NO GETTING STRAIGHTENED OUT ALLOWED

Let's think through this ban on gay conversion therapy for anyone under 18 that is now the law in 14 states, soon to be 15 or 16, as in Utah and Colorado. Yes, Utah. A formerly highly conservative state that has now almost completely recharacterized itself to all-out liberal. Even far left.

If things go as planned, it will soon be against the law for, say, parents to get their teenager professional help in overcoming unwanted homosexuality. In Utah. This is the place, folks. It's the place where we found brilliant help for our son all those years ago, our son, who voluntarily rooted out and conquered his unwanted problem and later got married to a lovely woman, our son who is now the father of three lovely children. This is the place that is now about to outlaw that sort of help, with the whole-hearted imprimatur of the dominant church. Yes, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has denounced reparative therapy, at the same time refusing to accept gay marriage. Try figuring that one out.

The church did not technically support the bill, but rather announced publicly it would not oppose it, which is tantamount to supporting it. In reading the bill it appears that the church is satisfied with protecting itself legally because of a clause in the bill that gives exemption to ecclesiastical members or counselors in a religious capacity saying anything that might be construed as converting someone from gay to straight.(In our church these are most likely to be lay people who have no training in giving any such help anyway. And apparently, according to material the church has produced welcoming gayness, gospel principles such as sin and repentance through Christ are not to be considered. All the counseling anyone will get on this topic is maybe abstinence and warning of the gay lifestyle, the likes of which we don't hear over the pulpit.) Any additional concrete reason the church has refused to support professional sexual orientation change therapy are not common knowledge. The best members can do is make unfounded second-guesses and conjectures to try to excuse this travesty. The position the church has taken concerning this type of therapy is certainly politically correct.

Granted, in the 1960s and early 70s, Mormons with homosexual tendencies were convinced to submit themselves to shock treatments and other crazy procedures in the hope of ridding themselves of the lust for homosexual sex, that is, lust for sodomy. That was stupid. Look, sodomy and all that goes with it is an age-old sin. Key word: sin. It doesn't seem right or effective to try to use electricity to shock somebody out of sinfulness.That is not how Christianity is supposed to be conducted.

After all, the scriptures say that it's the gospel that works better than anything else in overcoming sin. Indeed, the gospel of Jesus Christ was the foundation of our son's therapy, as in we are human beings who go astray, and because of Jesus Christ we can retrace our steps, get on the right path through truth, and repentance and faith in Him, and become humble new creatures with new hearts and new desires fit for the presence of God. (Correct us if that is not the pure gospel of Jesus Christ in a nutshell. You either believe in it or you don't.)

In this oversexed world that celebrates homosexuality like the newest fad, supposed followers of Christ, as in leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ, are against counseling to help young people figure out and overcome and repent of this lawless trendy lust? Really? People, that's just anti-Christ. A heads up for you Mormons: all the anti-Christs in the Book of Mormon were intent on abolishing the whole idea of repentance.

Besides being anti-Christ, another frightening thing about this development is its assault on liberty (which is related to Christianity because we have to be free to live it). Who do these gay activists think they are, going around conniving to make it illegal to act according to the dictates of one's own conscience in their personal life by seeking out counseling that supports their worldview? And why would any church go along with such a thing? A church supporting a bill that outlaws people living their lives according their religious beliefs? Like one of our kids said, it's like outlawing religion. Why would a church want to do that?

This bill is nothing short of tyranny. As per Thomas Jefferson, "I have sworn on the altar of God eternal hostility against any form of tyranny over the mind of man." We're talking about tyranny over children, young people, families, people's private lives and consciences.

We must also bear firmly in mind where all this is coming from, ergo, the spirit of the times. Traditional moral values are being flushed down the toilet. We are living in enemy territory, in an excessively sexual environment where porn (including same-sex porn) is ubiquitous and where normal sexual development and proper sexual feelings are commonly interfered with, inflamed, and distorted. We're seeing the emasculization of manhood and the masculization of womanhood. Perverse and unnatural sexuality in any form people can imagine is paraded in the streets and touted as heroic. People can even decide which sex they really want to be despite their obvious anatomy, or even make up some new sex that can change with the wind. Oh, except from gay to straight. That's the only change increasingly not allowed societally, and now even legally.

The truth is, the Godless gay juggernaut doesn't want anybody to find out how they got into homosexuality or how they can get out. They don't want anybody to question homosexualism (as in both homosexual tendencies and homosexual acts), even if it is unwanted, even if it does violence to the person's conscience, even if they change their minds and want out, even though it is very hazardous, even though it is abominable to God, even though it is a mockery of the procreative act and an abuse of humanity. No, apparently these activists are so miserable themselves that they don't want anybody else getting help out of their dead-end misery either.

Gay activists and their supporters, their sympathizers, and those who for their own reasons are suddenly fine with this "identity," (read: homosexual lust and behavior), have acted so as to show that they don't want anybody to be able to understand these dangerous and perverse feelings, or root them out, or live a normal fulfilling life. This isn't love, it isn't compassion. It's ignorant, self-serving, cunning, deceptive, fawning, cruel, tyrannical, or all of those and more.

As Euripides wrote, "What brashness has the human heart! How far will it push?"

Note 2/26/19 We will let you know here if this Utah bill passes. It is in the rules committee now. We bet it will, simply because the dominant church is not opposing it.

Note 3/9/19  Surprise! The bill failed in committee because a new version was introduced (by our friends and our son's counselor all those years ago) and the sponsor of the bill did not like it and did not appear, which automatically tables the bill. The new version banned physical therapies such as shock and aversion (which haven't been done for decades anyway), but allowed talk therapy, and the bill's author wouldn't go for even that! Anyway, parents and young people with unwanted homosexual tendencies can still get the kind of counseling they desire in Utah for another year.