The Faith and Freedom Coalition, the Duluth-based grassroots conservative group launched by former Christian Coalition head Ralph Reed, is urging its members to bombard Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed on the topic of fire chief Kelvin Cochran.
for calling homosexuality a "perversion" in a self-published book, Cochran is
of the "religious liberty" fight in the Gold Dome. Foes, including many in Atlanta's big business community, say the proposed bills could tar Georgia as unfriendly to gays.
From Faith and Freedom's "action alert" email:
"Chief Cochran's view is as popular now as it was over two-thousand years ago when Jesus said it. Sexual relationships outside of marriage are ultimately unfulfilling, whether with members of the opposite or same sex, with a single or multiple partners. The Atlanta mayor and city council's discipline of Chief Cochran is as shallow as their apparent reading of his book. He has as much right to speak and write about his beliefs as any Atlanta politician does. In Chief Cochran's distinguished career, he has led complex fire departments across the country, which is why Atlanta's former mayor hired Chief Cochran to run Atlanta's fire department and why President Obama appointed him to lead the U.S. Fire Administration a few years ago. The mayor and city council need to wash their hands of this and let Chief Cochran get back to doing his job."
Contact Mayor Kasim Reed and urge him to lift the suspension and to stop infringing on religious freedom!
Cochran mounted his own defense at the Georgia Baptist Convention on Dec. 9. Project Q got hold of the audio of Gerald Harris, editor of a conservative blog called the Christian Index, introducing him at the event. It was later published as an editorial, posted below:
he did not want to appear to use his position in an untoward way. However on page 82 of Cochran's book he wrote that uncleanness "is opposite of purity; including sodomy, homosexuality, lesbianism, pederasty, bestiality, and all other forms of sexual perversion."
Those words, which are consistent with the teaching of the Bible, are the words that prompted Cochran's suspension. But this issue is bigger than the impact it has had on Kelvin Cochran. It impacts every Baptist and every person of faith in Georgia and in the nation.
I realize that our churches are open and our religious institutions continue to function and everything on the religious front may look copacetic. But when you begin to look beneath the surface, acknowledge the threats and analyze them, you begin to realize that our religious liberty is under an organized and concentrated assault.
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Tucked amid a flurry of judicial appointments by Gov. Nathan Deal this month was a particularly momentous one: The appointment of Dallas attorney Dean Bucci to the Paulding Judicial Circuit bench.
The Georgia Republican Party says Bucci is the first Hispanic Superior Court judge in Georgia.
"Well-qualified, competent, and community-focused, Dean Bucci's appointment to the Superior Court sends a clear message to minority communities throughout Georgia that Governor Deal is working to give all Georgians a voice within state government," said Leo Smith, Minority Engagement Director for the state GOP.
You can find his bio here.
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A sign that full Obamacare could crack the Deep South? Next door in Alabama, Gov. Robert Bentley said he might seek a federal block grant to expand Medicaid. From the Montgomery Advertiser:
"A block grant has no strings attached," the governor said. "They give you the money and allow you as a state to design a program."
The governor brought up the idea while speaking to legislators last week.
Bentley said it would be a plan designed to cover people earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty limit.
That's the income level that would be covered by expanding Medicaid under the ACA, also called Obamacare.
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Georgia lawmakers adopted a plan last year to attract more investment dollars for local startup companies. And until now, it's lacked a pretty important component: A way to spend the money.
We're told the Invest Georgia Fund finally has its full complement of five board members, and that they met for the first time last week. The meeting will help clear the way for a one-time $10 million initial investment set aside by the University System of Georgia for the fund.
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The Obama administration's overtures to Cuba have produced the first big foreign policy spat of the 2016 Republican presidential primary.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Ted Cruz, R-Texas -- the latter two both Cuban Americans -- strongly opposed normalizing relations with our island neighbor. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., disagreed, siding with Democrats Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton. From NBC News:
"If the goal is regime change, it sure doesn't seem to be working and probably it punishes the people more than the regime because the regime can blame the embargo for hardship," he said.
How will all this play among GOP primary voters in Georgia? Mary Zack, the Cumming-based consultant who helped guide winning Georgia primary campaigns for Mike Huckabee and Newt Gingrich, told us Thursday that the folks in her circles are uneasy about Paul. Zack is a big Cruz booster:
"There is not a single conservative who feels comfortable -- that I've talked to -- about Rand Paul's foreign policy. ... He is making comments that are so bizarre and anti-Republican principles that he has lost a lot of ground. And the great news for us is Senator Cruz was very successful in not needing a whole lot of money to win the day [in his Senate bid]."
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As the state legislature's medical marijuana debate kicks into high gear, a new poll -- first obtained by our AJC colleague Aaron Gould Sheinin -- is sure to be in every legislator's inbox. From Sheinin's story for premium subscribers:
- 80 percent of Georgians support legalization of marijuana for medical purposes, even if the drug includes higher levels of THC, the ingredient in marijuana that produces a high.
- 27 percent support full legalization of marijuana for recreational use.
- 17 percent oppose any legalization of marijuana.
- 85 percent support legalization of marijuana if the medication "would not get a person high."
The poll was paid for by Surterra Holdings, an Atlanta investment firm interested in the business possibilities of medical marijuana.
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