The decision to fire Atlanta fire chief Kelvin Cochran for violating city employment policies by distributing his self-published book, which included denunciations of homosexuality, to employees has turned into the latest Religious Right persecution story.

Yesterday Erick Erickson of Fox News and RedState compared the LGBT community to the terrorists behind the Charlie Hebdo attack and groups such as the Georgia Baptist Convention, Faith 2 Action and the Faith and Freedom Coalition came out strongly against Atlanta’s mayor.

Fox News commentator Todd Starnes used his daily radio segment today to accuse the gay rights movement of “cultural cleansing” over the incident, suggesting that “Christians need not apply to public sector jobs” in Atlanta.

“Chief Cochran is just the latest victim in the ongoing cultural cleansing of American society,” Starnes said.

Starnes has previously warned of “ethnic cleansing” targeting white students on college campuses and has accused the Obama administration of conducting a “Christian cleansing” in the military when service members were temporarily unable to access a Southern Baptist website after their software filters found malware on the site.

He made a similar cry of “cultural cleansing” on his Facebook page: