By Ben Johnson, The Daily Signal.
As Vice President JD Vance warns about the suppression of Christians’ free speech rights, a new law in a Western nation makes “praying with or over a person” in some circumstances “unlawful even if that person has asked you to pray for them.” Making the wrong kind of intercession for someone in this U.S. ally could land a believer up to five years in prison.
The government of the Australian state of New South Wales explains the newly enacted Conversion Practices Ban Act 2024 allows “prayer” or expression of any “religious belief” only if it is not “directed to changing or suppressing an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity.”
The bill—which took effect last Friday, April 4—bans any speech the government classifies as attempting to change someone’s LGBTQIA2S+ status, with a maximum penalty of “imprisonment for 5 years.”
“The Conversion Practices Ban Act 2024 does not prohibit prayer. However, praying with or over a person with the intent to change or suppress their sexuality or gender identity is unlawful. It is unlawful even if that person has asked you to pray for them to be able to change or suppress their sexuality or gender identity,” explains Anti-Discrimination NSW, the state government body that fields discrimination complaints under the law. (It also has “investigation, education, and research functions.”)
Christian clergy have the right to make “statements of belief or principle about gender, sexuality, marriage, celibacy, or homosexuality in documentation or on a website” or to hold studies about those topics—but only “as long as the statement is not targeted at an individual to change or suppress their sexual orientation or gender identity.”
(Ben Johnson is senior reporter and editor at The Washington Stand.)