30 March 2022
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“But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand.” [Ezekiel 33:6]
“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” [Ephesians 6:12]
Presbyterians Week Headlines
[1] Fallout over LGBTQ Spouses at Calvin University Captures Broader Evangelical Divide
[3] Muslims Kill Evangelist in Uganda
[4] Online Crackdown against Christians in China
Additional Articles of Interest
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[1] Fallout over LGBTQ Spouses at Calvin University Captures Broader Evangelical Divide
By Bob Smietana – 23 March 2022
For years, Calvin University, a leading evangelical school in Grand Rapids, Michigan, has tried to walk a fine line of being welcoming to students who identify as LGBTQ while still enforcing traditional Christian Reformed Church views on sexuality.
The school sponsors a support group for gay students, gave an alumni award to an LGBTQ graduate, and last year saw a gay undergrad elected as student body president.
But after a Calvin professor officiated a wedding last fall for an LGBTQ staffer at a campus-based research center, putting both employees in violation of school policy, school leaders tried to resolve the matter quietly. The Center for Social Research, part of the school since the 1970s, was allowed to spin off and the staffer was able to stay.
+ Wall Watchers, 2514 Plantation Center Drive, Matthews, North Carolina 28105, Contact Page
+ Calvin University, 3201 Burton Southeast, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546, 616-526-6000
+ Christian Reformed Church in North America, 2850 Kalamazoo Avenue Southeast, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49560, 616-241-1691, Fax: 616-224-0803 crcna@crcna.org
Tomorrow, a Christian doctor will challenge a legal judgment which ruled that Christian biblical beliefs on gender are not ‘worthy of respect in a democratic society’ and are ‘incompatible with human dignity.’
Dr Mackereth, 58, an A&E doctor with 28 years’ experience, will challenge the ruling at the Employment Appeal Tribunal in London on March 28 and 29.
The case comes after Boris Johnson last week in parliament said that: “when it comes to distinguishing between a man and a woman, the basic facts of biology remain overwhelmingly important.”
In 2018 Dr Mackereth was sacked as a medical assessor for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) after refusing to identify clients by their chosen gender instead of their biological sex.
In July 2019, supported by the Christian Legal Centre, he took his case to an Employment Tribunal in Birmingham claiming harassment and discrimination based on his Christian beliefs.
Dr Mackereth said during proceedings that he was asked in a conversation by his line manager: “If you have a man six foot tall with a beard who says he wants to be addressed as ‘she’ and ‘Mrs’, would you do that?”
Dr Mackereth, who now works as an NHS emergency doctor, said that in good conscience he could not do this. His contract was subsequently terminated over his refusal.
Genesis 1:27
Dr Mackereth’s lawyers argued in court that the DWP policy of compelling staff to use ‘transgender pronouns’ was a breach of the Equality Act and that the DWP had breached Dr Mackereth’s right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.
His legal team argued that his “conscientious objection to transgenderism” is based on his belief “that it would be irresponsible and dishonest for a health professional to accommodate and/or encourage a patient’s impersonation of the opposite sex”.
Furthermore, they argued that the DWP discriminated against Dr Mackereth because of his Christian beliefs, including: “His belief in the truth of the Bible, and in particular, the truth of Genesis 1:27: “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”
‘Mere opinion’
However, in October 2019, Employment Judge Perry handed down a ruling which said that Dr Mackereth’s belief in Genesis 1:27 was not a belief protected by the Equality Act 2010 and was ‘mere opinion.’
In his ruling, Employment Judge Perry effectively put ‘transgender rights’ ahead of freedom of conscience, and as a consequence authorised employers to compel Christians to use pronouns preferred by customers who believe in gender-fluidity.
It is believed to be the first time in the history of English law that a judge has ruled that free citizens must engage in compelled speech.
The judge ruled that: “belief in Genesis 1:27, lack of belief in transgenderism and conscientious objection to transgenderism in our judgment are incompatible with human dignity and conflict with the fundamental rights of others, specifically here, transgender individuals.”
He continued that “in so far as those beliefs form part of his wider faith, his wider faith also does not satisfy Grainger [the requirement of being worthy of respect in a democratic society, not incompatible with human dignity and not in conflict with the fundamental rights of others].”
By describing the belief as ‘incompatible with human dignity’ he placed the belief on a par with such beliefs as neo-Nazis views.
This means that Christians who hold this Biblical view could be discriminated against, as their view is not protected by the Equality Act.
The ruling stemmed from a legal precedent set in the case of Grainger PLC v Nicholson (2010) which outlined five criteria that would qualify a ‘philosophical belief’ to be protected under the Equality Act.
Judge Perry had ruled that Dr Mackereth’s Biblical beliefs had not met these criteria and were therefore not worthy of protection.
Maya Forstater
However, Dr Mackereth will now appeal this ruling at the Employment Appeal Tribunal, which will follow Maya Forstater’s landmark win in June 2021 at the same legal stage.
Finding in favour of Ms Forstater, Mr Justice Choudhury ruled that the original tribunal had ‘erred in law’ when it judged her belief that sex is assigned at birth as ‘incompatible with human dignity.’
In a two-day hearing, lawyers will now therefore argue that the Forstater ruling has resolved the ‘central issue of law’ raised in Dr Mackereth’s case.
Lawyers will say that the ‘conclusion that Christian religion itself was not a protected characteristic simply cannot be right.’
‘Case affects everyone’
Ahead of the hearing, Dr Mackereth, said: “My case affects everyone, not just me and Bible-believing Christians, but anyone who is concerned by compelled speech and transgender ideology being enforced on the NHS and other public services.
“The judgment from two years ago said to Christians ‘you have to believe in transgender ideology.’ That is totalitarianism. It made out Christianity to be nothing, the Bible to be nothing. That cannot be allowed to stand.
“It is a difficult issue for everyone in the NHS. There has been an explosion of patients identifying as transgender. The ideology to affirm them is enforced in a complex, coercive, and threatening way.
“Everyone in the NHS should be able to say publicly without fear that a person cannot change sex, but instead we are being forced to accept a massive change to our concept of the medical reality of sex, with no scientific basis for that change.
“No doctor, or researcher, or philosopher, can demonstrate or prove that a person can change sex. Without intellectual and moral integrity, medicine cannot function and my 30 years as a doctor are now considered irrelevant compared to the risk that someone else might be offended.
“As Christians we are not trying to be unkind to people in any way. As Christians we are called to love all people with Christian love. But we cannot love people truly when we live and disseminate a lie.
“If we are to tell patients that they need to ‘follow the science’, then we must not tell them that they can change sex.”
Ruling cannot stand
Andrea Williams, Chief Executive of the Christian Legal Centre, said: “This was an astonishing judgment and one that if upheld will have seismic consequences not just for the NHS and for Christians, but anyone in the workplace who is prepared to believe and say that we are created male and female.
“The teaching of Genesis 1:27 is repeated throughout the Bible, including by Jesus Christ himself. It is fundamental to establishing the dignity of every human person but is, in a bizarre ironic twist, being branded as incompatible with that dignity.
“No protection is given to beliefs ‘incompatible with human dignity’ and ‘not worthy of respect in a democratic society’. In the past this definition has only applied to the most extreme beliefs, such as those of Holocaust deniers, neo-Nazis, and similar. It was and still is shocking that a judge should put the belief in the Bible in the same category.
“This ruling cannot stand. We are determined to fight as far as possible for justice and for it to be overturned.”
+ Christian Concern, 70 Wimpole Street, London W1G 8AX, England, 020 7935 1488, Contact Page
[3] Muslims Kill Evangelist in Uganda
The following is excerpted from “Hardline Muslims,” Morning Star News, Mar. 8, 2022: “Hardline Muslims who grew furious at the preaching of a speaker at an open-air evangelistic event last week in eastern Uganda beat
him to death and burned his body, sources said. John Michael Okero was quoting verses from the Koran about Christ on Feb. 28 in Kadungulu village, Serere District when a Muslim identified only as Shakuuru grabbed the microphone from him. He and other Muslims started beating Okero as they accused him of blaspheming Allah by saying that he has a Son, misinterpreting the Koran, touching the Koran without ritual cleansing … They beat him to death with iron bars, stones and sticks and later burned his body to a chant in the Ateso language referring to a thief who steals people from one religion to join a bad religion, the source said. Okero was forty-three. Police were called but arrived after the assailants had fled, the source said. … The assault was the latest of many instances of persecution of Christians in Uganda that Morning Star News has documented.”
+ Way of Life Literature, Post Office Box 610368, Port Huron, Michigan 48061, 519-652-2619, fbns@wayoflife.org
[4] Online Crackdown against Christians in China
The following is excerpted from Morning Star News, Feb. 14, 2022: Unregistered house churches that have relied on online gatherings and teaching to survive the COVID-19 pandemic and persecution will have that option taken away under draconian measures taking effect on March 1, sources said. Churches, seminaries, and other ministries have been shaken by the government announcement on Dec. 20 that all religious information on the internet will be forbidden unless organizations obtain government permission–an option not open to unregistered house churches. Only the five government-approved religious organizations may apply for such
permission: The Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM, representing officially-approved Protestant churches), the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association and the officially recognized organizations of Buddhism, Islam and Taoism. … Starting March 1, all information relating to religion on all social media platforms and independent media must have authorization from the government, China Aid stated. If any religious content on the internet–all words, images and videos–are not approved by authorities, internet service providers in conjunction with religion departments and public security departments are to stop their internet service, according to the group. ‘If an individual or organization posts religious events without permission or the official license, they will be categorized as people with no social credit score,’ China Aid noted. Huang wrote that the measures were issued by a department of the State Council and contravene laws of higher bodies such as the National People’s Congress. … The measures require an ‘Internet Religious Information Service License,’ that can be obtained only by organizations belonging to the five authorized religions, according to Bitter Winter. Th e officially recognized organizations are subject to surveillance and limitations, it noted.”
+ Way of Life Literature, Post Office Box 610368, Port Huron, Michigan 48061, 519-652-2619, fbns@wayoflife.org
Additional Articles of Interest
– Biden Budget Doubles Down on Forcing Taxpayer Funding of Abortions in US and Abroad
– FDA Hammered for Bypassing Expert Panel to Approve FOURTH COVID-19 Booster Shot
– Election Watchdog Finds 137,500 Ballots Unlawfully Trafficked in Wisconsin
– Abortion Tourism and Infanticide Are Now California Attractions
– mRNA Vaccines Put You at Risk for Acute Coronary Syndrome
– Heart Issues Detected Months After COVID-19 Vaccination: Study
– Gas Rationing, Food Vouchers and Hunger Are Now Being Normalized for the War Phase of the Plandemic
– Heart Issues Detected Months After COVID-19 Vaccination: Study
– US Not Prepared: Ukraine, Russia, More Dangerous than Cuban Missile Crisis
– The U.S. Has Killed More Than 20 Million People in Thirty-Seven “Victim Nations” Since World War II
– University of Washington Caught Storing Bags of Aborted Babies and Aborted Baby Parts
– How the Criminal Food and Drug Administration Protects Big Pharma by Controlling the Media
– Local, National Media Paid Millions to Push COVID-19 Vaccines
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