Wake Up, Look Up

Hello everyone. Thanks for listening to Wake Up, Look Up, a podcast where we connect events happening in real time to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Zach Weihrauch and in today's episode we're asking the question, is conversion therapy biblical? Now, this is, uh, based on an article I read recently in the New York Times about a case the Supreme Court just heard concerning a Colorado therapist who's an evangelical Christian who's arguing that the state's law against conversion therapy, therapy that seeks to change a person's sexual orientation or gender identity, uh, is illegal in Colorado. And she is suing, basically saying her free speech is being inhibited. That is a evangelical Christian licensed therapist. She should be able to provide care in the direction she thinks is best, and in this case, in the direction towards heterosexuality or towards alignment with a person's, uh, sex at birth. So here's what is going on in Colorado, but also what's going on in the country is the conversation about conversion therapy is becoming national again. That's because there's expectation that the Supreme Court will actually declare Colorado's law unconstitutional and as a result potentially change those laws in, uh, states all across the country, which means it will once again be legal to actually give therapy towards, uh, heterosexuality and towards a person's gender identity. Now, opponents of this say you're seeking to change things that cannot change. And of course that is the distinction and that is where the disagreement lies. So the question is, as evangelical Christians, how should we think about so called conversion therapy? Well, let me offer some guidance. Let's just start here. I wanna remind you that gender and sexuality from a biblical worldview are God's design. They are God's invention, His creation. And he alone determines what is inbounds and out of bounds, what is helpful and what is not. And what the Bible affirms time and time again is that God makes people male and female and that the expression of sexuality that leads to human flourishing is heterosexuality in the context of monogamous marriage. So anything that's at odds with your gender assigned at birth or at odds with heterosexuality in the context of monogamous marriage, whether that's homosexuality or infidelity, or so called open marriages, or whether that's living incongruous, uh, with your perceived gender and your biological sex, the Bible would say is bad for you. Which means that of course, if we are seeking to help someone, we're never encouraging them in a direction that is bad for them, in a direction that puts them at odds with God or at odds with their own flourishing. In fact, there was someone who did that in the very beginning of the Bible, in Genesis 3, when Satan actually counseled so called Adam and Eve in a direction away from God. And the byproduct of that was not their good, but there and then subsequently are bad. Here's the second thing. Change, including radical transformation, is central to the Gospel. Keep in mind that Paul writes to the church in Rome. And Rome was a culture rife with all kinds of sexual and gender oriented sin. And Paul wrote, be Transformed in Romans 12:2 by the renewing of your mind. What Paul was saying is that the intake of the Gospel of Jesus Christ into our minds and into our hearts, a new way of thinking, a new way of seeing the world, will inevitably result in a new way of living. In fact, much of the impact that Christianity had on the first two centuries was in the radical way we thought about gender and sexuality. The early church understood that receiving the Gospel had implications for how we thought about these things. And let me add one more thing, which is to say that it isn't just that change is central to the gospel. It's that confusion is not compassion. 1 Corinthians 14:33 says that God is not a God of confusion, but, uh, of peace. When Christians see people struggling in confusion. And that's what I would call broken sexuality and broken gender. Our call is to bring them to clarity. And clarity comes from a God who has revealed who he is and then by connection, who we are. Even, I might just say this, even in secular culture. The argument seems to be pretty often that gender is fluid. Uh, what I feel today might not be what I feel tomorrow. Sexuality is a continuum. I might be attracted to this person today and that person tomorrow, but both of those ideas allow for movement. The only difference is whether or not I get to drive the movement because I'm my own moral authority, or whether God gets to drive the movement. Everybody agrees movement is possible. What Christians are saying is that God is always leading us to move in a way that is ultimately for our good. And the point is, when someone goes to a Christian therapist, especially someone like the lady in Colorado who is very clear that she is providing therapy from a Christian perspective, they are going for the truth. They are re going to counseling because they believe that Paul was right in Ephesians 4:15, that we need people who will speak the truth to us in love. And what Christians are seeking to do is to provide the truth about God's original design, about how human flourishing happens under the authority of God and to bring someone in line with that flourishing. I think the lady in Colorado is right. Free speech for a therapist means pushing for the care that they believe is actually best. Christians shouldn't apologize for counseling people away from their sent away from their rebellion, away from their confusion and towards Jesus. After all, if people don't like it, they can go see uh, a different counselor. Secular thinking is what's gotten us to this maddening place. My hope is that the Supreme Court will free up Christian counselors to help us get out of it. Hey, thanks for watching this episode of Wake Up, Look Up. If you enjoyed it, please help us get the word out by sharing it with someone you think might benefit from it. And while you're here, make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to get further content or even download the CCC app where you'll find even more resources to help you grow in your faith and relationship with Jesus Christ.

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