On Tuesday, a British court ruled that belief in the Bible was “incompatible with human dignity.”

That statement came in a case involving Dr. David Mackereth, a devout Christian who had worked as an emergency doctor for the National Health Service for 26 years. He said he was fired from his job because he refused to call a biological man a woman. The court’s ruling stated: “Belief in Genesis 1:27, lack of belief in transgenderism and conscientious objection to transgenderism in our judgment are incompatible with human dignity and conflict with the fundamental rights of others, specifically here, transgender individuals.” The court added. “… in so far as those beliefs form part of his wider faith, his wider faith also does not satisfy the requirement of being worthy of respect in a democratic society, not incompatible with human dignity and not in conflict with the fundamental rights of others.”

The Telegraph reported that Mackereth said he was removed from his job with the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) in late June 2018 after his boss “interrogated” him about his personal religious convictions. Mackereth told the court in July that his line manager had asked him, “If you have a man six foot tall with a beard who says he wants to be addressed as ‘she’ and ‘Mrs’ would you do that?” Mackereth said that because of his religious beliefs, he could not, and his job was subsequently terminated.

CBN reported that Mackereth’s attorney, Michael Phillips, told the court, “His belief in the truth of the Bible, and in particular, the truth of Genesis 1:27: ‘So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.’ It follows that every person is created by God as either male or female. A person cannot change their sex/gender at will. Any attempt at, or pretense of, doing so, is pointless, self-destructive, and sinful.”

Mackereth had told the court that the idea of transgenderism is a “rebellion against God, which is both pointless and sinful … I am, of course, aware that there are men or women who believe they have been trapped in a wrong body, and I do not question the sincerity of their convictions. A small number of such people have always existed. Up until recently, such a belief was considered by medics to be delusional and a symptom of a medical disorder. It is only recently that transgenderism has been recognized as normal and such delusional beliefs accepted at face value. What is responsible for that change is political pressure, not scientific evidence.”

Mackereth responded to the ruling, asserting, “I am not alone in being deeply concerned by this outcome. Staff in the NHS, even those who do not share my Christian convictions, are also disturbed as they see their own freedom of thought and speech being undermined by the judges’ ruling. No doctor, or researcher, or philosopher, can demonstrate or prove that a person can change sex. Without intellectual and moral integrity, medicine cannot function and my 30 years as a doctor are now considered irrelevant compared to the risk that someone else might be offended.”

Andrea Williams from Christian Concern told Premier the ruling was a “crushing of Christian beliefs… Dr. David Mackereth for almost 30 years has been working in A and E, loves his patients, and treats all patients. Dr. Mackereth was gentle. He would have called a person by their chosen name. What he couldn’t do was put on a form that a biological man was a biological woman, or a biological woman was a man.”

Mackereth said he will appeal the ruling, stating, “I believe that I have to appeal in order to fight for the freedom of Christians – and any other NHS member of staff – to speak the truth. If they cannot, then freedom of speech has died in this country, with serious ramifications for the practice of medicine in the UK.”