Christians recently gathered in London to find out how they can better support people struggling with unwanted same-sex attraction.
They heard from James Parker, an ex-gay Christian from Australia who regularly speaks to churches and faith groups about how they can engage with these issues as a church and in wider society.
Parker told stories of hope about people who have been helped by therapy for unwanted same-sex attraction or gender dysphoria, including people who were formerly drug dependent and caught up in prostitution, and people who have become happily heterosexual or are experiencing greatly diminished same-sex attraction.
Despite these positive experiences of change, several Australian states have introduced draconian conversion therapy bans that threaten to impose huge fines and imprisonment for breaches, which potentially include suggesting chastity or offering prayer. Some supporters of a conversion therapy ban in the UK see the Australian states as a model for what could be introduced here.
“Even if you want therapy and even if it’s proven to be beneficial and even if you’ve got people supporting you and you’re saying ‘please, please, please’, nope, that’s criminal,” said Parker of the situation in Australia.
He called the bans “totalitarian” and said he feared a “slippery slope”.
“Will this bring about ultimately … the eradication of the Lord’s Prayer from the state of Victoria? Highly likely, yes,” he said.
Meeting church and faith leaders around the world, Parker said that many of them are “scared” to speak up on the issue and that it is up to the grassroots to work for change.
“We are in World War Three, it’s just that it’s an invisible war and it is literally [trying] to decimate an entire generation in our land,” he said.
Despite the challenges across many countries, especially in the West, he said that people continue to be set free.
“The hunger is out there (for help) and the work is happening,” he said.
“There are literally hundreds of thousands of stories out there that we need people to start sharing on social media … We need others to know that change is possible and it’s not about even being gay or straight.
“It’s about the fact that we all need to move towards a place of holiness and we all need to move away from those layers of maturing sin towards maturing dignity and righteousness as well.”
He urged churches to be places of welcome for LGBT people and to speak the truth in love, recognising that it is about a person’s soul and that “souls need to understand mercy”. Seen in this light, he said it was important not to be “preachy” or “imposing” but to do it in such a way as to open up discussions.
“God is calling people to Himself, God’s doing it but we the church for the most part aren’t ready to receive them or to understand them or to walk with them,” he said.
“I hope there is respect, compassion and sensitivity in the way I speak. There comes a point in all our lives when ultimately the truth needs to be spoken but it’s a great injustice to pour truth upon somebody when they have no understanding of mercy and forgiveness.”
He continued, “When you give people an environment in which to be able to discuss these things and they feel that they’re not going to be judged, then what happens is people are often really quite quick to tell you what some of the hurdles are that they’ve never got over and need to get over.”
He added, “If we’re not careful, we still see it as a ‘them’ and an ‘us’ … The more that we see this as a collective of all of us and not an ‘us’ and ‘them’, the sooner we will also see an advancement of the Kingdom and the healing power of the Lord able to be at work.”
