Peter Jensen speaks with John Anderson

In his latest Conversations videos, John Anderson speaks with former Archbishop of Sydney Dr. Peter Jensen.

This wide-ranging and deeply personal interview is well worth your time – and is also worth sending to your friends, believers or otherwise.

What would a conversion therapy ban mean for gay Christians like me?

“As a gay Christian, I’m worried about the calls to ban ‘gay conversion therapy’.

Of course, it’s right that gay people are protected and some of the practices referred to as conversion therapy are deeply wrong. But there’s a danger that  badly-drafted legislation could make life impossible for those working in churches when gay people come to us for help. …”

– Ed Shaw writes at The Spectator.

Photo courtesy Living Out.

Vatican bars gay union blessing, says God ‘can’t bless sin’

“The Vatican’s orthodoxy office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, issued a formal response on Monday to a question about whether Catholic clergy have the authority to bless gay unions. …”

– Report from The Sydney Morning Herald, 16 March 2021.

For background, here is the statement from the Vatican:

Responsum of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
to a dubium regarding the blessing of the unions of persons of the same sex.

Frayed about the Edges

“It is a common failing of any writer, teacher or preacher to impose one’s individual circumstances on a whole community – to assume that what one is going through, all are going through.

Nevertheless, it is a reasonable diagnosis to say that Australian society, and Western society in general, is looking very frayed about the edges. …”

– Peter Barnes, Moderator-General of the Presbyterian Church of Australia, writes to encourage Christians to be confident in the God who reigns over heaven and earth.

Book Review: Born Again This Way

“Rachel Gilson’s book Born Again This Way is what I wish I’d read about 25 years ago when a Christian friend shared with me that she was same-sex attracted and she didn’t know what to do. Neither did I, and at the time, praying with her was the only thing I could think to do.

Fast forward to 2021 and this conversation is far more common. Today, there are a number of books on the subject of Christians and same-sex attraction. What makes Gilson’s book stand out is the way it combines a careful treatment of the topic with her own deeply personal story. …”

– At Equal but Different, Victoria Colgan commends Born Again This Way by Rachel Gibson.

What will you do when the Culture demands that you Pivot?

In his The Briefing for 2nd March 2021, Albert Mohler again warned Christians to be ready for the inevitable challenge to forsake Christ to appease the culture.

He has now expanded his comments into a must read essay:

Pivoting to Surrender: A Warning for All Christians – 4th March 2021.

“Every Christian and every Christian ministry will come to a reckoning – we must all decide here and now where we stand.

Will we pivot or will we hold fast to faithfulness and the hope of the gospel?”

VCAT Given New Powers to Investigate Christians for Praying

“Sinicization is not only an agenda being forced upon the Chinese people by an authoritarian regime. We now have our own version here in Victoria as the State now subjects its citizens to new invasive and extreme laws that will strip people of basic freedoms of conscience, speech and association. Perhaps we should call it, Victorianization.

The Victorian Parliament last month passed the Change or Suppression (Conversion) Practices Prohibition Bill 2020.

Under this Act, criminal charges can be laid and convicted persons may face up to 10 years imprisonment and fines of $200,000. There is also a civil avenue for people wishing to make complaints against fellow Victorians, and it’s these new powers given to VCAT that are the focus of The Age’s story.

An anonymous complaint is a sufficient reason for VCAT to open an investigation, compel you to produce personal documents and information, and force you to attend reeducation programs that will teach you what to believe about sexuality and gender.”

– In Melbourne, Murray Campbell highlights more of what is coming for the residents of that state.

‘Poorly named’ Equality Act passes US House of Representatives

“The U.S. House of Representatives passed Thursday (Feb. 25) for the second time a far-reaching gay and transgender rights proposal that opponents warn would have calamitous effects on freedom of religion and conscience, as well as protections for women, girls and unborn children. …

‘In our lifetime, there has not been such a significant attack on religious liberty’ as the Equality Act, said J.D. Greear, president of the Southern Baptist Convention. …”

– Report from Baptist Press.

When Amazon Erased My Book

“My book When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment was released exactly three years ago. It was attacked twice on the New York Times op-ed page. The Washington Post ran a hit piece on it that was riddled with errors. It was obvious the critics hadn’t read the book. But they were threatened by it and wanted to discredit it lest anyone pick it up and learn from it.

Now, three years after publication, in the same week that the House of Representatives plans to ram through the Equality Act—a radical transgender bill amending the Civil Rights Act of 1964—Amazon has erased my book opposing gender ideology from its cyber shelves. …”

– At First Things, Ryan T. Anderson wonders why his book disappeared from the world’s biggest bookseller.

Related:

World’s Largest Bookseller Opens on the Web – Press release, October 4, 1995.

Amazon Has Basically No Competition Among Online Booksellers – The Atlantic, May 31, 2014,

Responding to the Transgender Moment: A Conversation with Ryan T. Anderson – Albert Mohler, June 4, 2018.

To win power in the Church of England?

“The newly-launched Movement of Supporting Anglicans for an Inclusive Church (Mosaic) has a clear political motive: to win power on the Church of England’s governing body, the General Synod. …”

– At Conservative Woman, Julian Mann shares his thoughts on a newly formed group seeking fundamental change in the Church of England.

How to Pastor when Sanctification becomes Illegal

“Where I live and pastor some aspects of sanctification are now illegal.

A recent decision in my home state of Victoria – in Australia – seeks to overturn this work of God’s grace. The Victorian Parliament has adopted the Change or Suppression (Conversion) Practices Prohibition Bill 2020.

Amongst other things, the Conversion and Suppression Practices Bill criminalizes any prayers or conversations in which one person aims to persuade another that pursuing certain sexual activity is not the best course of action.

It’s not only illegal to pray or speak with an individual about changing their sexual orientation or gender identity – unless, of course, this change means embracing an LGBTIQ lifestyle – the law states that suppression is also illegal.

‘Suppression’ includes prayers for celibacy, and any advice that communicates sexual faithfulness to one’s spouse is a matter of holiness.…”

– 9Marks in the USA has published this piece by Murray Campbell in Melbourne.

When and how to obey God, not man, in Victoria?

From The Pastor’s Heart:

“Harsh new rules have just been approved by the parliament of the Australian state of Victoria, banning conversion practices relating to sexuality.

The parliament has made illegal practices that have been part of Christian religion since the start of the church. 

What does the law say a pastor should do if asked for guidance on matters of sexuality? What does God say?  Pastors have questions on what the law says in regards to teaching in church, in small home groups and 1:1, and on how evangelical pastors respond in love to people with questions about personal sexuality. …”

– Neil Foster, Associate Professor of Law at Newcastle University, Peter Barnes, Moderator General of the Presbyterian Church of Australia, and Heath Easton, Pastor of Drouin Presbyterian Church in regional Victoria, are Dominic Steele’s guests in the latest episode of The Pastor’s Heart.

Collision of laws: the impact of Commonwealth law on the Victorian CSP law

“The Victorian  Change or Suppression (Conversion) Practices Prohibition Bill 2020 (Vic) (which I will call the “CSP” law for short) passed the Upper House on 4 Feb, 2021. As I write it seems not to have yet received the Royal Assent and become an ‘Act’ but that will no doubt happen soon. The government has signalled that the legislation will not come into operation for another 12 months (see the final sentence in this article.)

My previous posts (see here for the most recent) have expressed grave concerns about the effect of the law on religious freedom and specifically on the freedom of parents and others to encourage children to live in accordance with Biblical standards of sexual behaviour. It is astonishing that the Bill was rushed through Parliament in the face of concerns also being expressed by the Law Institute of Victoria, the Australian Medical Association (AMA) and the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP). (See this excellent post from Murray Campbell noting these issues.)

There are, it seems, very few legal avenues available to challenge the many problems created by this law. But in this post I want to suggest one which may be available…”

– Associate Professor in Law Neil Foster writes at Law and Religion Australia.

Prohibiting Prayer in Australia

Carl Trueman comments on the new Victorian legislation –

“This provision is clearly not based on any coherent metaphysical objection to the practice of prayer. If the legislators believe God exists, they presumably believe that he is wise enough to ignore such prayers if they are indeed truly harmful. And if they do not think he exists, then it seems reasonable to assume they would regard such prayer as a rather pointless, even nonsensical, exercise.

If the policy is not metaphysical, it nevertheless reveals one of the aspects of the new identity politics…”

– Read it at First Things.

Where to From Here? – Victorian Law

Here’s a pastoral letter from the Rev. Dr Peter Barnes, Moderator-General of the Presbyterian Church of Australia –

“To the congregations of the Presbyterian Church of Australia, February 2021

The Change or Suppression (Conversion) Practices Prohibition Bill has now passed through both houses of the Victorian parliament. It forbids any attempt to change or suppress, or induce any person to change or suppress, his or her sexual orientation or gender identity. Prayer or counselling designed to change a person, even at that person’s request, is prohibited. In short, this means that sexual preference is protected by law, as is any person’s gender preference. Homosexual sex is not permitted to be called ‘sin’, and a male today can claim to be a female tomorrow.

What is the Church to do? Two things come immediately to mind:

It is our task to keep on keeping on, to proclaim and to live out so far as we can the gospel of Christ which has been entrusted to us.

May God give us all wisdom and strength in Christ,

Peter Barnes

Rev. Dr Peter Barnes, Moderator-General of the Presbyterian Church of Australia.”

– from the Presbyterian Church of Australia, Tuesday 9th February 2021.

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