographers, and businessmen know that it’s anything but.

Bishop Paul Morton, one of the several black pastors on hand, warned the city, “We cannot allow this country – we cannot allow Atlanta – to become a communist country. The devil is slick y'all. The devil is slick. If they can stop us from talking about the Bible, then the next step is they’ll take our Bible. And if they take our Bible, and hear you still talking about the Bible then they’ll try to penalize us. But I’m here to tell you, oh no, we’re not going out this way.”

It all makes for a very interesting backdrop to the state’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) debate, which would stop the government from trampling a person’s religious liberty, unless it can prove a “compelling interest” in doing so. “One thing we should not have to sacrifice,” Kelvin said, “are the freedoms inherent in our great nation: free speech and freedom of religion.” Cochran’s case, and those of countless other victims across the country, ought to give the RFRA push a boost. Especially when liberals like Rabbi Peter Berg are running around arguing, “There is absolutely no evidence our religious rights are currently being circumvented.”

Kelvin Cochran is that evidence. And people from all walks of life realize it. As Christians coming from different communities, we may not always agree ideologically – but we do agree that our faith and Scripture should guide us. It’s this common ground that will allow for real reconciliation and revolution in this country. At the end of the day, what unites is the basic understanding that our values are indivisible from anything we do, including work. So if we’re going to terminate something, how about intolerance?

House of Pain…Capable Defenders

Leaders across the country have passed more than 200 pro-life laws since 2010 – and House Republicans are hoping to make it more! In the first few days of GOP control, members are putting their priorities front and center – including a ban on abortions after five months. The bill, sponsored by our good friends Reps. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), is almost identical to what the House passed last year: the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.

“More than 18,000 ‘very late term’ abortions are performed every year on perfectly healthy unborn babies in America,” Franks said. “These are innocent and defenseless children who can not only feel pain, but who can survive outside the womb in most cases, and who are torturously killed without even basic anesthesia.” It would also help stop so-called doctors, like the now imprisoned Dr. Kermit Gosnell, who are willing to allow babies be born alive to more easily kill them if the abortion doesn’t work.

Not surprisingly, liberals (the same ones who made abortion funding one of their first goals in power), are slamming conservatives for running with the mandate voters gave them in November. Together with Franks’s bill, the House and Senate are moving ahead with five measures to protect – not just women’s health – but innocent children’s. You can help them by calling your congressman and asking him or her to support the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act! Click here to take action.

Follow the Lee-der…

With a new majority in Congress, conservatives finally have the reinforcements they need to make real changes in this country. And as far as Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) is concerned, one of those changes should be the return to the values that make this country great: faith, family, and freedom.

At a policy summit in D.C. [Tuesday], the conservative leader from Utah laid down some priorities of his own for Republicans, including an emphasis on the culture’s greatest asset. “The family is the first and most important institution of our society and it also serves as the foundation of American exceptionalism,” Senator Lee said. “Regardless of what you think the ideal family structure is, or whether you think there is a single ideal family structure at all, our family is where we learn the very first and the very deepest lessons that inform our behavior and shape our personalities for the rest of our lives.”

In a refreshing return to the roots of the GOP, the Senator made it clear that if “the conservative movement and the new majority truly want to be pro-growth and pro-opportunity, our agenda must first and foremost be pro-family in every sense of the word – and not just on some issues, but all of them.”

In a show of leadership that conservatives been waiting for, Lee challenged his colleagues that “everything we do in Congress ought to be informed by the struggles and opportunities, the challenges and aspirations of today’s working American families.” It’s only been two weeks, but if Senator Lee’s talk is any indication, we like the sound of this new Congress!

This is a publication of the Family Research Council. Mr. Perkins is president of FRC.