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Friday the Seattle Times editorial board joined Sen. Marko Liias (D-Lynwood) in strongly advocating the passage of SB 5722---a bill that will make "conversion therapy" for "gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth under 18" illegal.
The Times says it's a no-brainer, and the "horrible practice should have been banned long ago."
Let's retrieve our brain for a moment, and take a closer look at this matter.
There is no question there have been abuses in so-called "conversion therapy." And many of the abusive instances have been widely reported and highlighted by the media in recent months.
To be clear, I do not personally condone the behavior of some therapists in this matter. Their conduct is morally, socially and biblically wrong. It's reprehensible. I personally do not know a single pastor who approves of the methods that have been widely reported by the media regarding so-called "conversion therapy" also known as "reparative therapy."
But let's take a closer look at what Sen. Liias, The Seattle Times editorial board and their colleagues in the state legislature are advocating for.
The Times says, "All major psychological; and medical organizations agree with Liias' assessment of conversion therapy," calling it "torture."
The Times is either misinformed because they have not done their homework, or simply not telling the truth in order to further advance an agenda that they agree with.
Or they consider all organizations who do not agree with them, "not major."
Not one, but a number of highly recognized medical organizations and distinguished pediatricians are sounding the alarm on what Liias and the Times---and a segment of the medical community---are up to.
The National Catholic Register recently published a well documented, well researched, and I believe balanced, article on this subject and its wider implications. I strongly encourage you to read it.
The American College of Pediatricians issued a statement in August of 2016 addressing this issue. In it they said, "Currently there is a vigorous, albeit suppressed, debate among physicians, therapists and academics regarding what is fast becoming the new treatment standard for [gender dysphoria] in children."
Liias' point of view is directed at "therapists who are trying to help people, specifically children (and their families) remove themselves from the homosexual lifestyle."
What is left out of his crusade, and the current discussion, is any consideration of the fact that kids are regularly preyed upon with indoctrination toward gender confusion---dysphoria--- in their public education classrooms, the entertainment industry and elsewhere.
While claiming to "protect" kids, homosexual activists are providing materials to public education that introduces 4-year-olds to complex sexual and gender questions that would have never otherwise entered their minds.
On Friday, I alerted parents who read this Faith and Freedom Daily article to yet another attempt in a public grade school to indoctrinate kids as young as 4 toward gender confusion.
Dr. Paul Hrudz, a pediatric endocrinologist at Washington University of Medicine in St. Louis, says, "The vast majority of children with gender dysphoria will realign their gender identity to match their sex."
While much is made of the "horrible" therapists who are trying to counsel the "gay out of the kids," as homosexual activists like to say, immeasurable harm is being done to children by the homosexual activists and their accomplices in the medical field---with the approval of Marko Liias, Seattle Times editorial board and others who hold their beliefs on the matter
Great physical and psychological harm is being done because homosexuals must protect, at all costs, the notion that they are "born that way," even though there is not a single thread of medical science or biology that supports their claim.
Ethnicity and sexual behavior are not equivalent.
Boston Children's Hospital Dr. Norman Spack has acknowledged that his "methods of affirming gender dysphoria is controversial, and that most gender confusion is resolved over time in most patients."
In highlighting the inappropriate behavior of some therapists, Liias, the Times and other advocates completely ignore the other side of the issue that is equally "horrible" in the use of hormone and puberty suppressants, and gender reassignment surgery.
Because of the abuses, Boston Hospital has established new guidelines.
Johns Hopkins University medical school is now refusing to allow many of the so-called "accepted medical practices" in gender reassignment. Leading doctors and psychologists at other major universities, such as Arizona State University, are also pushing back on what Liias and the Times are unwilling to accept. More about this is included in the Register article linked above.
Do not believe the Times or Liias. SB 5722 has much further and deeper implication than they are willing to admit. The issue is not as it is being presented by the senator or the paper.
Katherine Kersten, with the Center of the American Experiment, published an article on this subject in an issue of First Things.
She says, "For decades, gay activists have claimed that people who have same-sex attractions are born that way."
She says, "The claim of an inborn trait is their link [to similar claims of discrimination based on] race and sex. It allows activists to bring their claims under the civil rights rubric."
And she says, "They are hostile to anything that suggests that might not be the case" thus "the angry push back against patients" who have actually been helped through counseling or appropriate therapy.
Deception.
There is also a deception woven into this matter by the way the Times presents their case.
The editorial board says, "Some speakers at a public hearing last week expressed concern this bill would restrict clergy members and volunteer counselors or even parents from even talking with children about their sexuality."
And the editorial board assures the public, "That is an exaggeration of the proposal and its intent."
The Times editorial board is skilled at promises to the public.
Back in 2009 when Christians and some conservatives came together to stand against domestic partnerships (R-71), The Seattle Times assured the public the domestic partnership bill---commonly called the "Everything but Marriage" bill---was merely about equality for all. It had nothing to do with redefining marriage.
The Times repeatedly quoted then Senator Ed Murray, the leader of the movement to redefine marriage, as assuring that domestic partnerships was merely about fairness and equality--it was not about "marriage," this was "not the intent of the domestic partnership" bill, they said.
I was quoted repeatedly by the Times, KIRO radio and others saying I believed it "was all about marriage"---incrementalism was Murray's favorite tool.
The day following the passage of the domestic partnership bill, the Times published the line, "Give them the name," noting that they had been given everything but marriage, so let's go ahead and give them the name.
If the Times and Liias get their bill passed, it will be a matter of months if not weeks, until someone under the age of 18 will set up a pastor or Christian counselor to share with them the transforming power of the gospel and deliverance from homosexual behavior through Jesus Christ, then claim their meeting was an attempt at "conversion therapy" on the part of the pastor or Christian counselor.
The promise that the intent of the bill was not clergy, etc., will evaporate.
Incrementalism is the cornerstone of both progressivism and the advancement of the homosexual agenda.
The Seattle Times editorial board states, "You cannot convert someone away from his or her true nature."
That claim is in absolute contradiction to the most fundamental biblical doctrine of Christianity--"All have sinned and come short of the glory of God"--therefore we all need a Savior.
Sin is our true nature, because we are born into sin.
Jesus Christ was crucified as a substitute for the sin of all men and women. He himself said He came to save, heal and deliver the sinner.
The Bible is crystal clear--homosexuality is sin, from which one can be delivered.
Newton explained that fundamental belief in his song, "Amazing Grace"---"I once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind but now I see."
This bill has the potential to create a legal challenge to the most fundamental claims of Christianity.
Tell your elected Washington state lawmakers to have the courage to say "No" to SB 5722.
Be Informed. Be Vigilant. Be Discerning. Be Bold. Be Faithful. Be Prayerful.