(Queensland, Australia) — It is said that there are generally three steps required in order to give momentum to cultural revolution. The first is the acceptance of an ideology which gains ascendency over previously held logic. The second is the recruitment of individuals who are committed to the acceptance and defense of that ideology. Finally, to ensure that the ideology is not met with sufficient resistance to bring about its demise, you have to ensure that opposing voices are silenced.
There is a case currently before the Victorian Civil and Administrative Appeals Tribunal which has significant ramifications for the free speech of medical practitioners in Australia. In fact, to underscore the importance of the case, Senior Barrister Stephen Moloney said: “This is probably one of the most important cases that has ever been put to the Tribunal in the last 30 years. It goes to the democratic right of any practitioner in the State of Victoria to speak about matters of conscience, religion and medical practice in the public square.”
So, who and what is at the centre of this case? Well, an Australian doctor, who also happens to be a Christian, kicked the sacred cow of the left and because he had the audacity to do it in the public square, the left has sought to destroy his career because of it. Dr Jereth Kok was suspended indefinitely in 2019 for the “crime” of sharing a Biblical worldview online. To justify their position to prosecute him, Dr Kok describes how the Medical Board of Victoria trawled through thousands of comments he made on social media regarding the COVID-19 shot, transgenderism, abortion and the LGBT agenda. However, in giving evidence, Dr Kok argued that he should have the freedom to speak publicly on issues that are important to him, and rejected the assertion that his posts might undermine confidence in the health profession.
Considering it has taken five years to reach this point, Dr Kok, his family and legal team are rightfully bewildered at the length of the suspension. When pressed about the delay, the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) said that “the length of the suspension will vary dependent on the individual circumstances of the matter.” In other words, the process is the punishment. Most no or low risk cases are closed within 90 days! However, where AHPRA deems that the practitioner’s ongoing involvement in the health industry would cause risk to patients, not only do they hold the power to suspend them indefinitely, they also hold the power to refer the complaint to a tribunal. It is the tribunal which then decides whether or not to cancel the practitioner’s registration. AHPRA does not allege that Dr Kok has done harm to any patient in his clinical practice, but clearly deems his Biblical worldview a danger to those he treats.
As Dr Kok’s barrister rightly pointed out, “This is not a case about whether Dr Kok has practised medicine safely or effectively. This case is about whether what Dr Kok said in the public square can be sanctioned by the regulator.” Dr Kok, when asked what he is drawing from the experience, was more forthright when he said, “That there is no free speech in this country, we are under 24/7 surveillance, and career destruction is on the table if you attack sacred cows like transgender ideology!”
George Orwell is credited with saying, “The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those who speak it.” Satan uses certain strategies when it comes to how he attacks truth. Most notably, he perverts it, he inverts it and he distorts it. Distortion, in both its defined form and the context here, involves the alteration of the natural, normal or original shape of something. His goal is to distort anything that points to God. Therefore, the distortion of the Imago Dei is one of the tools he uses. According to the enemy’s logic: we are not created, we evolved; a fetus is not a human being, it is a clump of cells; you are not born male or female, you can choose your gender.
Today, the propaganda of government and left-leaning media conglomerates is distorting the truth and silencing those who speak it. They don’t want people to see the obvious because the obvious completely destroys their ideological agenda. Instead, they force citizens into an irrational herd mentality where everybody is instructed to accept a reality that is distorted to suit the prevailing ideology. As a result, many truthtellers are surveilled, persecuted, prosecuted and silenced so as not to awaken the masses to the agenda of those who have reordered society, its accepted language and its worldview.
Our current culture continues to reject civil discourse, rational discussions and honest evaluations about the ideologies it is forcing upon its citizens. We are told that we must uncritically accept the contemporary dictum or run foul of governing authorities and their significant legal power. As David Horowitz said in Dark Agenda, “The left…has no conscience or restraint when it comes to destroying people who stand in its way.” Yet, stand we must.
An exhortation from 1 Corinthians 16:13-14 is appropriate to end: “Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong. Let all that you do be done with love.“
