Fears That Conversion Therapy Ban Could Criminalise Christian Prayer

A man prays in a church in Birmingham, England, on Dec. 24, 2018. (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

Some British church leaders are concerned that the UK government’s plans to press ahead with a ban on so-called conversion therapy could effectively criminalise prayer.

The proposed legislation will mean therapy to attempt to change people’s sexuality will be banned, and introduce a new criminal offence alongside sentence uplifts for existing ones.

On Thursday the Conservative government reportedly said it would initially drop plans for the ban entirely, according to a leaked document obtained by ITV News.

However, on Friday the government reversed course, with a government spokesperson telling The Epoch Times that the prime minister was “committed to bringing forward legislation to ban conversion therapy.”

“The content, scope, and timing of the proposed bill will be confirmed in due course,” he added.

State Overreach?

But some Christian clergy fear that with the new rules, authorities will be able to decide what they can and cannot pray for, restricting religious freedom.

The Rev. Jamie Franklin, who presents the popular religious current affairs podcast “Irreverand,” told The Epoch Times: “Make no mistake: the implication of this legislation will be that the government will dictate what Christians can and can’t pray for. It constitutes an egregious violation of religious liberty and is another example of pernicious state overreach.”

The government defines conversion therapy as “any efforts to change, modify, or suppress a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity regardless of whether it takes place in a health care, religious, or other setting.”

According to government research, the most common methods used in conversion therapy involve a combination of spiritual methods, such as “prayer healing” or exorcisms, and pastoral counselling, and psychological methods such as talking therapies.

Professional therapy bodies such as the UK Council for Psychotherapy have spoken out against conversion therapy, considering it “unethical and potentially harmful.”

“Conversion therapy begins from the preconceived view that the client’s sexual orientation or gender identity should be changed. Sexual orientations and gender identities are not mental health disorders. It is therefore unethical to offer a treatment a ‘cure’ for them,” it stated.

Critics say there is already an existing criminal law framework that prohibits offences of physical or sexual violence that may arise from conversion therapy.

The government said in its December consultation that it had identified gaps in the law and that it would take action to introduce new criminal and civil measures.

These include a new offence that will target talking conversion therapy for under-18s and the vulnerable, as well making sure that violent acts will be considered by judges as a potential aggravating factor upon sentencing.

Other measures include Conversion Therapy Protection Orders, support for victims, restricting its promotion, removing profit streams, and disqualifying people from holding a senior role in a charity.

Chilling Effect

Toby Young, editor of the Daily Sceptic and general secretary of the Free Speech Union (FSU) told The Epoch Times in an email that the law would inevitably have a “chilling effect on free speech.”

“Today brought good news and bad news. The good news is the ban won’t extend to providing therapy to transgender individuals. The bad news is the government still intends to waste precious parliamentary time on this entirely unnecessary bill. Conversion therapy for gay and bisexual people is already prohibited by numerous laws. We don’t need another. It’s just pointless virtue signalling,” said Young.

Young pointed towards the FSU’s recent response to the government’s consultation.

“Our concern is that ‘conversion therapy,’ as currently under discussion, is too vaguely defined to form the basis of a new law and such a law would inevitably have a chilling effect on free speech,” the FSU wrote.

“Without a clear definition of ‘conversion therapy,’ government-sanctioned protection orders amount to a fresh power for the state to impose free speech restrictions, especially on parents, who may have legitimate questions about their child’s sexual orientation or gender identity or personal self-expression,” it added.

Dangerous Territory

The Rev. William Philip from The Tron Church in Glasgow, Scotland, told The Epoch Times that there are marginal groups that participate in conversion therapy that “are unhelpful and damaging.”

“We don’t want to defend that, but those sorts of things are very covered by existing legislation,” he said.

But he had concerns that the new legislation could criminalise preaching, prayer, and pastoral care.

He said that there is a “real danger that it could outlaw the ordinary work of Christian churches” and that the “Christian call is for repentance to conversion.”

“It’s very dangerous to criminalise the word of conversion. It very quickly becomes conversion itself. I think we are transgressing into quite dangerous territory with this kind of thing. Some people want to ban prayer. So if someone comes to their pastor and says they are having unwanted same-sex attraction, ‘please would you pray for me,’ the danger of this legislation is that it potentially criminalises something as basic as Christian prayer and Christian teaching,” he said.

Philip added that a major issue surrounding the legislation’s lack of clarity was that it “could be inevitably used by activists to push a particular agenda way beyond what the intention was.”

“The church can’t change its message, and we can’t stop praying or calling people to repent and to follow Christ and His way. But we may find ourselves criminalised because of that,” said Philip.