"Evangelical Christians urge Boris Johnson not to ban conversion therapy"

[EccentricM]

https://www.itv.com/news/2021-03-16/evangelical-christians-urge-boris-johnson-not-to-ban-conversion-therapy

 

Quote

"The Evangelical Alliance, which represents 3,500 evangelical churches in the UK, has written to Prime Minister Boris Johnson urging him not to ban so-called conversion therapy.

In their letter, they argue that a wide-ranging ban would restrict religious freedoms and criminalise church teaching....  it would criminalise a member of a church who prays with another member when they ask for prayer to resist temptation as they are attracted to someone of the same sex but do not wish to act on it."

This could heat things up.

[Shawnster]

37 minutes ago, EccentricM said:

"it would criminalise a member of a church who prays with another member when they ask for prayer to resist temptation as they are attracted to someone of the same sex but do not wish to act on it."

I'd have to see the wording of the bill before I completely accept this statement.  We know anyone who feels wronged can twist or misquote or misunderstand in order to promote their own agenda.  I'm not saying this is the case, I'm just saying "trust, but verify."

 

From the quick research I did, it appears that a "conversion therapy involving prayer" would be something like sitting in a circle around the sinner and literally praying over the person.  Fortunately for us, that's not the practice we follow.  Our praying with an individual is not part of some ritualized methodology or mechanical act like Christendom does when they want to heal someone.

[EccentricM]

10 minutes ago, Shawnster said:

 Our praying with an individual is not part of some ritualized methodology or mechanical act like Christendom does when they want to heal someone.

True, but they may not discriminate.

[Shawnster]

4 hours ago, EccentricM said:

True, but they may not discriminate.

I guess I don't understand your point.  Jehovah's Witnesses do not engage in any form of "conversion therapy" when it comes to homosexuality.  We don't try to pray the gay away.  

[EccentricM]

50 minutes ago, Shawnster said:

I guess I don't understand your point.  Jehovah's Witnesses do not engage in any form of "conversion therapy" when it comes to homosexuality.  We don't try to pray the gay away.  

My point is that, they may consider merely just "teaching" people to resist homosexualilty on the platform or in writing, as a "form of conversion therapy". Or merely reading those verses from the Bible, or telling people to pray to resist such urges.

Edited March 16, 2021 by EccentricM

[On the huh]

The world today has the attitude to act on your urges.  So if you have homosexual urges, don't supress them, embrace them.  If a church or other organization is telling their members to use a method (in this case prayer) to supress them, it could be seen as another act of intolerance to homosexuality.   This could impact on us because the bible teaches that anyone who is so inclined, to pray for the strength to resist such urges.

[Thesauron]

The world today has the attitude to act on your urges.  So if you have homosexual urges, don't supress them, embrace them.  If a church or other organization is telling their members to use a method (in this case prayer) to supress them, it could be seen as another act of intolerance to homosexuality.   This could impact on us because the bible teaches that anyone who is so inclined, to pray for the strength to resist such urges.

We don’t do it with the goal to cure. It is not a conversion nor a therapy. True healing might not happen until the Kingdom. We do it with the goal to help and support until we get there.

[EccentricM]

44 minutes ago, Thesauron said:

We don’t do it with the goal to cure. It is not a conversion nor a therapy. True healing might not happen until the Kingdom. We do it with the goal to help and support until we get there.

True. The main concern though is semantics. Will they begin to see our "doctrine" of "resisting homosexual urges" as a form of conversion therapy? These days it's not uncommon to see the abuse of language or definition to fit an agenda, we see it all the time when it comes to politics, social ideology, etc.

 

All it takes is one little line in a document to say "the definition of conversion therapy includes...".