In June 2018, British Dr. David Mackereth was fired as a medical assessor for Great Britain’s Department for Work and Pensions for refusing to renounce his belief that gender is determined at birth. Now a British employment tribunal has ruled that Mackereth’s conscientious objection to transgenderism is “incompatible with human dignity and conflict[s] with the fundamental rights of others, specifically here, transgender individuals.”
In Britain, according to this decision, belief in the Bible’s tenets of man and woman combined with a lack of belief in transgenderism are now grounds for discipline, including loss of employment. The decision will be appealed, notwithstanding; this is a dangerous precedent for mankind.
According to news reports, Mackereth, a Reformed Baptist, father of four, who registered as a doctor in 1989 and spent most of his career working in Accident & Emergency wards, said: “I’m not attacking the transgender movement. But I’m defending my right to freedom of speech, and freedom of belief… But, if upsetting someone can lead to doctors being sacked, then, as a society, we have to examine where we are going.”
When Mackereth’s instructor stated that reports must only refer to the patient by the sex that person identified themselves as, a discussion took place among the medics about the “fluid” nature of gender. Mackereth explains: “I believe that gender is defined by biology and genetics. And that, as a Christian, the Bible teaches us that God made humans male or female.”
The government tribunal’s decision stated that while it does “accept that Christianity is a protected characteristic, they do not accept that is so where Dr Mackereth goes further in seeking to define the beliefs he relays at [ET1/5] as a protected characteristic. The respondents argue that at the heart of those beliefs is intolerance towards transgender people, and that a refusal to respect the dignity of transgender people and their preferred form of address is incompatible with human dignity and conflicts with the fundamental rights of others.”
Mackereth had refused to address transgenders by the pronoun of the sex they had chosen because of his Biblical beliefs and scientific teachings.
The British government tribunal, however, said that irrespective of Mackereth’s beliefs, the government policy was to address transgenders in the manner they request. Mackereth refused, and was fired. The court upheld the firing. The overriding issue, however, is not about getting fired for refusing to honor policy. The tribunal recognized that Mackereth had protective rights as a Christian, but ruled that Judeo-Christian belief is against human dignity.
This is the genesis of persecution. It is also where this entire gender movement is headed—a conflict between religion and “protected” classes of people. And you see who is favored.
There will come a time when Christians will have an Acts 5:29 moment, “Then Peter and the Apostles answered and said, ‘We ought to obey God rather than men.’”