Communications Manager Paul Huxley reflects on the proposed ‘talking conversion therapy’ ban. An earlier version of this article appeared in our Ambassador Magazine.
The old saying that “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me” is an overstatement.
As the Bible says, the tongue “has the power of life and death” (Proverbs 18:21) and “is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body.”
Words affect people. Words matter. But we are currently seeing a dangerous overreaction where (often young) people demand ‘safety’ from words that they think may harm them. They demand that their personal pronouns are used. They stop gender critical, conservative or Christian views from being given a hearing on university campuses. Laws are used to stop any type of pro-life witness near abortion centres.
There is a time and a place for everything under the sun. A therapist, counsellor or minister may need to assure someone that they won’t bring up one painful topic so that they can address another. But applying this logic to the whole of life—or to other people’s lives—is tyrannical. It would force any number of other people with different ideas or views to remain completely silent.
This is what a ban on so-called ‘talking conversion therapy’, or ‘conversion practices’ really is.
Ever since Theresa May was Prime Minister, Conservative governments have promised a ban on ‘conversion therapy’ or ‘conversion practices’. Labour is promising the same. But the only practices common in 21st century Britain that are labelled in this way are counselling and prayer. In both cases, someone who is unhappy with their sexual desires, sexual actions or gender dysphoria reaches out to another person who lends their support by speaking.
The United Kingdom has a long history of supporting free speech; it would be quite an extraordinary step for the government to start telling citizens what they are allowed to talk or pray about. But that’s exactly what a ban on ‘talking conversion therapy’ would do—and exactly what LGBT campaigners want to see.
They claim to be protecting LGBT people from harm. They say no one can consent to these conversations or prayers because they cause harm. This is their only way to implement a ban; because we are committed to human rights legislation, a ban could only hold up if it’s needed to protect people from harm.
But it isn’t.
We launched our Free to Talk website last year, which includes an in-depth explanation of this issue for two reasons. First, politicians and policymakers need to understand that the evidence simply doesn’t back claims of harm for talking therapy. Second, Christians need to understand that these efforts are usually helpful, not harmful— they can be a valuable aid for Christians struggling with same-sex desires or gender dysphoria.
As we put together the website, I had the opportunity to read many articles in the archives of International Federation for International Federation for Therapeutic and Counselling Choice (IFTCC). One highlight is a journal article by Peter Spriggs reviewing 79 key studies on this question of harm. These studies are all cited by LGBT activists to make the claim that talking therapy is harmful but as Sprigg shows, these claims come to nothing if given the most cursory attention. Many of these studies which don’t genuinely demonstrate harm are also included in the government’s evidence review.
Many of these studies in fact suggest quite the opposite: that talking therapy can be both effective in reshaping sexual desires and beneficial to overall mental health. For example, one study looked at posts on an online message board by people who once saw themselves as ‘ex-gay’ but went back to a gay lifestyle. You would think that these would be the people most opposed to talking therapy, but by and large, they viewed their experience “in the ex-gay movement as having yielded positive results in the long run.”
If talking therapy doesn’t cause harm, why do so many people say it does?
Ultimately, I believe it’s because campaigners and activists want to turn the whole world into a ‘safe space’. A place where same-sex desires and transgender identities are accepted by all as true, beautiful and good. Where every individual expresses their ‘true self’ fully and is unconditionally accepted.
This is found in people’s testimonies against ‘conversion practices’. Even when people have been provided less-than-ideal support, say by non-expert members of their church, people typically report appreciating the help at the time. It is only later when they come to believe that homosexual sex is moral that these experiences are reinterpreted. Negative self-feelings and mental health are blamed on cultural and institutional homophobia that led them to seek change and ‘deny their sexuality’.
Fundamentally, the blame is put on the shoulders of anyone who believes and says that homosexuality is wrong. So a ‘conversion practices’ ban can never stop just there. Unless Christians completely abandon God’s teaching on sexuality, there will always be the claim that it’s damaging LGBT people’s mental health and needs to be stopped – a claim even being made in court proceedings against Christians.
But this is a wrong diagnosis. We were made by God as male and female, with bodies designed to express maleness and femaleness in line with his good creative design. Try as we may, when we push against that, we do ourselves harm. Deep down we are suppressing the truth (Romans 1:18) and doing what we know to be evil (Romans 1:32).
Even if everybody on earth endorsed same-sex behaviours, our consciences would testify that something is badly wrong. As long as we live in bodies designed by God, deep down, we will know that we are pushing against our creator.
There is no truly safe space in all of creation for rebellion against God and his pattern for our lives.
That’s why Christians must speak with confidence of the power of God to save us. We all need the forgiveness Christ freely offers. And with that forgiveness comes the Holy Spirit and the power of God to renew us as his new creations.
Let’s be confident that real, positive change can happen and courageously stand for truth, beauty and goodness. For “the tongue of the righteous is choice silver” (Proverbs 10:20a).
