Prayer? Unlawful. Puberty blockers? Fine
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In April the New South Wales Conversion Practices Ban Act came into effect. Its stated aim is “to ban practices directed to changing or suppressing the sexual orientation or gender identity of individuals”. The reaction from the churches has been mixed.
Churches of a more “progressive” bent broadly welcome the ban. More-Biblical churches are concerned – although some leaders think that it will not make much difference. They argue that prayer is not banned. The legislation explicitly states that general religious teachings, sermons, private prayer or personal reflection are not considered conversion practices and are not illegal. For example, expressing religious beliefs or seeking spiritual guidance through prayer is permitted.
However, that is not the whole story. The government-funded Anti-Discrimination NSW put out a video which explicitly stated that prayer is amongst the practices that are unlawful. To pray that someone would have their sexual orientation changed, or their sexual desires suppressed, would be illegal.
The justification for this is that the law focuses on practices that cause “substantial harm” and are directed at altering someone’s identity. This includes consensual and private prayer.
Engaging in conversion practices, including harmful prayer-based efforts, can lead to up to five years’ imprisonment if they result in significant harm. Taking someone out of NSW for such practices carries a three-year maximum penalty.
If anyone doubts that this is imposition of a new religious ideology, then the Anti-Discrimination video should remove those doubts. It says that the government are doing this because they now know that all forms of sexuality are “perfectly normal and valid” and those who disagree are being “untruthful and harmful”. All “people, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, should feel welcome and valued and be able to live authentically and with pride”. The government states that the laws in NSW protect people’s rights to have religious beliefs, but “people also have the right to be protected from harm”. Harm is never defined, but it is clear that if any LGBTQIA+ activist says that they are being harmed by religious belief – it is the religious belief that will lose.
This Conversion Practices Ban only refers to some conversion practices. For example, there is no attempt to ban conversion practices associated with someone becoming transgender. Genital mutilation and puberty blockers will still be permitted as children convert from one gender to another.
The progressives in Australia think that they are on the right side of history in declaring that men can become women – whilst much of the rest of the Western world is waking up to how nonsensical that is. Our governing elites are currently still in the fantasy world of progressive ideology. Pray that they would be woken up!
David Robertson, is the minster of Scots Kirk Presbyterian Church, Newcastle NSW and blogs at http://www.theweeflea.com
Why has conversion therapy become a major election issue in Scotland? – CT
It is astounding how the contagion of Pride and Trans has gripped the western world.
I console myself thinking that the majority of the population perceive this madness for what it is.. yet the media and governments continue to promulgate/advertise..
Trump is disliked by many people but at least he is calling a halt to this movement.. and to the Climate Change fiasco.
What about someone who is morbidly obese, and seeking prayer-counselling to lose weight and fast? Is gluttony a sacrosanct part of their identity, and such prayer-counselling dangerous?!?
Indeed, Anglican. How about someone who is judgemental about issues they know little about – should they just go on being so?
“All forms of sexuality perfectly normal and valid”? Does this pave the way for paedophiles? Heaven forbid
Hi Fiona, you raise an interesting concern, but thankfully you don’t need to worry. Firstly, gender dysphoria is not related to sexuality – they are entirely different issues. Gender dysphoria is about identity – pedophilia is a sexual attraction to prepubescent children and is considered a psychiatric disorder. The reason there are sometimes legitimate concerns around pedophiles is the potentially abusive nature of their relationships due to the discrepancy in age.
The slightly concerning news for you is that pedophilia is a far more common issue than you might imagine. Studies vary between estimates of 1-10% of the male population struggling with sexual thoughts about children at some stage in their lives. But the true number is impossible to know as very few people (men and women) would feel comfortable acknowledging such attractions. However, this data also shows that very few people ever act on those impulses – similar to monogamous heterosexuals. When we refer to someone as a pedophile, we rarely understand this and instead use it as a label for someone who has sexually abused children.
More good news – because the act of pedophilia is abusive – it is highly unlikely to ever be permitted.
All that said, comparing someone with gender dysphoria to a pedophile (I know that was not your intention) is entirely unhelpful.
I’m afraid they are not about entirely different issues. There are paedophiles who would argue that it is about their identity! Homosexuality was also considered a psychiatric disorder – and gender dysphoria is a psychiatric disorder. And there are many things that are harmful and abusive that have been permitted…..Fiona’s point is a good one and stands.
David, the two issues are not related. Simply catagorizing everything we don’t align with as a psychiatric disorder, doesn’t make them so. There are no grounds to conflate pedophilia with gender disphoria.
The subtext of my first message is that we judge people without understanding what we speak of, my second point is that the criminal act of abusing children will aways be criminal because it is abusive.
It is not lost on me that we are very quick to deal out emotional and spiritual abuse based on our perceived position of righteousness, but we condemn other forms of abuse.
But you are the one choosing to characterise things you don’t agree with as a psychiatric disorder, whilst refusing to recognise those you agree with as such. Gender Identity Disorder is a psychiatric disorder and does a great of harm. Trans ideology is abusive. You seem very selective in what you term as abuse!