What do you think the punishment should be for a doctor
to share Spectator articles online? Maybe a public flogging, followed by
putting the perpetrator in stocks and pillory for 24 hours in the town square?
What about the old tar and feather treatment? This is a ridiculous question isn’t
it, and even more ridiculous suggestions. In fact, why would someone even
conceive of this question in our modern world? Well, the answer is simple,
because while we may have done away with the stocks and the pillory, and the
tar and feathering for thought crimes, we have revived the old spirit of
punishment for those who speak different to the expected fashion. Dr Jereth Kok
has been suspended from practicing as a doctor because of speech and thought
crimes, and among his crimes is sharing Spectator posts.
Dr Kok is a medical doctor who lives in Victoria,
Australia. He is an upstanding member of the Australian community, and he is
also a dedicated man of faith with strong principles that are guided by his
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Even though Dr Kok, is a well-respected and
competent medical professional with 15 years’ experience, he was suspended by
the Victorian Medical Board in 2019 after being targeted by an anonymous
complainant.[1]
What was he reported for doing? Well, it was certainly not medical malpractice.
As we said, Dr Kok is an upstanding and principled member of his community, and
he has never received a single complaint from any of his thousands of patients
he had treated during his career.[2] His indiscretion was to
share his informed - both medically and scripturally mind you - opinion on some
of the more radical medical situations in our society on his private social
media page where he speaks as a citizen of Australia. These are not things
which impinge on his ability to do his job, at all. Yet, the Medical Board
pursued selective complaints about Jereth’s social media posts discussing his
personal beliefs on religious and political matters like abortion, marriage,
Covid lockdowns and transgender ideology.[3]
Among his indiscretions was his promotion and commentary
on articles shared by the Spectator in recent years that have been challenging the
radical gender ideology that has been rapidly marching across our society. These
articles have been used as evidence against him in a conduct inquiry that is
ongoing. Among these articles is a 2020 article for the Spectator written by
Leah Gray[4] in which she discusses how
in Victoria the government, at least in 2020, was happy to help people into the
LGBT community, but not help them out of if they so choose.
Figure 1: Dr Kok sharing
Leah Gray article.As Dr Jereth says in his commentary,
“I can’t think of many
things more cruel than denying help to people suffering from unwanted passions,
sexual brokenness, or a confused sense of self. Making it impossible for them
to enlist the support of a pastor or other trained professional as they seek
after wholeness of being, and righteousness of conduct.
What a disastrous irony that
so-called “progressive liberals” would trample on people’s right to self
determination.”
Precisely what crime has Dr Jereth committed by sharing a
deeply held belief among the majority of Australian Christians, that a person
struggling with gender identity issues should be free to seek the counsel of a
trusted pastor, Christian friend, church elder, or someone else, and not fear
that they are putting that person in any legal jeopardy?
The other article that has been used against him as
evidence is a 2020 article on the transgender minefield that many young people
face in this modern world. This article was written by the notable and also incredibly
principled Moira Deeming[5], who herself in recent
years, has also come under pressure for ‘wrong think’ in Victoria.
Figure 2: Dr Kok Sharing
Moira Deeming’s article.In sharing these articles, Dr Kok was exercising his
democratic right as both a Victorian, and an Australian (yes those two things
overlap, even if we northerners joke sometimes that they don’t) to speak his
mind on issues of both social and political importance. I need to again stress
that Dr Kok shared his opinion as a principled evangelical Christian, and his
views sit well within the mainstream of Christian thought in Australia. So, he
did not step outside his bounds as a citizen, or as a Christian, and yet the
medical board is seeking to punish him. One would think with the crisis we have
in the shortage of doctors and hospital beds in Australia that the medical
board would not be seeking to investigate a doctor for his political or
religious views. But here we are in modern Au-STASI-a, with a well-respected
doctor being barred from doing his job for 5 years because of thought crimes.
It is not just Spectator articles that have been
listed as evidence for Dr Kok’s thought crimes. He has also been questioned for
sharing articles from The Babylon Bee, a noted satire website based in
the United States. Commentary by people like Mark Latham, Matt Walsh, Allie
Stuckey and other noted commentators. And an article from Caldron Pool,
a right of centre commentary site based in Australia. In fact, one of the
articles used against him is an article written by myself, and three other
Baptist ministers[6],
during the crazy times we now call the Covid Years, about why Christian leaders
should be doing more to fight for the conscience of their people.
Figure 3: Dr Kok sharing a
Caldron Pool article.In commenting on this article, Dr Kok says in part,
“No believer in Jesus Christ
must ever be coerced or compelled to act without faith, and therefore sin…Every
Christian, and especially those who are called to be pastors and elders, must
commit themselves to fight for liberty of conscience. A church which has little
regard for conscience is a dead church.”
Of course, at the time Dr Kok was speaking to the issue
of mandated vaccine and the social segregation that accompanied it. But his
application of his faith and the principle of liberty of conscience goes far
beyond just that situation and extends to every aspect of his life and belief. This
also happens to be a right and privilege of being an Australian. Dr Kok lives
in Victoria, so this legalisation below does not apply precisely to him in the
same way, but the Queensland Human Rights Act of 2019 states,
“(1) Every person has the
right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion and belief, including— (a)
the freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of the person’s choice;
and (b) the freedom to demonstrate the person’s religion or belief in worship,
observance, practice and teaching, either individually or as part of a
community, in public or in private. (2) A person must not be coerced or
restrained in a way that limits the person’s freedom to have or adopt a
religion or belief.”[7]
This is the law in Queensland, showing that the ideas
that Dr Kok is expressing are not just mainstream Christian ideas, they are
mainstream Australian ideas as well. The Spectator has done a lot of great work
seeking to defend these rights over the years, along with many other great
Australian institutions, and it is beyond a travesty that sharing articles from
this institution, or other similar commentary sites, should be used as evidence
of misconduct in an inquiry against a principled Australian doctor. Being a
vocal outspoken Christian and a doctor should not be a contradiction in terms,
yet this very thing might become the case if the Medical Board of Australia
succeeds in its prosecution of Dr Kok.
Remember also that Dr Kok is not just fighting for
himself in this case. He is fighting for the right for other health
professionals to express their deeply held religious beliefs publicly, and also
their political views, something all Australians should have protections to do.
I asked Dr Kok what it was like to face this trial and he said it “is very
surreal, and unsettling, to be hauled over the coals for stating things that
derive directly from my Christian beliefs.” He has had to cope with
“unemployment, surviving on Centrelink payments and great uncertainty about the
future,” and he has had to retrain in a completely different field to seek to
provide for his family. Remember also that he has been torn away from patients with
whom he has built a professional relationship with over the years, which is
deeply painful for him. And consider the anxiety that this has caused for his
patients who had their doctor taken from them. Don’t we need such a man in his
role looking after his patients?
Defending yourself in this country from such things is very expensive, and Dr Kok has a great team of lawyers around him who are avidly fighting for his right to be reinstated. But he is in need of more funds to really fight this case to the end. As you now know Dr Kok has not been able to work as a doctor since 2019, and his family’s income has taken a serious hit because of this, and even still such a case is long, drawn out and very expensive. Already with generous donations over $231,190 has been raised, but his legal team has determined that they need up to $330,000 to run a strong defense. This is not a voluntary lawsuit for Dr Kok, he is being forced to defend himself and he needs financial help to have this done as best as it possibly can. As anyone who has ever been to such a trial, or ever watched The Castle and any number of other good legal shows, knows, good legal representation is very expensive. If you are able, could you please consider donating to Dr Kok’s GiveSendGo campaign[8] to help him fight this injustice.
List of References
[2]
Ibid.
[3]
Ibid.
[4]
Leah Gray, 2020, Victoria offers all the help in the world to enter LGBT
life, but wants to ban receiving help to leave it, https://www.spectator.com.au/2020/11/victoria-offers-all-the-help-in-the-world-to-enter-lgbt-life-but-wants-to-ban-receiving-help-to-leave-it/
[5]
Moira Deeming, 2020, The cultural juggernaut of transgender ideology: not kids’
stuff, https://www.spectator.com.au/2020/08/the-cultural-juggernaut-of-transgender-ideology-not-kids-stuff/
[6]
Bodrdoni, et al, 2021, Christian Leaders, Fight for the Conscience of Your
People: Vaccine Mandates and Letters of Exemption, https://caldronpool.com/christian-leaders-fight-for-the-conscience-of-your-people-vaccine-mandates-and-letters-of-exemption/
[7]
Human Rights Acts 2019, https://www.legislation.qld.gov.au/view/pdf/inforce/current/act-2019-005
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