By Rick Plasterer, Juicy Ecumenism.
(Editor’s note: In the light of threats to shut down a fringe event at General Synod, and a bill to ban counselling in the UK, this legal verdict brings up important issues)
(Photo credit: adflegal.org)
Earlier articles (here and here) reviewed the Chiles v. Salazar case, decided by the Supreme Court early in the spring. The court decided that Kaley Chiles, a Christian who is a Licensed Professional Counselor in Colorado cannot be prevented by Colorado’s Minor Conversion Therapy Law (MCTL) from expressing herself freely to clients who set attainment of opposite sex attraction or identification with their biological sex as goals. Briefs to the court supporting Colorado’s law and also supporting Kaley Chiles were reviewed; this article will review specifically briefs from religious organizations supporting Chiles and offer some concluding comments.
Counseling Bans and Catholic Teaching
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops emphasized that “fundamental and enduring” issues of human life are at stake in the Chiles v. Salazar case. Specifically, “what is the right way to live, and how can individuals move toward that ideal?” People find that they must talk with someone, and they want and have always sought counseling and guidance from “from trusted sources.” In the Chiles case, the question was “whether, when individuals seek advice and counsel on these questions [homosexuality and gender identity], the First Amendment permits the state to regulate the viewpoints they may hear in response.”
Behind MCTL there is a threat to the “timeless” and “nearly universal human experience: seeking counsel from a trusted advisor to discern right from wrong in confusing or complex situations.” In many pressing personal situations, “what we should do is not necessarily the same as what we want to do. Right and wrong are not subjective preferences but fundamental aspects of reality and human nature. Christianity, and Catholicism in particular, has constantly affirmed this principle.” Christianity has always held that there is a natural order to things, including particularly the human world, which is part of this order “designed by its Creator and that this created order is good.” Thus, “human actions are morally right when they respect this natural order and morally wrong when they conflict with it.” Yet according MCTL, right and wrong are determined by a minor’s wishes and feelings, not by objective reality.