Several hundred people packed the Georgia Capitol’s rotunda Tuesday afternoon in support of former Atlanta Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran, a showing that supporters hoped would boost efforts to pass a “religious liberty” law.
With lawmakers scattered throughout the crowd, representatives of groups including the Georgia Baptist Convention and the national Family Research Council urged proponents to rally against what they framed as a freedom of speech issue. Cochran, recently fired by Mayor Kasim Reed, lost his job over actions he took related to a self-published religious book that many construed as anti-gay.
“I just wanted to come and take a stand for our faith,” said 27-year-old William Powell, one of many in the crowd with red-white-and-blue signs that read: “Standing for our Faith, Religious Freedom, & Freedom of Speech.”
The demonstration came on a day of dueling efforts. Tuesday morning, a coalition of more than 60 clergy from across Georgia announced they opposed efforts to pass religious liberty legislation. Coalition representatives said lawmakers should not invest themselves in controversial or discriminatory legislation.
“There is absolutely no evidence our religious rights are currently being circumvented,” said Rabbi Peter Berg of The Temple synagogue in Atlanta. “The faith community did not ask for this bill and the faith community does not want this bill.”
House Bill 29, sponsored by state Rep. Sam Teasley, R-Marietta, seeks to protect Georgians' religious expression from what he has called government intrusion. He has also said the bill would apply only to government and not businesses. That distinction appears to have appeased Gov. Nathan Deal, who said at a separate event Tuesday morning that it "would probably ameliorate some of the concerns."
Georgia’s powerful business community, however, has already issued a warning over efforts to revive the legislation, which it helped defeat last year after hometown heavyweights Coca-Cola, Delta Air Lines and Home Depot all spoke out against it.
Backers are basing their effort on federal legislation passed by Congress in 1993 and signed by President Bill Clinton. It asserts that government has to show a compelling interest for why its policy should override an individual’s religious freedom. In the years since, 18 states have adopted their own version of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and nearly a dozen others have adopted the same legal standard through court decisions.
But the issue flared here last year in the wake of national attention over lawsuits against businesses who refused to provide goods or services for gay weddings or gay advocacy groups.
Critics say its passage, regardless of Teasley’s intentions, would open the door for private business owners to discriminate against gays and other minorities — by citing religious beliefs — and make the Peach State a national laughingstock and economic pariah.
When the issue sparked up last year in Arizona, Gov. Jan Brewer vetoed similar legislation that had brought widespread condemnation along with the possible loss of this year’s Super Bowl.
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