Dr. Alan J. Dunn

Our posture toward homosexuality is profoundly moral and theological.  Our consciences often engage with “religious zeal” to either accuse or defend whatever stance we take [Rom 2:15].  In Part 1, I proposed that the root moral and theological issue is our personal relationship to the First and Second Commandments.  Our culture no longer views homosexuality as a disease to be cured.  The therapeutic techniques employed in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, known as “conversion therapy,” are no longer credible.  If the “therapy” in “conversion therapy” is now seen as being invalid, we have to ask whether or not “conversion” has any validity.  Historically, conversion therapy has tried to “convert” homosexuals to heterosexuals.  We should not limit our understanding of “conversion” to our sexuality.  Biblical conversion more profoundly concerns our hearts and the God we worship and serve.  We evangelically obey the Tenth Commandment [you shall not covet], which incorporates the morality of the Seventh Commandment [you shall not commit adultery], when we, with regenerated hearts, learn to love the resurrected Jesus supremely and solely as our Lord and our God in obedience to the First Commandment [you shall have no other gods before Me].  Our love for Christ will be manifest in every aspect of our redeemed humanity, which certainly includes our sexuality.  We desire to love the Lord our God with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our strength, and with all our mind; and our neighbor as our self [Luke 10:27].  Our Lord and God who has saved us, is our Creator.  As we will see, our sexuality is essential to who we are as creatures created in the image of God, our Creator.  Our sexuality is a derivative of the God we worship, whether He be the true God or an idol.

The Contemporary Indictment of Conversion Therapy[1]

The focus of the “conversion” in “Conversion Therapy” singularly concerns attempts to redirect the sexual desires and practices of a homosexual to those of a heterosexual.[2]  “Conversion Therapy” was defined recently in legislation that has since failed to pass, for now, in the city of West Lafayette, Indiana.[3]   The Committee of Adolescence of the American Academy of Pediatrics warns: “Therapy directed at specifically changing sexual orientation is contraindicated since it can provoke guilt and anxiety while having little or no potential for achieving changes in orientation.”[4]  Conversion therapy is said to violate “the American Counseling Association Code of Ethics.” The City Council of West Lafayette asserts that reparative or conversion therapy “has been shown to be ineffectual, cause harm, and violate consumer fraud-protection law.” The American Psychoanalytic Association opposes any “purposeful attempts to ‘convert,’ ‘repair,’ change or shift an individual’s sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.”[5]

We need to acknowledge the legitimate good these organizations are attempting to do.  Statistical evidence shows that conversion therapy, with its narrow focus on “converting” a homosexual to a heterosexual, is statistically a failure.  With every good intention, the medical community warns against the results of such failure: anxiety, depression, domestic and social conflict, and most of all, instances of self-harm and suicide.  These professionals judge conversion therapies to “carry the risk of significant harm.” The American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors, and Therapists in 2017 stated that

“having a non-heterosexual sexual orientation, that being transgender and that being gender non-conforming, are not mental disorders.  We oppose any “reparative” or conversion therapy that seeks to “change” or “fix” a person’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression… The rationale behind this position[6] is the following: Reparative therapy (for minors, in particular) is often forced or non-consensual.  Reparative therapy has been proven harmful to minors.  There is no scientific evidence supporting the success of these interventions.  Reparative therapy is grounded in the idea that non-heterosexual orientation, transgender gender identity, and gender non-conforming expressions are “disordered.” Reparative therapy has been shown to be a negative predictor of psychotherapeutic benefit.”

To protect its citizens from these decidedly harmful techniques, the City Council of West Lafayette would circumscribe the activity of counseling only to those who are licensed and governed by the State of Indiana’s Professional Licensing Agency.  The proposed ordinance [number 31-21] hopes to protect “the physical and psychological well-being of minors, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth, and [to protect] its minors against exposure to serious harms caused by conversion therapy by unlicensed persons.”  The City Council opposes conversion therapy as an ineffective and even harmful practice.  This repeated concern for “unlicensed persons” sheds light on something else that the Council of West Lafayette opposes.

West Lafayette is the location of Faith Church which has been known since the 1970s for its extensive biblical counseling ministry.  According to Steve West, Faith Church provides thirty-two counselors at various locales in the city, offering sixty to eighty hours of biblical counseling to whoever comes to them free of charge. [7]  It is hard, if not impossible, to avoid the deduction that the “unlicensed persons” who are practicing “conversion therapy” in West Lafayette are specifically those giving biblical counsel under the auspices of Faith Church of West Lafayette.  This conclusion is difficult to avoid given the contemporary alignment in people’s thinking of Christianity and conversion therapy and the Bible’s indictment of homosexuality as a sinful desire and practice.   The moral lines being drawn are clear.  In simplistic terms, homosexuality is good and conversion therapy is bad.  If Christians employ conversion therapy, that is not good, and the good homosexuals should be protected from the bad Christians by the good City Council.  If conversion therapy is identified with biblical counseling and conversion therapy is indicted, those who practice conversion therapy, i.e. Christians, must be indicted.  The indictment of conversion therapy mistakenly morphs into an indictment of biblical counseling as an expression of biblical religion: specifically biblical Christianity.

The Contemporary Definition of Conversion Therapy

A licensed counselor would presumably agree with the denunciations of conversion therapy made by the professional organizations cited above.  The counselors of Faith Church are not licensed for the most part.  If biblical counselors are unlicensed, it is likely because they have an “a priori assumption that a patient should change his or her sexual orientation.” [Note the morally weighted term “should”].  Of course, such an assumption is anathema to the guardians of woke LGBTQ+ orthodoxy who also make assumptions.  If we assume that Christian counselors practice conversion therapy, then the denunciations against conversion therapy extend to biblical counseling and, by implication, to biblical Christianity.  When we see the contemporary definition of conversion therapy and consider the threatened sanctions against any unlicensed counselor who would engage in conversion therapy, the thinly veiled animus to biblical Christianity becomes obvious.

Although the West Lafayette City Council withdrew ordinance 31-21 due to legal and financial concerns, the controversy and confusion about the relationship of conversion therapy to biblical Christianity continue.[8]  Here are pertinent excerpts from the proposed ordinance which shows the thinking of many in our culture who would, it would seem, silence and remove the voice of biblical Christianity from the cultural conversation on matters of moral concern:

Sec. 1.  Policy.  The City of West Lafayette, Indiana has a compelling interest in protecting the physical and psychological well-being of minors, including but not limited to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender from exposure to the serious harms and risks caused by conversion therapy or reparative therapy by unlicensed persons.  These provisions are exercises of the police power of the City of West Lafayette, Indiana for the public safety health, and welfare, and its provisions shall be liberally construed to accomplish that purpose.

Sec. 2.  Definitions

(a) “Licensed person(s)” is defined as any person(s) licensed and governed by Ind.  Code § 25-1-1-1 et seq. and the State of Indiana’s Professional Licensing Agency who provides counseling and/or psychotherapy.

(b) “Unlicensed person(s)” is defined as any person(s) not licensed or governed by Ind.  Code § 25-1-1-1 et seq. and the State of Indiana’s Professional Licensing Agency who provides counseling and/or psychotherapy.

(c) “Conversion therapy” is defined as any practices or treatments that seek to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity, including efforts to change gender expressions or to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attractions or feelings toward individuals of the same gender.  Conversion therapy shall not include counseling that provides assistance to a person undergoing gender transition, or counseling that provides acceptance, support, and understanding of a person or facilitates a person’s coping, social support, and identity exploration and development, including sexual-orientation-neutral interventions to prevent or address unlawful conduct or unsafe sexual practices, as long as such counseling does not seek to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity.

(d) “Minor person” is defined as any person under the age of 18.

(e) “Counseling” is defined as techniques used to help individuals learn how to solve problems and make decisions related to personal growth, vocational, family, and other interpersonal concerns.

(f) “Psychotherapy” means the assessing and treating of mental and emotional disorders by any of the various means of communication between the social worker practitioner and the client.

Sec. 2.  Licensed Professionals.  Given the consensus views from the American Psychological Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association Council on Scientific Affairs, the National Association of Social Workers, the American Counseling Association Governing Council, the American School Counselor Association, the American Psychoanalytic Association, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the Pan American Health Organization, the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors, and Therapists, and the American College of Physicians, among others, that conversion therapy damages the physical and psychological wellbeing of minors, the City of West Lafayette strongly discourages licensed persons from engaging in conversion therapy with a minor person.

Sec. 3.  Unlicensed Persons.  It shall be a violation of this ordinance for an unlicensed person to engage in conversion therapy with a minor person.

Sec. 4.  Enforcement.  Any violation of this ordinance shall result in a fine of $1000.  A separate offense shall be deemed committed on each day that a violation occurs or continues.

The updated definition of conversion therapy no longer has the often inhumane, original behavior modification techniques in view.  Now conversion therapy is “any practice or treatment that seeks to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity, including efforts to change gender expressions or to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attractions or feelings toward individuals of the same gender.”  Along with the concern for unlicensed counselors is the specific emphasis on minors younger than eighteen years of age.  The definition of “counseling” is so all-encompassing that it conceivably criminalizes personal conversations that do not endorse the LGBTQ+ agenda between parents and their children, or friends, and certainly pastoral counsel.[9]  The fine of $1,000 per day is stunningly harsh, especially in a society given First Amendment rights of freedom of assembly and freedom of speech.  These expansive legal stipulations should not surprise us.  At the outset, we are given the rationale for this ordinance by the first reference to the American Psychological Association which opposes any opposition to homosexuality from anyone including “parents, guardians, young people, and their families”… who have “the a priori assumption that a patient should change his or her sexual orientation.”

Here is a window into our current cultural mindset.  Legislation is an expression of society’s values and priorities.  We are looking at legislation that is being proposed in West Lafayette, Indiana, not Provincetown, Massachusetts.   In Part 3, we’ll consider Scripture’s explanation for our current cultural mindset. We’ll go back to Part 1’s focus on the Creator and the First and Second Commandments. We’ll see that our sexuality is indeed a most theological aspect of who we are as creatures created in the image of God.

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[1] I say “indictment” to keep our consciences in view.  We are always, perpetually, judging everything, everyone, everywhere, at all times.  We cannot experience life without morally assessing it and ourselves in it as a function of conscience.  The consensus of the collective conscience on conversion therapy is one of “indictment.”

[2]  Conversion therapy constricts “conversion” of a homosexual to a heterosexual.  Christian conversion is far more expansive and affects every faculty of our humanity, such that the Christian’s sexuality is evidence of the more radical reality of his/her conversion to Christ.  See Part 1.

[3] See https://legistarweb-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/attachment/pdf/1163135/Ord_31-21_Ban_Conversion_Therapy__Amended_.pdf.  Also, https://www.wbaa.org/government/2022-01-25/west-lafayette-ordinance-would-ban-conversion-therapy-from-unlicensed-therapists-advocates-say-licensed-therapists-still-pose-a-problem, January 25, 2022, accessed March 15, 2022.  I interact with this document as a current and concise representation of the prevailing views extant in our culture concerning homosexuality.

[4] “Contraindication” is a medical term concerning treatments that to do more harm and good.  Treatments that are medically approved are “indicated.”

[5] Psychoanalysis originated with Sigmund Freud at the end of the 19^th century and targeted the “unconscious mind.”

[6] The position of conversion therapy that would “‘change’ or ‘fix’ a person’s sexual orientation.”

[7] Steve West, “’Conversion Therapy’ ban threatens Indiana church ministry,” WORLD, January 18, 2022, accessed March 15, 2022, https://wng.org/roundups/conversion-therapy-ban-threatens-indiana-church-ministry-1642524571

[8] See Ben Thorp, “West Lafayette City Council pulls ban on conversion therapy citing legal concerns,” Indiana Public Media, February 9, 2022, accessed March 15, 2022, https://indianapublicmedia.org/news/west-lafayette-city-council-pulls-ban-on-conversion-therapy-citing-legal-concerns,-approves-resolution-calling-for-statewide-ban.php

[9] One need not wonder how the City Council would view preaching Scriptural truth on sexuality from a public pulpit.

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