What can we say?
In recent times since 'political correctness' became a thing, we had to be nice and watch what we said. Christians were often confused by this - after all, we already aimed not to speak ill of people - it's even a commandment! But at the same time something else was going on. The people pushing this were certainly not endorsing Christian teaching - far from it - they were mimicking it in order to draw culturally Christianised people off down a different road - through a broader and wider gate that leads... It seems this was a tactic (codified by Marx enthusiast Saul Alinsky in 'Rules for Radicals' (1971)) to use their virtue against them.
There has been a recent case of Maureen Martin sacked from her job for saying in her outside-work local council manifesto: “Marriage: I pledge to cut through political correctness and simply state the truth that natural marriage between a man and a woman is the fundamental building block for a successful society and the safest environment for raising children.”
GB News interviewed her and the Free Speech Union who say they have about 80 live cases currently in this wider area. When these come to actual legal tests they are frequently lost by the employer as UK law has not actually gone that far - but the other side will pretend it has and assert it so boldly that you assume it has - but it hasn't.
However saying the wrong thing is nothing new, the early Christians faced it - 'is Caesar Lord...'. They recognised what was behind this assertion, a spiritual battle, and chose to be on The Lord's side. We have woken up to this more widely and need to continue to be witnesses for the truth and not to allow the forces of darkness to win by default. But 'the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds'
We are reminded though of Jesus: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.”
Life & death
A related area is the sanctity of life - the case of Archie Battersbee is not just about withdrawing life support - it seems it's about the redefinition of what constitutes death: 'Since time immemorial, death was identified, by doctors and laymen alike, with a complete and irreversible absence of heartbeat and blood circulation.' Now brain-stem activity is being introduced, the testing of which can endanger life. There is a clear philosophical (Spiritual) battle going on here as there is with abortion (allowed up to birth in the UK for certain circumstances not linked to the physical health of mother or child), and euthanasia.
A current growing scandal is juvenile trans treatment & surgery. It's good that more are calling this out as child abuse. A local Christian GP mentioned the number of cases now being bought by the children against the NHS and parents for allowing this to happen. If legal cases are deemed to be worth fighting then there is the assumption that the NHS doctors/advisors and parents were acting illegally in some way, 'duty of care' etc.
The GP also said they were financially incentivised to keep a register of people with trans issues and to call them back annually for a consultation. This does not happen to those who are clinically overweight, for instance, which carries a much greater physical (and mental?) risk, and where prevention is said to be a central part of the reform-NHS strategy. GPs meanwhile are seeking to improve salaries over £100k. A recent BMJ report recorded too many 'do not resuscitate' notices without consultation - especially for the elderly or disabled. Roughly half of doctors support legalising euthanasia, though significantly less would want to be involved. Most no longer take the Hippocratic oath.
NHS staff clearly do a great many superb things (we've met them!) but the higher-level policies and default attitudes need to be radically changed to reflect a genuine belief in the sanctity of life rather than the Marxian idea that people exist for the benefit of the state (the elite actually), rather than the other way round - the state and its ministers being the servant of the people - which is the Christian biblical view.
