It’s obvious to all now but the most willfully blind that there is a global assault on Christianity. On the one hand, there is a violent campaign, mostly in Africa and the Middle East, which has been described by a British government report as genocide. On the other, mostly in the West, there is the relentless campaign by aggressive secularists and busy-body corporations to all-but outlaw Christianity in practice.
In Australia, this war on Christianity has come into sharp focus with the Israel Folau case. The public have poured millions of dollars into what is certain to be a long-running court case. His supporters will be encouraged by an almost-identical case in Britain, which has ended in victory for Christians.
Felix Ngole was summarily thrown out of his Master’s course in social work at Sheffield University for social media posts that expressed a standard Biblical view on homosexuality.
The judges in the Court of Appeal have ruled in favour of Felix Ngole and against the university, saying that he should not have been expelled merely for expressing his Christian views. His expulsion was a serious violation of free speech that threatened Christians and others with a bar to employment for expressing what the Bible says about sexual ethics.
The university’s position was as iron-clad as it was disturbing: Christians are forbidden to express orthodox Christian teaching in public.
The university made clear that any expression of disapproval of same-sex marriage and same-sex relations – however mildly expressed – should result in a student like Felix being expelled. The university’s position was that while Felix was entitled to his views, he was not entitled to express them.
While Ngole was specifically barred from social work, the judges’ ruling made clear that no profession was safe, in an age of ubiquitous, suffocating “diversity and inclusion” rules.
“If social workers and social work students must not express such views, then what of art therapists, occupational therapists, paramedics, psychologists, radiographers, speech and language therapists: all professions whose students and practitioners work under the rubric of the same general regulations? What of teachers and student teachers?”
All sorts of professions would be affected.
Worse, the university encouraged exactly the sort of “snitch culture” which was one of the grimmest aspects of totalitarian regimes like communist East Germany. Christians need to keep in mind that anyone, anywhere might be listening and ready to snitch.
The university argued that even expressing Biblical views…in private, [would] risk being reported…
Felix’s Facebook posts were…found following a positive internet search by the anonymous complainant.
In other words, this was not a case of a Bible-basher getting in someone’s ear. Some anonymous sneak deliberately trawled the internet in order to find something to be offended about.
The university’s position was that Felix Ngole lacked “insight” into the effect of his posts. This was ultimately the basis on which he was expelled. In a striking and deliberate use of the same language, the judges in the appeal court said that the university itself can be described as “lacking insight”.
anglican.ink
A similar lack of insight characterises the response of a gay social worker to Ngole’s case. As Christians are grimly aware by now, “diversity, inclusion and tolerance” are a strictly one-way street.
Social workers encounter LGBTQ people in all corners of our profession, be they colleagues or clients…which gay young person would be happy to have an allocated social worker who believes that homosexuality is an abomination?
…if he can’t even muster the empathy to see how those in my position feel, then I don’t see how he can ever be deemed ‘fit to practice’.
socialworktutor
Social workers also encounter Christians in the course of their work. To turn the question around, which Christian young person would be happy to have a social worker who believes that their client is a bigot? How could prospective Christian adopters hope for a fair assessment from a social worker who believes that their religion is intrinsically harmful to children?
To turn his argument back on him, if this gay social worker can’t even muster the empathy to see how Christians feel, how can he be deemed fit to practice?
Social workers, medical professionals, lawyers, teachers and all manner of professions regularly come into contact with people whose lifestyles and beliefs they fundamentally disagree with. Should a doctor agree that a patient’s illegal drug use is okay? Must a lawyer empathise with a rapist? The whole point of being a professional is that you act professionally.
Enforcing rigorous public adherence to authoritarian doctrine is the hallmark of oppressive regimes throughout history. If Christians are not free to publicly profess their beliefs, none of us are.