The law clearly targets prayer and other “religious practices.” It then defines “sexual orientation” in s 59(3) in so broad a way that the term covers sexual activity as well as sexual attraction. The result is that encouraging someone not to act on a sexual temptation seems to fall within the definition of the phrase “change or suppression practice” in s 5, by “inducing the person to change or suppress their sexual orientation.” Such encouragement is unlawful despite it being consented to (or even actively sought) by a person seeking help — see for example the phrase “whether with or without the person’s consent” in s 5(1)!

The Lord Jesus left his disciples with a Great Commission in Matthew 28:19–20 to go out into the world, make disciples, baptize, and to do so “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” Becoming a disciple of Jesus means more than knowing what he taught, it involves learning to obey his teaching.

But laws that have been enacted in Australia might now make it unlawful to help someone who wants assistance to obey Jesus.

Victoria’s Extreme New Law

The most extreme of these laws, which have been enacted with the aim of forbidding what is popularly called “gay conversion therapy,” is the Change or Suppression (Conversion Practices) Prohibition Act 2021 passed in February by the State of Victoria. The Act will probably come into operation in February 2022 unless common sense prevails. For those concerned about this trend around the Western world, especially as represented in the US by the proposed Equality Act which passed Congress and will be considered by the Senate, and in the UK by current proposals for similar “conversion therapy” laws, an understanding of this radical Victorian law may point to the dangerous place these laws can lead.

Most Christians would use the word “conversion,” of course, to refer to when a person puts their faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for forgiveness and new life. But in a world where “sexual orientation” has become a key component of a person’s identity, the phrase “conversion therapy” has come to describe attempts to change a person’s orientation from homosexual to heterosexual. In more recent discussion, such as in the Victorian Act, the term has seemingly also been taken to mean an attempt to help a person who wants to live in a “gender identity” opposite to their biological sex, to feel comfortable in living in the sex proclaimed by their chromosomes.

Of course, there have been horrible attempts to force people to change sexual attraction by use of non-consensual and oppressive medical or quasi-psychiatric techniques. These were never supported by mainstream Christian churches, and no one is advocating for such today. But activists have mounted campaigns which tell stories of pressure they felt from church groups and others, and the legislation now targets far more than these horrible techniques.

The words used by the legislation make many other activities unlawful, despite bland assurances given by the Minister in Parliament. In the explanatory material issued by the Government there was an attempt to downplay the impact of the law on religious freedom (of both the person seeking counsel, and the counsellor) by saying that the definition would not apply to “general discussions of religious beliefs around sexual orientation or gender identity that aim to explain these beliefs and not change or suppress a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity” (emphasis added; taken from the  “statement of compatibility” filed by the Government in Parliament). But the fact is that there are very few situations where someone has sought counsel from a Christian pastor where that person would simply “explain” the faith without encouraging the other person to obey what the Bible says. Indeed, as we know, the Bible itself warns against simply grasping the content of the word without obeying it (cf. James 1:22).

The heart of the Act is the definition given in s 5(1) of a “change or suppression practice,” which unpacks this as:

a practice or conduct directed towards a person, whether with or without the person’s consent—

(a) on the basis of the person’s sexual orientation or gender identity; and

(b) for the purpose of—

(i) changing or suppressing the sexual orientation or gender identity of the person; or

(ii) inducing the person to change or suppress their sexual orientation or gender identity.

In s 5(3)(b) the Act is explicit that such a practice includes:

carrying out a religious practice, including but not limited to, a prayer based practice, a deliverance practice or an exorcism.

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