Scotland's government has sought to ban so-called 'conversion therapy' for it considers such practice harmful. Anyone intending to help someone change sexual orientation or gender identity would receive a hefty fine and possibly prison.
While the liberal Church of Scotland is in general agreement with the
proposed ban, the Roman Catholic and 'other' churches are not because of
religious freedom and the rights of parents. Indeed, opposition to 'conversion'
itself seems to be at issue. The Good News of the Gospel is good news
because God's salvation has come to us, making it possible for us to
convert. It has come to us in proclamation by ministers of the Gospel, to
be sure, but the Gospel itself is the news that God has sent Jesus Christ to
deliver us from our sins and the power of sin over our lives. The Good
News is that we are being converted.
Paul's
explanation of conversion involves the necessity that some are sent to those
who do not know the Good News, that they preach the Good News, and that those
who hear come to believe the Good News:
How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And
how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they
to hear without someone preaching? 15 And how are they to preach unless they
are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the
good news!” (Romans 10.14-15, ESV).
The very basis
of Christian teaching is faith, not coercion, but coming to faith is conversion
nonetheless, and the preaching of faith has the intent of people
converting. Indeed, Christians would urge ministers of the government to
convert to the Christian faith themselves.
The infringement
on parents' rights is also a significant problem with the proposed ban.
The assumed authority of the government over the parents in the raising of
children is indefensible. After centuries of Scotland affirming Christian
faith, Catholic or Protestant, the current government is about to fine and imprison
those who affirm the Church's teaching in the Scriptures and throughout its
history. Christian parents are suddenly to be viewed as child abusers.
The Evangelical
Alliance, for its part, is concerned that this ban proceeds from the premise
that Christian teaching on sexuality is harmful. They are quite right. In speaking about the
dramatic conversion of practices witnessed in the Corinthian Church that he
established, Paul says,
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom
of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor
adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy,
nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11
And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were
justified [made righteous] in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the
Spirit of our God (1 Corinthians 6.9-11).
Two words are
unfortunately collapsed by the ESV translation into the single word
'homosexuality'. This was a translation error of significant magnitude.
The Greek has 'μαλακοὶ and ἀρσενοκοῖται', that is, 'soft men’ and ‘men
practicing homosexual acts with each other'. The term 'soft men' would
refer to men identifying as women, since the word 'soft' was used of women in
general and of men claiming and practicing a female orientation. The
second term is a direct reference to Leviticus 20.13, which condemns both men
involved in homosexual acts with one another (cf. Leviticus 18.22). The
Apostle Paul's teaching is not innovative: it affirms God's Law regarding
homosexuality (cf. also Romans 1.26-28; 1 Timothy 1.10).
The Scottish
government's proposal would incarcerate Paul and fine him. Paul, however,
saw Christian conversion not only as a change of beliefs and attitudes but also
of practices and orientations. Conversion is described as a
cleansing--'washed', as a separation unto holiness from unholy
living--'sanctified', and a person being 'made righteous' (this is the better
translation here of what the ESV, following other English translations, renders
as 'justified').
The debate about
'conversion therapy' is peculiar from a Christian standpoint. One of the
problems that has arisen within the Church over the past century is the idea
that pastoral care and counselling are therapeutic, sharing much in common with
psychological therapy. The truth is that pastoral care is grounded in
Scriptural teaching. Therapeutic counselling today seeks to help clients
live authentically and healthily, largely by living true to their own
convictions and orientations. Pastoral counselling fails if it does not
point out what God's Holy Word declares as truth, often over against what
individuals believe or desire. It is not about affirming the client but
affirming Scripture, and thereby offering divine help to others.
Moreover, Christian pastoral care declares that the Gospel is a 'power' for
salvation (Romans 1.16). This power is indicated in the transformation of
sinners and in the divine work mentioned in the quotation above of 1
Corinthians 6.11: 'in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of
our God'. Therapy is human counselling; pastoral care is Scriptural
counselling and a ministry in the power of God. Christianity invites
people to faith because faith is faith, believing, not submission (as
in Islam). It is not faith if it is coerced.
Consider the
occasion when a father brought his son to Jesus' disciples and asked them to
heal the boy. The boy suffered from seizures and fell into the fire or water,
injuring himself. The disciples were unable to heal the boy. When Jesus
later delivered the boy from a demon, he was healed instantly (Matthew
17.14-18). This story--and others like it--attribute a spiritual cause to
a physical ailment. It accepts that a spiritual power must be confronted
to deliver the boy from a situation that is accepted as harmful.
Christians see other situations in a similar light. Indeed, Graeco-Roman
writings that have no contact with Christianity understood the power of desire
that drove people into debauchery and profligacy in various types of
indulgences. Graeco-Roman philosophy addressed ways to master temptation,
to practice the virtue of self-control or temperance. It recognised that,
while some people willfully chose such lifestyles, others found themselves
controlled by desire despite their will. Christians taught that such
exercises were futile as the problem went much deeper than what such therapeutic
practices might address (cf. Colossians 2.20-23). Paul well understood
this: only by the power of God can people be released from the bondage of the
will to sin. A person living under the power of sin says,
For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want,
but I do the very thing I hate. For I know that nothing good dwells in
me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not
the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I
do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is
no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me (Romans 7.15).
The Christian is
not left in this condition, however, because conversion means transformation by
the work of the Holy Spirit. A few verses later, Paul speaks to the
Christian: 'For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus
from the law of sin and death' (Romans 8.2).
This is
conversion. It is not therapy. Indwelling sin is not extricated
through human efforts but by the work of God. If by therapy we mean some
practical tips on how to live better, well and good, but only by the grace of
God--His powerful, transforming grace at work in us--can we break free from the
shackles of sin and live in obedience to God (cf. Romans 6). Paul speaks
of the Word of God that is 'at work in you believers' (1 Thessalonians
2.13). God has begun a good work in us and will bring it to completion
when Jesus Christ returns (Philippians 1.6). We are God's 'workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus for good works' (Ephesians 2.10). Paul
says,
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ Jesus, he is a new creation.
The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God,
who through Christ Jesus reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of
reconciliation, that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself,
not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of
reconciliation....We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God (2
Corinthians 5.17-20).
God is in the
conversion business, and He has entrusted to His people this ministry as
well. It is no therapy, but it is radical conversion, spiritual and
moral. It does recognise what God has called sin, whether acts or
internal disorders or both. It does teach right and wrong according to
God's Word. It does call for repentance, transformation, and living a
holy life in the power of the Spirit. May the Scottish ministers and
those supporting them in their opposition to the Christian faith themselves
experience true conversion. To convert ones life to God is not coercion
but freedom in Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit at work in us to live
the righteous life. 'For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves
eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness' (Galatians 5.5).
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