Christian Concern has consistently supported the freedom of anyone who has unwanted same-sex feelings or behaviours, or gender distress, to access talking therapy, counselling and prayer to help achieve their goals.
Since bans on ‘conversion therapy’ or ‘conversion practices’ threaten this freedom, Christian Concern has long committed to opposing attempts to impose such a ban. This includes publishing a report highlighting how a ban on ‘talking conversion therapy’ would breach human rights and a dedicated website Free to Talk, addressing the claims made by the Conservative Government when it put forward plans for a ban in 2022. It also includes the Christian Legal Centre’s support for counsellors Lesley Pilkington and Mike Davidson and the various professional bans and debanking that they faced.
In response to this government’s draft bill on banning conversion practices published yesterday, Chief Executive Andrea Williams says:
“At the heart of the Christian message – the gospel – is change. We are converted from spiritual death to spiritual life and, over time, transformed into the likeness of Jesus Christ. Any bill that seeks to hinder that change by leaving people without the support they desire is an anti-Christian one.
“The Labour Government’s new attempt to ban ‘conversion practices’ fails in many of the same ways that all other bans have failed.
“There is no need for a ban. Genuinely abusive practices involving physical harm are not being practised and would be covered by existing laws.
“This bill opens the door to the persecution of parents and pastors through false accusations of abusive conversion practices. It entirely dodges questions about what actions genuinely are harmful or abusive, instead using terms like ‘controlling or coercive words’, ‘use of economic pressure’ and ‘use of psychological or emotional pressure’.
“Parents who resist a child’s newly-declared transgender identity will be labelled as controlling, coercing and imposing economic pressure. In combination with the bill’s protection orders, courts could drive wedges between distressed teenagers and their loving parents at the behest of local authorities without any harm having been done.
“Pastors who teach the historic, Biblical, Christian view of sexuality – that we should repent of sexual sins – will be said to be imposing psychological and emotional pressure on members of their churches. Someone who gratefully receives counselling and prayer but who later rejects their faith could assert that they received prayer and counselling under psychological pressure and blame any ongoing struggles on the ‘conversion practices’ they received.
“In both of these cases, the parents and pastors could well eventually be found innocent, but not before months or years of accusations and trials. This is precisely what has happened to Matthew Grech who was accused of ‘advertising conversion practices’ in Malta. He was found innocent after being dragged through years of hearings in his criminal trial despite the case against him being legally preposterous.
“Conversion therapy bans around the world, such as Colorado’s, are dropping like flies as courts recognise that they breach basic principles like freedom of speech. This ban would be no different – it would simply be a costly and unnecessary diversion from the governance and leadership this country desperately needs.