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Enoch Burke, an Irish secondary school teacher, was placed on paid administrative leave after refusing to refer to a male student with the pronoun “they.”
A court injunction was issued barring Burke from being on the school property until the disciplinary process had been completed.
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Burke told the court that he could not comply with the injunction in good conscience. He defied the order by showing back up at school. He was arrested and taken back to court.
Burke said, “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.”
Burke’s religious beliefs were not in line with the school’s request, and his religious freedom was threatened.
More on this story via The Independent Journal:
This case is a concerning reminder of what can happen when religious freedoms are taken away. Burke simply followed his Christian beliefs when he refused to use the “they” pronoun for a male, and he did not deserve to be punished for it.
While Americans ought to be safe from such treatment because of the religious freedoms we are guaranteed in the Constitution, the left would like nothing more than to ensure teachers in this country are ousted if they refuse to go along with its radical agenda.
As evidence, one only has to look as far as the Loudon County Public School system in Virginia, which placed teacher Tanner Cross on administrative leave last year after he refused to use pronouns that were contradictory to a student’s sex.
The good news in that case was the Virginia Supreme Court ruled Cross should be reinstated because the school violated his free speech. But if the left had its way, Cross never would be allowed to return to teaching.
If these cases teach us anything, it is that religious freedom is coming under attack, and it’s as important as ever to protect it.
