‘You’re a disgrace’: radio host clashes with pastor over prayers for those with unwanted same-sex attraction
from Premier:
LBC presenter James O’Brien has called a pastor “a disgrace” during a debate over praying for someone with unwanted same-sex attraction.
Pastor Walter from a church in Warrington called ‘The Mystery Hour’ programme to share his thoughts on the government’s set of proposals to ban ‘coercive’ conversion therapy under new legislation coming out next year.
Pastor Walter said he agrees that all abhorrent practices such as “electric shock therapy” and even stories of “fathers attacking their daughters who came up as gay” should be banned but found it difficult to understand how praying for someone was the same as those practices.
“If a consenting adult came to me as a pastor and explained that he or she had same-sex desires or feelings, whatever word we want to say, I can’t see how me praying for them to help them overcome that, or again, however, you want to word that, is the same as doing the other sorts of things mentioned.”
LGBT Christian activists want ‘coercive prayer’ to be included in the conversion therapy ban, as they believe “any prayer that is made with a precondition that one has to be straight, that one has to fit a certain norm” is harmful.
However, many Christian leaders have expressed concern about this issue as they think the ordinary work of churches could be criminalised and therefore interfere with their freedom of belief.
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