Largely referred to as “conversion therapy,” the secular world has long been railing against any effort to persuade homosexuals to turn from their unnatural desires and turn to Christ for forgiveness and repentance. Canada has now become the sixth country to ban “conversion therapy” and explicitly states that any spiritual form of the practice is now outlawed.

Bill C-6, which was unanimously passed by Canada’s parliament and sponsored by a so-called conservative, defines “conversion therapy” as “any formal therapeutic attempt to change the sexual orientation of bisexual, gay and lesbian individuals to heterosexual” and states that “these methods can include behavioural techniques, psychoanalytic techniques, medical approaches, and religious and spiritual approaches.”

The bill also attempts to define what is an acceptable Christian or religious practice when it comes to pastoral counseling toward homosexuals or other sexually aberrant individuals.

Beginning in the 1970s, some faith-based organizations created “ex-gay groups,” which offered individuals engaging in sexual behaviours with or having feelings of attraction towards individuals of the same sex the opportunity to obtain spiritual healing through a process of repentance and forgiveness.Those faith-based organizations, referred to as “ex-gay ministries,” drew on psychoanalytic conversion theories and practices that were now rejected by the mainstream mental health community, as well as traditional religious practices such as prayer and scripture reading. Those services were generally targeted at individuals belonging to conservative Protestant communities who were seeking to reconcile their same-sex attractions and behaviours with their religious beliefs.

It is important to note that the approach of faith-based organizations that were part of the “ex-gay movement” differs from the pastoral counselling currently provided by many Christian and other religious denominations, which aims to provide support to LGBTQ2+ individuals but not to change their sexual orientation or gender identity.

The movement against conversion therapy isn’t just pushed by secular leftists; similarly, so-called “conservative” church leaders in the Southern Baptist Convention and other Evangelical denominations have embraced the push to eliminate conversion therapy and instead have embraced the idea–largely advanced by “gay Christian” ministries such as Revoice and Living Out–the idea that one’s sexual orientation cannot be changed even upon conversion to Christianity.

As Pulpit & Pen noted years ago:

The recently scandalous and radical Revoice brand to push “Queer Culture, Queer Literature, and Queer Theory” into PCA/ SBC churches by 2018 was actually incubated at [Southern Baptist Theological Seminary] and promoted by the [Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission] fellows and Associates. By 2014, [Albert] Mohler and [Russell] Moore held their ERLC conference on “Homosexuality and the Future of Marriage” in which Mohler apologized for being wrong about Homosexual Orientation and began to toss Reparative Therapy and the call for Repentance out the Evangelical window and under the proverbial bus. Again, this was driven by the associations of these leaders with The Gospel Coalition and APA-compliant psychologist, Mark Yarhouse, to bring the Church into step with their secular LGBTQUI+ counseling narrative while promoting the normalization and acceptance of the Marriage, Sexuality, Gender revolution.

It should come as no surprise that, with a nod and a wink from Evangelical leaders who have shown approval for this, that the secular world is now working tirelessly to outlaw and ban Christianity altogether.