Reminder: There is no Christian-LGBT Compromise on AB 2943

Before Assemblyman Evan Low pulled his bill AB 2943, another editorial was released through the Southern California News Group to promote the bill and to end reparative therapy altogether.

I had wanted to analyze, and more importantly debunk this article.

Now that MassResistance claimed victory on the issue (for now), I wanted to comment on the issue after the fact.

How Christians and LGBTQ people share common ground on Assembly Bill2943

A pluralistic society that thrives depends upon trust and relational respect among the groups within it. We again find ourselves in the midst of discussions around human sexuality in California. Conservative Christian groups and the LGBTQ Legislative Caucus are immersed in conversations that represent differing perspectives. Yet, at the center there’s common ground that can lay a path forward.

Differing perspectives will always exist and persist. But truth is not a matter of discussion. At now time can anyone accept this argument that homosexuality and transgenderism or civil rights based on innate genetic identities.

The proof for these ideas just does not exist. People are not born gay, and transgenderism is riddled with a host of terrible pathologies.

Assembly Bill 2943 represents the latest effort on the part of the LGBTQ Caucus to protect California’s LGBTQ people from the psychological harm of “reparative or conversion therapy.”  The decades-old practice claims that such therapy will change the sexual orientation of a person and in effect guarantee to “turn a gay person straight.”

Reparative therapy does not harm people. Reparative therapy has saved countless lies.

We need to combat this fraud as much as we can. This is unthinkable.

Assemblymember Evan Low says his intent focuses narrowly on making fraudulent the advertising and guaranteeing the success for conversion therapy by licensed professionals for a fee. However, AB2943’s sweeping definition of “sexual orientation change efforts,” goes beyond that intent. Christian pastors hold a deep concern that the bill overreaches into the ministry of congregations in caring for people. This legislation may be used in the future to exceed its intended purpose.

The true fraud lies in this ongoing argument that reparative therapy is not therapy at all. That is a total lie. Look at the faces and consider the lives of the people in this link.

The L.A. Times Editorial Board made clear in a May 7 article that this concern was not simply the perception of Christian pastors. “AB2943 … contains ambiguities that need to be cleared up if the legislation is to become law.”

"Ambiguities" should actually read "lies." The lies and deceptions do not need to be better understood. They need to be confronted and rejected outright.

Mr. Low’s central purpose as I understand it, is one which I and many other Christian leaders can support. Reparative therapy is without evidence as to its efficacy and is inconsistent with Christian living. We support Mr. Low in his opposition to practices that cause harm in people. This is contrary to the nature of the Christian message, which, while calling for change in all people to be oriented toward Christ even at great sacrifice, neither favors nor supports any practice that causes harm.

"Reparative therapy is without evidence."

This is a total lie. This lie is so brazen, it's really hard to take people seriously when they assert this fraud.

This legislation seems to assume that all Christians support reparative therapy, and that the only means to curtail its use is by legislative action. In fact, most churches recognize its potential damage, and Christians in California are less supportive of it than the author presumed.  Given the risk of AB2943’s legislative overreach, a wiser path lies with collaborative, open dialogue that causes such hurtful practices to be abandoned through the moral consciousness of society.

Most "churches" which claim to recognize its damage--don't understand its use. Either that, or they have abandoned their strict adherence to God's word.

Christian pastors and church ministries call people to change in many areas of life — including sexual behavior. It is part of the Christian message to call people to marital fidelity, abstinence outside of marriage, and purity in heart and motive. Where these become a struggle for people, the church is available to help through grace-filled ministries, but never through harmful practices.

Reparative therapy is not a harmful practice. This is a fundamentally flawed. This whole article founders on this lie. We need to confront this, and the brave men and women who testified against this terrible bill did exactly that.

The breadth of the language in AB2943 will limit the ability of California’s pastors to engage fully with the real struggles of their people. Mr. Low has said that is genuinely not his intent. I am hopeful that he and the LGBTQ Caucus may still collaborate with churches and institutions to preserve their freedom of ministry while at the same time protecting LGBTQ people from harm.

Mr. Low is a genuine liar.

The majority of Christian pastors and churches in California and the nation hold a deep and lasting commitment to historic Christian beliefs rooted in Scriptural truth about marriage and human sexuality. We recognize that this is not the fundamental starting point of the LGBTQ Caucus. Yet, because we also believe that everyone is created in God’s image, we commit ourselves to a posture of engagement seeking the common ground based upon trust, respect, and mutual commitment to a pluralistic society.

We were intended to be in God's image.

Then came sin, and the world fell. Everyone born into the world is born dead in trespasses. It takes a rebirth to have one's godly image restored.

We need to be reborn, to receive His life.

This compromise talk is a total scam. There can be no compromise when nothing but lies are the established argument on one side of the debate. The whole LGBT is based on the big lie, that people are "born that way." The new theme, though is "Once Gay", because the truth is that no one is born to be gay, and heterosexual conduct within the blessed confines of marriage is the true, lasting, loving way to live.

It's time to stand for truth. It's time to start at the finish line and be established in God's gift of righteousness (Isaiah 54:17, Romans 5:17)