Conversion Therapy is Exactly Why We Need Affirming Churches

It is horrific. It is abusive. It is inhumane. And it is happening with more frequency than we realize.

In the last week, both Newsweek and ABC’s 20/20 featured shocking exposés of Christian “conversion” therapy for LGBT youth. It will make you sick.

Which is precisely why you should watch.

And–precisely why more churches need to be more intentional about telling our LGBT kids that God loves them. As they are. Period. No ifs, ands, or “once you’ve completed this great program.” Because not only are things like this happening–sometimes in our own backyard–they are happening in the name of Jesus. Nope. Nossir. Not on my watch. And not on yours, either.

Some churches are not ready to deal with the controversy of openly welcoming gay folks. They say, “why should we have to sacrifice our moral convictions just so we can be politically correct?” Others feel like they are in a ‘post-progressive’ place… As in, “we welcome everyone already, why do we have to say so?”

THIS. IS. WHY. The answer to both questions, for those on opposite ends of the ideological spectrum, is the same. THIS shit is why. Because kids are being beaten, shamed, and dragged from their homes in the middle of the night. They’re being abused by sadistic religious leaders whose only religion is hatred and violence. They are being told they’re broken, ugly, twisted in some fundamental way… And if we claim faith in a loving and just God, and if we claim to follow the way of Christ–which is peace and justice and mercy–then we cannot watch another minute as these young spirits are ground down to dust and cast out to the darkness. It is an affront to everything we believe.

I don’t care how conservative your theology; or how ‘so far past this issue’ you may think you are. It is time for Christians all across the political and theological spectrum to stand up for these kids; to say that no part of our faith condones this gross manipulation of the gospel, or justifies this appalling treatment of children.

Because they are children. 

When people say you are “causing division in the Body of Christ” by wanting to speak out on this issue, show them this video. When people say we “can’t condone sin,” show them this article. When people say that passively “welcoming” is enough, show them both of these things again. And again.

Maybe ‘all are welcome’ would be enough… if this kind of abomination wasn’t happening in the name of our same God. But as long as it is happening, people of faith and conscience have to go above and beyond, go way out of our way to say loud and clear: this is not who we are. No part of this can be justified by our tradition.

I was once told by a colleague that “liberal fundamentalism is killing the church.” But a commitment to welcoming all people is not any kind of fundamentalism; nor is it some crazy liberal notion. This is no longer a liberal or conservative issue anyway, it is a fundamentally human one. A refusal to budge on this matter is pure doctrinal nitpicking– and not only is it killing churches, it is killing kids. Actually killing them. Driving them to self-harm and suicide. On our watch.

But the art of extending grace to one who’s been cast to the side is not some far left agenda, whatever you’ve heard to the contrary. It’s just being a decent human being. Christian or otherwise.

If we’re going to salvage the integrity of our faith from those who would use it for harm, then we have to get past thinking of this as a divisive ideological matter. Knowing how to welcome the stranger is a primary principal of the gospels. In fact, if we had to identify just 5 major teachings of Jesus, that one would make the cut. (Right up there with care of the poor, the rejection of wealth, and love for God and neighbor). Politicians continue to leverage this discussion to secure their own power and privilege. Lest we forget, our current VP is all for some degree of this method. I don’t know what’s worse: that they condone and allow for this kind of ‘program’ to exist; or that they know this is the way to secure the vote of the Christian majority. Either way, it is profoundly disturbing that authority at every level works to keep this system in place.

Including the Church itself.

Churches dig their heels in on this issue for any number of reasons: whether out of some archaic sense of (misguided) moral superiority, or institutional loyalty, or maybe just a place of privilege that does not recognize the real human cost of our silence. But whatever the reason for that silence, we have to acknowledge this truth: as long as Christian communities continue to reject our LGBT brothers and sisters–or just fail to affirm them out loud–we are giving our consent for these monsters to enact hate in the name of our faith. You want to worry about being complicit in sin? Worry about being complicit in theirs.

If you don’t know why it matters that we align ourselves with the marginalized in all things, then watch this show again. And again. Until some part of your humanity can recognize that the lives of these young people matter more than the sanctity of our dying institutions.