Why an anti-conversion therapy Bill in Australia is a huge threat to churches

Dec 16, 2020 by

by David Robertson, theweeflea:

Sometimes it appears as though, among those which regard themselves as ‘progressive’ states, there is a rush to the bottom. And at the moment it appears as though the Australian state of Victoria is leading that rush. This week, with scarcely a whimper, the Victorian state parliament passed the first stage of an act which will, as the former deputy prime minister John Anderson poses “the biggest threat to our democratic freedoms in Australia’s entire legislative history”.

In case readers in the UK, US and other Western countries think that this is just a minor story from a land faraway, let me point out that similar laws are on their way to you. The Scottish government, the UK, the EU and the President-elect of the US, Joe Biden, are all seeking to promote similar legislation – although the push back has been such that it looks as though the UK and Scottish governments are going to have to back down.

The Victorian law is seeking to outlaw parental, therapeutic or religious discussions on issues of sexuality and gender. The pretext for this is the supposedly great threat posed by so-called ‘conversion therapy’. No one has been able to give us concrete examples of this ‘conversion therapy’, nor tell us how extensive this is. Apparently, the churches are the main ‘superspreaders’.

When you actually read the bill, you realise that the term ‘conversion therapy’ covers not just practices which most of us would regard as abhorrent and are rarely if ever used; but also practices which many of us regard as perfectly normal and, at worst, harmless.

Read here

Hundreds of global faith leaders call for ban on LGBT+ conversion therapy, Reuters

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