Obama: Hey, let's ban 'gay conversion therapy'
Image Credit:The state will make your decisions for you. You will comply.
I'm going to get a bit spiritual here, so you might want to let Right Wing Watch know. Brian Tashman will want to get rolling on his usual conniption fit.
President Obama never met a left-wing agenda item he wouldn't be happy to turn into a federal mandate (or ban as the case may be). He only needs the political atmosphere necessary to push it through. The left hates so-called "gay conversion therapy," which they think is a bunch of pseudoscience nonsense performed by quacks and intended to deny people the right to be "who they are." Our liberal friends at the New York Times describe it thusly: "(It is) sometimes called 'conversion' or 'reparative' therapy, which is supported by some socially conservative organizations and religious doctors."
You realize what the New York Times is telling its loyal readers when they couch it like that, right? It's all about politics and that insanity known as religion. You might say the same thing about global warming, which is believed in by liberal activists and gullible readers of the news media. I don't think the Times will put it that way, but they could and they should.
At any rate, Obama thinks he's got an opening to ban outright the therapy that seeks to free some people from the desire of their flesh to have sex with people of the same gender, and he's going for it:
A 17-year-old transgender youth, Leelah Alcorn, stunned her friends and a vast Internet audience in December when she threw herself in front of a tractor-trailer after writing in an online suicide note that religious therapists had tried to convert her back to being a boy.
In response, President Obama is calling for an end to such therapies aimed at “repairing” gay, lesbian and transgender youth. His decision on the issue is the latest example of his continuing embrace of gay rights.
In a statement that was posted on Wednesday evening alongside a WhiteHouse.gov petition begun in honor of Ms. Alcorn, Mr. Obama condemned the practice, sometimes called “conversion” or “reparative” therapy, which is supported by some socially conservative organizations and religious doctors.
. . .
In an interview on Wednesday, Ms. Jarrett said Mr. Obama had been moved by the story of Ms. Alcorn’s suicide. But she said the problem went far beyond Ms. Alcorn.
“It was tragic, but I will tell you, unfortunately, she has a lot of company,” Ms. Jarrett said. “It’s not the story of one young person. It is the story of countless young people who have been subjected to this.”
Mr. Obama will not explicitly call for a federal law banning therapists from using such therapies on their patients, but he is open to conversations with lawmakers in both parties, White House officials said on Wednesday. Instead, he will throw his support behind the efforts to ban the practice at the state level.
Note the weasel words coming from the White House here. He claims he "will not explicitly call for a federal ban" but he's "open" to conversations with lawmakers. In other words, he's telling them to take the initiative. And in the meantime, he says he will "throw his support" behind efforts at the state level, which means nothing, since Obama doesn't govern the states. Then again, the federal government has a lovely habit of bestowing or withholding federal funds from states depending on whether they do what Washington wants them to do. Want those Medicaid funds to keep flowing? You better ban whatever Obama wants you to ban.
I am not interested in giving an assessment of anyone's therapy techniques. I'm not a licensed professional and I'm in no better a position than Obama to pass judgment on them - which is why he shouldn't do so either. But I will tell you the scriptural view of this matter, and why it's lost on secular political types.
Since the Bible says homosexuality is an abomination in the sight of God, and yet many people obviously feel homosexual urges, how do you square the two facts? You square them in the same way you explain any person's desire for sin. The person who craves heroin, or alcohol, or unhealthy quantities of food, or to hurt other people - these are all desires of the flesh that are in opposition to God's will for your life. The driving force behind all sin is spiritual - and yes, Right Wing Watch, I mean demonic - and the cure for it is deliverance by the authority of Jesus Christ.
How does that work? It has to start with the person wanting to be delivered. A deliverance minister can take authority over a demon in the name of Jesus, but if the person who is oppressed by the demon wants to remain in that state, then no deliverance minister can stop the demon from coming right back. (Luke 11:24-26) If a homosexual person wants to be free from this desire of the flesh because he knows it puts him in opposition to God, he can be free of it through repentance and surrender to Christ, and a deliverance minister can help him to get rid of the evil spirit.
If Obama has his way, a deliverance minister trying to free people from evil spirits would be forbidden by law from doing so. A person in a state of demonic oppression could not be helped because the official position of the United States government is that this state of demonic oppression is a good way to be, and no one should try to change it.
I don't think Obama understands it this way. I don't think he believes in any spiritual world whatsoever, nor do the people who will portray a commentary like this as odd, weird, crazy, etc. When you're not intelligent or curious enough to understand something, you mock the whole idea of it. Any who supports a bill like this is saying that families who want help for a person oppressed by homosexuality should not be allowed to seek it.
That is not their decision. I don't think any homosexual should be forced into therapy, ministry or anything else - especially since I know it won't help them if they're not willing. But if they want to be free, it is not Obama's place to try to keep them in spiritual bondage. The fact that he doesn't even understands that notion really gives the lie to his claim of being a Christian.
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