Dear Anneliese Dodds,
I’m writing this public letter to you as Minister for Equalities, because I am concerned that the UK government’s “Conversion Therapy Bill” risks criminalising basic, Christian sexual ethics.
Here’s why:
Every human society has a form of sexual ethics, however rudimentary. Communities share an understanding of what sex is and isn’t for. Groups then develop practices to reinforce that ethic. For example, a community believes rape is wrong. So, they punish rape with imprisonment. Schools teach about rape, and talk through what’s wrong with it. Sexual ethics go hand in hand with practices. An ethic that you don’t promote isn’t really an ethic. It’s just a vague idea or sentiment, with no moral force.
Every Christian from the dawn of time until about 5 minutes ago (!) has understood sex to be based on the union of a man and a woman, in marriage, ordered towards procreation. That idea flew in the face of Canaanite society. It flew in the face of the Graeco-Roman society. But Jesus taught it was basic to creation, to the Torah, and to his teaching. Have we lived up to it? No! We believe there’s grace for sexual sinners. But, like any ethic, Christians understand deviations from that ethic to be immoral. We promote and reinforce marriage between man and a woman as the proper context for sexual union, which is good for the individual and for society.
However, a ban of “conversion therapy” will criminalise Christians for promoting that sexual ethic.
How can I say that, when the suggested wording of the Bill goes out of its way to emphasise that “teaching, preaching or any form of declaration of belief about the morality, ethics, or preference of any sexual orientation” will not be criminalised?
Here’s why:
Because in the very next breathe it says: “supporting a person… to suppress, ‘cure’, or change their sexual orientation” will be criminalised!
Hang on! That means the law will give us permission to promote a Christian sexual ethic from the pulpit, but not in the counselling room. You’re letting us hold an ethic which you’re not letting us practice?! Our moral disapproval is allowed so long as it doesn’t aim to supress what it disapproves of! That’s a nonsense position. It’s like saying: you’re allowed to preach against stealing, and you can support a thief so long as you don’t actually suggest he stop stealing.
This is what the language of “conversion therapy” is deliberately designed to obfuscate. It’s a neologism coined in the last 10 years to be disingenuous. Extreme examples are cited – beatings, shackling, food deprivation and exorcisms (which I, and every Christian I’ve ever met, would strongly disapprove of) – but the definition is then watered down to “trying to stop or suppress someone from being gay” (as summarised by the BBC).
But, suppressing certain sexual desires is exactly what any and every basic, Christian sexual ethic does. We want to stop people from understanding their malformed sexual desires as constitutive of their identity. Jesus has come as a doctor to “cure” us from our sinful desires (Mark 2:17). Jesus came as the ultimate conversion therapist. This is the good news contained in that little, often misunderstood word: “Repent!”. Jesus frees us from sin’s guilt and power. In fact, that word “suppress” doesn’t go far enough. Jesus’ apostle, Paul, tells us to “mortify” (Rom 8:13) and “crucify” (Gal 5:24) our immorality.
It’s this ethic that a “Conversion Therapy” Bill is proposing to criminalise.
That people who identify as LGBTQ+ do not want to be bullied or coerced in humiliating ways is completely understandable. But is forbidding the moral evaluation of an individual’s sexual desire really the solution here? I thought one of the hallmarks of Britain was our ability to practice tolerance, to model robust disagreement with each other. Aren’t we a place that discusses differences and allows room for them? This legislation is shutting down a large slice of that space.
No doubt there’s psychological quackery out there that purports to change someone’s sexual orientation in 10 weeks. If we were criminalising a clearly defined set of objectionable practices, I would not be alarmed. But that is not what a “Conversion Therapy” Bill is really targeting.
If we’re being honest, this legislation is criminalising Christians for practicing what we preach. Because, after all, morals that aren’t practiced are not really morals at all. Christians will be told, by force of law, “Thou shalt not discourage or dissuade your children, your fellow Christians, or any would-be disciples from following their own sexual desires”. You will be criminalising the majority of the Christian church from passing on to others what was taught by the prophets, the apostles, and the Lord Jesus himself.
Is that really what you want to do?
Yours sincerely,
Simon Arscott
Minister, All Nations Church Ilford