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Enoch Burke refuses to subjugate Christian truth claims to the cult of woke and transgender ideology and for that he has lost his freedom. Here’s what his story of courage, conviction, and censorship in the face of persecution should teach every Christian.
If you were paying attention over the summer, amid the coverage of the Presidential election and the Olympics, you may recall the story of an Irish schoolteacher Enoch Burke. Burke is one of many Christians who face persecution in Europe, in this case the Republic of Ireland, because he will not go along with the woke and trans mafia, which has been waging a full global propaganda campaign in the name of gender ideology.
Going back to 2022, which in politics like dog years, feels like a decade ago. Burke was suspended and fired from his teaching job. He was issued a restraining order by the court barring him from entrance into Wilson’s Hospital School in Westmeath, Ireland. He was told his mere presence was “stressful” and posed a public health and safety risk for children.
What was his crime? Was Enoch Burke some kind of child predator or a deviant, one that needed to be imprisoned and kept away from children?
No, Burke did something far worse than that by today’s moral standards. He refused to comply with the new rules of transgender ideology, refusing to play into the confusion by addressing his students by their preferred pronouns or using their chosen trans names.
Instead, he committed the greatest sin imaginable: He has repeatedly told the truth. He even committed acts of blasphemy — again, today’s standards of blasphemy — by invoking Christian truth claims on gender and sexuality.
Burke has already been fined over €250,000 ($271,164) so far and has spent over 400 days in jail. Just last week, a High Court judge ordered him back to jail, in his words, “with great reluctance,” because Burke refuses to comply with the original court order that prohibits him access to Wilson’s Hospital School’s campus.
Burke’s civil disobedience and refusal to comply is out of protest for the transgender ideology that led to his firing in the first place.
In his recent court appearance just last week, Burke said to the judge,
“You are afraid…. You are a political actor upholding a political decision made by a political court to cover up the agenda of the government and the agenda of the principal of my school to force teachers to accept transgenderism without a shred of legal authority.”
Burke is heading back to jail. His fines continue to accumulate as he will not abide by the rulings or the demands of transgender ideology.
The Burke Test is a costly one, but it is a test that we will all soon face.
And here’s the point: It has become increasingly clear to any Christian today that there is no such thing as neutrality. There are no safe spaces. And there is no neutral ground. While most will concede that the Christian blasphemy laws are gone, and have been long gone in the West, including the United States, it has taken some time for Christians to recognize that those laws were not eradicated. They were simply replaced.
Not only is it illegal to yell fire in a crowded theater, but it is also illegal to wear a t-shirt with Muhammed’s depiction on it or to speak truthfully against gender ideology in the United Kingdom — or until very recently, to refuse to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple in the United States. In the latter case, thanks to Alliance Defending Freedom, Jack Phillips of Masterpiece Cakeshop can take a sabbatical from being in court for over 12 years.
We are in a true battle for Western civilization, for freedom, for the constitutional order, which could not be duplicated, not even close. Even if we were to suddenly invoke the 10th Amendment and hold a new Convention today, these things are very fragile. But what is certain is that we need courage and we need conviction to stand.
While I cannot speak to the personal character of Enoch Burke or his doctrinal convictions, I can speak to the fact that he has more convictions than most because he is willing to go to jail for them. And that at a time when many American pastors don’t have the courage enough to tell their congregants, let alone a judge, that there is an ideological war against truth that we will not cave to.
America is less than 30 days away from the most important Presidential election of our lifetime. And the reason this is true is because never before have the ideological and worldview gaps in America been greater than they are today. And just about every issue that you can name is going to be determined by the outcome of this election, including transgenderism, including your freedom to speak against it and whatever new blasphemy laws that will result if nothing is done to confront it.
The Enoch Burke Test is a good test for every Christian today. Just ask yourself this: Do I believe the Christian truth claims so strongly that I’d be willing to go to jail for them? And in follow-up: Would I at least be willing to go and vote for them?
Food for thought.
Editor’s Note: This article is a lightly edited transcript of the below podcast by Standing for Freedom Center Executive Director Ryan Helfenbein.
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