Church leaders tell Rishi Sunak legislation will also see parents and teachers fall foul of the law
By Nick Gutteridge, Political Correspondent
26 January 2023 • 8:30pm
Christians are at risk of being “criminalised” by a proposed new ban on trans conversion therapy, 1,400 church leaders have warned Rishi Sunak.
In a letter to the Prime Minister, they said the legislation would also see parents and teachers fall foul of the law. They have called for a meeting with Mr Sunak in Downing Street and urged him to drop the “confused” and “unnecessary” proposal.
The Government has said the new law, which will ban all forms of conversion therapy in England and Wales, will cover trans people.
Mr Sunak is facing a Tory revolt over the plans, with dozens of MPs from different wings of the party set to oppose it in Parliament.
Church leaders from different denominations have said the teachings of their faiths are “at grave risk of being outlawed by the proposed legislation”. (more…)
It is a great joy to read your Bible and find it speaking to you on the issues of today.
Our school has printed the following text on the presentation label inside every Bible given to school leavers: “When thou goest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee,” Proverbs 6:20-22.
The Word of God does indeed speak with those who come to its pages with earnest faith. May we be given the grace to say with the child Samuel: “Speak; for thy servant heareth,” 1 Samuel 3:10.
May the following thoughts be instructive and of a benefit and blessing to you all.
Sincerely in Christ’s name,
Ivan Foster
The Pharisee and the Publican water color by John Everett Millais (c. 1860)
MEN WHOSE RELIGION IS NOTHING BUT AN ACT!
“But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in,” Matthew 23:13.
I recall, as if it were but yesterday, the first time I heard Dr Paisley preach on this chapter, in my early days attending his church in 1964. He was defending himself yet again against the railing accusations of ecumenists and modernist ministers, who had accused him of being ‘unChrist-like’ whenever he condemned in strong Biblical terms those guilty of denying the truth of the Bible!
I was thrilled to thus see that the enemies of God could be answered directly, unsparingly and powerfully from the recorded words of the Lord Jesus Himself.
I believe I learned a lesson back then that has lasted a lifetime!
1. The word ‘hypocrite’ is particularly applicable.
The Greek word from which the English word ‘hypocrite’ comes is hupokrites. It carries the meaning of an actor, stage player. It refers to someone who is merely pretending to be someone he is not in reality.
How wonderfully precise and accurate is such a word in describing men who daily masquerade as being men that in truth they are very far from being! The term ‘Pharisee’ has entered the English language and it is used in a derogative manner when speaking of one noted for his religious falsity.
Most Protestant ministers begin their ministry by publicly swearing to believe creeds and confessions that essentially date back to the days of the Protestant Reformation. Despite years of modernism and ecumenism, most professedly Protestant churches have at least some of the basic elements of Biblical religion laid down in their foundational doctrines.
By confessing such doctrines as theirs, the men who then go on to deny and undermine these truths are indeed hypocrites, merely actors playing out a role and that for money! (more…)
Here is further evidence of the dominant position into which the practisers and promoters of the perverted lifestyle of the sodomites and their evil associates have come.
The charge against this man is made despite it being reported that, “he has protested that all he did was share his experience as a former homosexual who “left homosexuality”.
Mr Grech said he does not agree with the term ‘conversion therapy’ and that he left his homosexual identity after becoming a Christian – without any type of therapy.
“I understood that in the Bible, homosexuality is not an identity as we make it nowadays. And neither is it a feeling, but a practice…” he said.
This sounds very like the confession of one who has truly experienced God’s deliverance from this evil lifestyle.
He is being supported by UK campaign group, Christian Concern/The Christian Legal Centre, which insists at no point during the programme did Mr Grech invite any listener to attend therapy.
It will be interesting to see the reaction of the The Stormont Department of Communities which it is stated is ‘working with LGBT groups and colleagues in other jurisdictions on legislation “to ban conversion practices in Northern Ireland’.
The first person in the world to be prosecuted for promoting ‘gay conversion therapy’ is a trustee of Co Down ex-gay charity Core Issues, according to the campaign group defending him.
Matthew Grech, 33, is a trustee of the Co Down ex-gay charity Core Issues Trust. He lives on the Mediterranean island state of Malta, which is also an EU member. (more…)
Here is further evidence of the dominant position into which the practisers and promoters of the perverted lifestyle of the sodomites and their evil associates have come.