Friday 20 September 2024

On Trial For Spectator Posts

 


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/ 

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