Dr.Scott and Political Correctness
http://www.christianconcern.com/blog/dr-scott-and-political-correctness
The investigation against Christian GP Dr Richard Scott for talking about Jesus to a patient would not have been taken seriously by the General Medical Council were it not for our culture of ‘political correctness’.
We all know about the insidious effects of political correctness - how it controls people through creating a climate of fear and how it seeks to shape political and social discourse.
Throughout history, ideologues have sought to impose their views, and their power, onto others, and to control what people can and can’t believe. It is nothing new, and it is always opposed to the Gospel.
Political correctness in its modern form was developed, refined and promoted at the Institute of Social Research in Germany, which was founded in 1923. Later, the Institute moved to the USA.
It was a Marxist organisation and it sought to spread Marxist ideology. The ‘thinkers’ at the Institute believed that Western Civilisation wasn’t embracing communism because of its strong belief in the individual, and individual thinking. This supposedly had to be torn down in order for Western Europeans to embrace Marxism.
If individualism and free thinking were to be brought down then speech and thought needed to be controlled. Thus political correctness has been used to control people by controlling language and attempting to change the way people think.
Political correctness propagates a particular social narrative based on grievance and power, and advances the belief that nothing you say must offend another, especially if that other can be identified as belonging to a victim group.
Being politically correct means subscribing to the fashionable, progressive political orthodoxy of the day.
It is an orthodoxy based on the rejection of God and is utterly opposed to Christianity. It is totalitarian in nature and you are castigated if you do not subscribe to it. That’s why a doctor can get in trouble for talking about Jesus to a patient.
Britain is labouring, indeed groaning under this yoke. We have created a society in the UK where people are genuinely afraid of what they can and can’t say at work and where people lose their jobs for expressing Christian views (views which were considered mainstream until recently).
At the Christian Legal Centre we have many clients who have faced problems at work due to mentioning their faith, including Duke Amachree, Caroline Petrie, David Booker and Kwabena Peat. Mentioning Jesus is not politically correct!
Right now the screws are continuing to tighten in the public sector, and those with Christian views on sexual ethics in particular are going to find it harder and harder to maintain a faithful witness at work.
A recent high profile case was that of Christian Dr Hans-Christian Raabe,who was sacked by the Home office from its Drugs counsel because he had unfashionable views about sex and homosexuality. Then of course we have Eunice and Owen Johns, whose fostering application stalled because of thought crime – they would not agree to tell a hypothetical child aged 5 to 9 years old that practising homosexuality was a good thing. Thus, they were not fit to foster. In fact, their views were an infection that might harm a child.
A robust society values individuals and individual free thinking. We can’t let this virus of political correctness crush freedom in this nation. It will take huge courage to overcome it but it must be done. When are the British public going to realise that their society is being influenced by a totalitarian ideology that, in its modern form, explicitly came out of Marxism?
In the meantime, whilst under official investigation by the GMC, Dr Scott has been given lots of media airtime and has used it to speak about Jesus and articulate his right to freedom of belief at work.
We need more Dr Scotts.
Thankfully, the Lord is raising up Gideon’s men in this hour.
Published: May 26th, 2011
Christian Doctor Under GMC Investigation for Sharing faith
http://www.christianconcern.com/our-concerns/religious-freedom/christian-doctor-under-gmc-investigation-for-sharing-faith
Published: May 22nd, 2011
A Christian doctor of 28 years standing has been reported to the General Medical Council (GMC), and may be disciplined for sharing his faith with a patient.
Dr Richard Scott, who works at Bethesda Medical Centre in Margate, Kent – a practice well-known for having Christian partners - has been threatened with an Official Warning by the GMC and is currently under investigation.
In 2010, Dr Scott saw a patient on the practice list at the request of the patient’s mother. At the end of the consultation, the patient and doctor discussed religion, each being of different faiths. The patient has continued to seek treatment from the practice, but his mother filed an official complaint, claiming that the GP had not offered medical advice during a consultation, but instead, talked about Jesus!
The GMC has written to Dr Scott offering a ‘compromise’ decision to the disciplinary complaint of placing an Official Warning on his file. However, the GP is calling on his professional body to strike-out the complaint on the basis that the complaint was from a mother who was not medically qualified to comment on what treatment, if any, a medical practitioner should prescribe and, the GMC’s own guidelines state that it is acceptable to present faith to a patient as long as it is done gently and sensitively.
Dr Scott, who has an unblemished record as a medic, says it is totally unacceptable for his professional reputation and official file to contain a rebuke for acting both professionally, and within the guidelines. He claims the complaint has been made knowing that professional bodies are nervous about claims of a religious nature, and therefore it is a way of getting back at the GP.
Dr Scott said: “I only discussed my faith at the end of a lengthy medical consultation after exploring the various interventions that the patient had previously tried, and after promising to follow up the patient’s request appointment with other medical professionals.
“I only discussed mutual faith after obtaining the patient’s permission. In our conversation, I said that personally, I had found having faith in Jesus helped me and could help the patient. At no time did the patient indicate that they were offended, or that they wanted to stop the discussion. If that had been the case, I would have immediately ended the conversation.
“This complaint was brought to the GMC not by the patient, who has continued to be a patient at this practice, but by the patient’s mother.”
The medical practice at which Dr Scott works is well known in the community for having Christian partners and is named after a Biblical name. Dr Scott says he has talked about his faith with many patients over the years, and many of them have been encouraged. Dr Scott, who for seven years has been a worshipper at St Paul’s Church, Cliftonville (CofE), is so determined to clear his professional name that he has instructed the Christian Legal Centre to advise him in his case. They, in turn, are using the leading human rights lawyer, Paul Diamond as lead counsel.
Andrea Minichiello Williams, CEO of the Christian Legal Centre, said: “It is a shame that Dr Scott has been reported to the GMC because of his Christian views. Dr Scott is an experienced GP who has helped thousands of patients over the years.
“The complaint, on religious grounds, appears to be a smokescreen to express frustration and to disagree publicly with the professional treatment offered. However, the GMC must not bow to political or emotional pressure in this case and should back the GP 100 per-cent, as he acted within their own guidelines, and his unblemished record should not be tarnished – even by a letter on his file.”
"Many patients are helped when a Doctor, in the natural course of a discussion, talks about their spiritual needs. This is all Dr Scott was doing and he should not be punished for this or prevented from doing so in the future.”
