Crosstalk: July 9, 2019

Mat Staver is the founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel.  Mat has over 230 published legal opinions, has authored 8 scholarly law review publications and 10 books.  He’s filed numerous briefs and argued in many federal and state courts. He has also argued two landmark cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Multiple lawmakers in California have recently passed a resolution (Assembly Concurrent Resolution-99) to pressure and force pastors to embrace LGBT.  ACR-99 was introduced by Assembly Member Low.  

Last year, Low proposed a very outrageous bill that would ban any kind of change counseling, including for adults, and would also modify the business practices code in California applying to anything in print.  So if someone printed Bible verses regarding homosexuality, that would have been banned. Liberty Counsel, with a coalition, moved against this attempt and the effort was defeated. Now this same individual has come back and has passed ACR-99.

While ACR-99 doesn’t have the force of law, it calls upon religious leaders and others to promote the idea that there should be no counseling (conversion therapy) for someone seeking to overcome, change, reduce or address unwanted, same-sex attractions, behavior or identity.

Of the numerous problems with this resolution, one of them is the problem regarding the phrase ‘conversion therapy.’  This is simply talk therapy where a professional listens to their client/patient about various kinds of issues or stresses.  This might involve unwanted desires or gender confusion.

This kind of help is described as ineffective, unethical and harmful.  Mat described that as ‘nonsense’ and that there is no evidence that such counseling is harmful.  He described how such a claim fails to acknowledge the many people that were part of a letter, written to that same assembly, containing stories of individuals who have had successful counseling sessions and were helped to overcome same-sex desires or gender confusion.

Of concern for Mat is that while this resolution doesn’t have the force of law, he believes other agencies within California will use this as though it was law.

Other points of discussion dealt with the following:

–Religious groups are being accused of having created a stigma that has caused disproportionately high rates of suicide, depression and rejection.

–How would ACR-99 affect the pulpit?

–Is this designed as a backup in case the Equality Act fails to pass?

This and much more was discussed concerning this critical issue and you can hear it all when you review this edition of Crosstalk.