Making the headlines around the Western world, a Irish teacher whom the media emphasizes is a professing “Evangelical Christian,” was reportedly arrested for not using a student’s preferred pronouns.
It is insanity that I will be led from this courtroom to a place of incarceration, but I will not give up my Christian beliefs.
Enoch Burke, the teacher arrested, said
However, according to the Daily Mail, the actual cause of arrest came not because he refused to call a boy a girl, but because he breached a court order to stay off the premises, on paid leave. The school Burke worked for suspended him from his position, but Burked persisted in returning to the school triggering the arrest.
Burke currently only has to serve one day of jailtime, but awaits a new sentencing that could see that extended.
He told the judge:
I am a teacher and I don’t want to go to prison. I want to be in my classroom today, that’s where I was this morning when I was arrested.
I love my school, with its motto Res Non Verba, actions not words, but I am here today because I said I would not call a boy a girl.
Transgenderism is against my Christian belief. It is contrary to the scriptures, contrary to the ethos of the Church of Ireland and of my school.
It is extraordinary and reprehensible that someone’s religious beliefs on this matter could ever be taken as grounds for an allegation of misconduct.
My religious beliefs are not misconduct. They are not gross misconduct. They never will be. They are dear to me. I will never deny them and never betray them, and I will never bow to an order that would require me to do so. It is just not possible for me to do that.
There has been a dumbing down of the seriousness of suspension.
It is a serious step. It has tarnished my good character and my good name, particularly in the profession of a teacher, where one is so close to a large number of members of the local community. It leaves a stain on what has been, for me, an unblemished teaching record.
Rosemary Mallon BL, for the board of management for Wilson’s Hospital School in County Westmeath, Ireland, told the judge,
It is a coercive order we are seeking, not a punitive order. We are simply seeking to have Mr. Burke comply with the order.
[…] Mr. Burke is knowingly in breach of this order, he is therefore in contempt and he has made it clear that if he is not committed to prison he will attend at the school [today], and the concerns of the school regarding the ongoing disruption to the students remain.
The judge said that he would not be ruling on the usage of pronouns, but for the breach of contract.
British commentator Hugo Talks pointed out in a short video that Burke and his family have routinely been in the media, and have had run-ins with authority, per their purported activism – so much so, they even have earned themselves their own Wikipedia page.
For more on the story, watch Hugo’s video below:
AUTHOR COMMENTARY
As Hugo correctly points out, whenever someone are routinely made into a media spectacle, it signals to me that they are controlled opposition, or not of the truth and are “useful idiots” for the media.
[27] An ungodly man diggeth up evil: and in his lips there is as a burning fire. [28] A froward man soweth strife: and a whisperer separateth chief friends. [29] A violent man enticeth his neighbour, and leadeth him into the way that is not good. [30] He shutteth his eyes to devise froward things: moving his lips he bringeth evil to pass.Proverbs 16:27-30
Moreover, as a word of advice: one must be skeptical of anyone that makes a very outward profession that they are a “Christian,” and they have numerous run-ins with the media and police. Nearly every time this happens that person(s) is quite fraudulent, and possibly incentivized to do so.
I do not know much about Burke, but he has written two books condemning very popular Evangelical quack John Piper, “The Hedonism and Homosexuality of John Piper and Sam Allberry,” and “The Pied Piper: Is John Piper and New Calvinism Destroying the Church?”
The description to the second book reads:
Heresy is “adherence to a religious opinion contrary to church dogma”. This book argues that John Piper’s doctrine of Christian hedonism is a novel invention, and one not found in any of the church’s historical affirmations of the faith.
Piper has largely popularised his doctrine among young people, preaching to tens of thousands at the annual Passion Conferences in Atlanta, Georgia. The author claims that many of these young people are unwilling and unable to make a thorough examination of what John Piper really believes.
The Pied Piper takes a close look at Piper’s doctrine, examining its antinomian and ecumenical flavour. It also traces the legacy of Piper’s teaching in those closest to him, his own family. New Calvinism’s influence on the wider church is also assessed, with a focus in particular on Northern Ireland, once described as “the last bastion of Christian truth in Europe. The book argues for a return to the sincerity of true faith, practical church discipline, and a pure gospel.
Author: Enoch Burke holds a first-class BA in History and Politics (NUI Galway), a Bachelor of Theological Studies, a Diploma in Music (RIAM) and is currently completing a Masters degree. He resides in Castlebar in the West of Ireland and has taught at second-level for 10 years.
Moreover, Burke is quoted as saying this:
Nowhere in Scripture is one encouraged to develop a philosophy of Christian living, beyond the instruction which Christ Himself has given: the duty of service (Lk. 17:10; Rom. 12:1).
The Hedonism and Homosexuality of John Piper and Sam Allberry: The Truth of Scripture
I am not sure as to what that means and Burke is trying to imply: no context was given; but, it smells of error and hypocrisy on his part.
Piper is indeed fruitcake, and quite popular in the Evangelical and New Calvinism movements: “Lordship Salvation,” sometimes it is called. He is incredibly lukewarm on his stands, ecumenical, promotes charismatic speaking in tongues, and affirms all kinds of wickedness. He also promoted the Covid death shot, as seen in an article he authored titled, “A Reason to Be Vaccinated: Freedom.”
In short, the media is spinning this on purpose. They want people on the right to get up in arms, and feel like the walls are closing in on them. The media wants to create a reaction, and it has succeeded – with people calling for his support and release. Makes me wonder if the media is priming him to be a new Steven Anderson or Artur Pawlowski type?
[7] Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [8] Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [10] Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. (1 Corinthians 9:7-10).
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I’ve been seeing teaser headlines on this which I simply assumed was more of the Steven Anderson, Pawlowski type dangle & distraction manipulation: getting people to react to & follow some equal, & potentially useful to Rome’s unification project, error.
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Of course, John Piper IS a flaming heretic with his philosophical & pagan-corrupted, idolatrously humanist ‘hedonistic Christianity’….and he started very subtly, seemingly very biblical, though he does not believe God preserved his words & that one has to go to the divining nicolaitans to learn what exactly might be in the ‘originals only’ (which no one has)…..he had me going for awhile though thankfully the Lord opened my eyes to his errors & subtle bondage.
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Men like he & John MacArthur are going to march many straight into the new Romanism unification & merger, the Beast system.
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But I wonder about this ‘Church of Ireland’ business, what Bible they espouse & whether or not they interpret it through Augustine & Calvin as I suspect? Still not totally come out of Rome & grafted to her via Augustine, falling back. The Reformed can be very seductive as a supposed biblical opposite to Romanism, & though I know many labeled baptist have apostasized, I also know that historically it was people labeled baptist for their biblical practice & doctrine by their enemies that God used to preserve his word & way.
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They love to set up people like Piper and Anderson calling themselves ‘baptist’ to prove how unbiblical & apostate the baptistic biblical doctrine is. They LOVE to say that America was founded a republic….and to blame all error & apostasy on the baptists, when they TRIED to establish America as a republic, but by the grace of God intervening with Patrick Henry alerting the elder John Leland, Monroe trying to defer the request for a Bill of Rights protecting the common man to General Washington, not realizing Washington had been biblically converted & baptized at Valley Forge by the pastor John Gano…..we got the Bill of Rights & America was founded a democratic republic pitting the strengths & weaknesses of those two systems against one another….and incorporating baptist tolerance, the right of conscience & separation, the limitations of all powers.
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From the beginning the elitists and nicolaitans have blamed that for every error & failing of the nation, saying the ‘baptist’ experiment failed.
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To those people ‘duty of service’ usually means blind obedience to the nicolaitan hierarchy, to State authority, the medical authorities, etc. TYRANNY is capital letters. A form of ‘Christianity’ like the apostate state to which the Jews had corrupted themselves…..and ‘those who say they are Jews but are not’ and ‘a synagogue of Satan’ is described in Revelation TWICE, once relating to the age of Smyrna and once to that of Philadelphia.
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Just listen to the sort of smug & stuffed shirt type of people Piper was always hanging with: he not only preaches his twist on Desiring God which leans into carnality & the Reformed view of election & the ‘I’ of their ‘tulip’….’irresistible grace’, but he preaches at The Shepherd’s Conference with all the Protestant Reformed crew, of which the Church of Ireland is a part….and you can still see his preaching at the German Shepherd’s conference. He dresses all in black like a monk or priest or witch or something, & appeals to that idolatrous streak of carnal religion, works & ritual, in people.
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How can you have a Church of Ireland, a Church of America….etc, anyways? There is only the church at Corinth, the church at Ephesus in the Bible….equating today to the church at Dublin, or wherever etc. Not to national churches. We’re not theocrats, & we’re not to kowtow to the doctrine of the nicolaitans which thing Christ hates either.
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Folks will have to search the scriptures & come to their own position before God & men, but I personally do not trust this one bit.
This report should have been called teacher breaches court order … thus correcting all the fake media’s And yours standing in truth.
Burke: “It is a serious step. It has tarnished my good character and my good name..”
Would real Christians say this about themselves? Who are only righteous because of Christ’s righteousness? What about Jesus Christ’s example about being humble because we are but flesh and corruptible, and all true goodness, praise and glory are attributed and given to God alone?
Matthew 19:16-17
16 And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? 17 And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.
( I believe he said this to that person because Jesus knew that this man sees him as merely a man and not the Lord God, reason why he called him “Good Master”. Also reason why Christ said “Why callest thou me good?” And also possibly because the man’s flattery was in vain and false, which the Lord God knew.