Below the belt
by Matthew Roberts, Artillery Row:
Why is the government comparing Christian pastoral care to rape?
Imagine, for a moment, that an official government consultation included the following question:
A wide range of acts can be committed in the name of kosher therapy. This includes anything from acts of physical violence e.g. assault and rape, to eating food prepared in a certain way. Have you ever been offered kosher therapy?
I hope that the response would be one of absolute disgust and fury, from every decent individual in the country. Kosher food is a highly valued, indeed essential, aspect of Jewish culture. It would be a vile implication to class those who care about it with rapists. At the very least, serious public apologies would be demanded — probably, senior heads would roll.
Yet the current consultation on “Banning Conversion Therapy” does in fact ask this question:
A wide range of acts can be committed in the name of conversion therapy. This includes anything from acts of physical violence e.g. assault and rape, to talking interventions and therapies. Have you ever been offered conversion therapy?
I do not know who came up with the concept of “conversion therapy”, but for Christians of every denomination who hold to historic, orthodox Christianity, it is no less nonsensical than talking about “kosher therapy” would be for Jews. Conversion is a vital concept in Christianity, describing the change God makes in human hearts to turn them from worshipping themselves to worshipping him. As a work of God, it also has nothing to do with “therapy”.
It is profoundly appalling to imply that Christian ministers calling people to respond to Christ somehow lies in the same category as rape. The same thing was done in the 2018 “National LGBT Survey” carried out by the Government Equalities Office.
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