Anti Gay Fire Chief thinks he is Jesus

[East]

EEK....once again.....

Jesus, Job & … Kelvin?

Fired Antigay Fire Chief Revels in ‘God-Induced Suffering’

The former Atlanta fire chief, fired after penning an anti-gay book, delievered a sermon comparing himself to biblical figures such as Job, Daniel and Jesus.

http://www.advocate.com/politics/religio...-suffering

Why this is interesting for me...in the early 80s I wrote a letter to the San Jose Police Chief that was published!!!!! challenging him on his statement that he wouldn't hire gay men because he "didn't want them to show up dressed in pink"...and other colorful sentiments....

He was a black man as well...and I pointed out the similarity in the struggles for equality under the law at the time.....

He kept his job of course...there wasn't much of a concerted effort at the time to challenge this stuff so pretty much I was on my own ...but I know the value of one voice so I didn't care....

So my question...should public figures whose salaries are payed by the taxpayer be held to a higher standard? If it was a racist white man...he would have been fired as well...and I would agree with that....

...and I agree with this guy's firing as well.

[Iceblink]

One of the big misconceptions in the United States is that the 1st Amendment protects you from being fired. That is just not true. You can be fired. Now a government employee does have a little more protection than those of us privately employed, but even that has a lot of limits and one of those limits is if the thing you have said reveals an inability to do your job and as a government employee your job is to serve every citizen without regard to who that person is. I think I read the official reasons for his termination, however was his failure to let the city know he was publishing a book and receiving compensation for it. The requirement to let your employer know of other types of income and employment is a pretty common requirement in employment. He was also distributing religious material to the firefighters and since he was the chief of the fire department and therefore was a representative of the government, it could be seen as an endorsement of a religion since he was not doing it on his own time. I am glad he is gone. A city and its employees does not need to be represented by a bigot. You can also not be an effective leader and boss if there is a perception before an employee has even met you or had to deal with you that you are not going to treat them fairly.