Nine church leaders have written to U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson to raise their concerns again regarding the government’s decision to ban the so-called conversion therapy.
The letter came after the U.K. government retracted its decision to ban the so-called conversion therapy. BBC News reported that the government's therapy-ban covers gay or bisexual people in England and Wales but not transgender people. The decision came after it decided to drop the plan entirely.
The U.K. government had cited the existing problems of conversion therapy in the country. Conversion or reparative therapy, as they said, has been used "in an attempt to cure people of being LGBT."
"There is no justification for these coercive and abhorrent practices and the evidence is clear that it does not work: it does not change a person from being LGBT and can cause long-lasting damage to those who go through it," the government wrote.
The church leaders reiterated the impact of the law on the religious freedom of Christians and church pastors, The Christian Post reported. They wanted the government to revise the draft of the conversion therapy law. The church leaders requested "urgent clarification" if the government proposed the Christian view of marriage and sexuality would become illegal to teach.
Based on the report, the letter stated, "[It] remains the case that a poorly-drafted 'LGB only' conversion therapy law could still criminalize mainstream Christian teaching and ministry, by making it illegal for us to teach people and help people of every age to live according to the Christian understanding of marriage"
"Our concern with the proposed legislation was that it would have made it a criminal offense to teach the historic, orthodox Christian understanding of marriage as the union of one man and one woman, and to help people of every age to live according to it," they stated.
Per the report, the letter has been signed by the Rev. Ray Brown, the Rev. Dave Gobbett, the Rev. Clare Hendry, Julie Maxwell, the Rev. Graham Nicholls, the Rev. Ian Paul, the Rev. Thomas Penman, the Rev. Matthew Roberts, and the Rev. Santhosh Thomas.
According to them, they had no intention to defend any "disreputable practices which purport to cure homosexual or transgender feelings."
On March 15, the Evangelical Alliance wrote in a letter, "We oppose abusive practices and the use of electro-shock treatment and corrective rape are wrong and should be ended. However, such practices should already be banned or illegal and as such should be dealt with under existing policies and laws. Where such abusive practices are not illegal, we would welcome efforts to clarify or strengthen the law."
The organization cited the "expansive definition" of the law would be "highly problematic" which they could no longer support. "We note that the government has committed to ending conversion therapy but has failed to offer a definition of it or set out clearly what is meant by this commitment," they wrote.
In their latest statement, The Evangelical Alliance reiterated its call on the government to "honor its two commitments on conversion therapy - to end coercive and abusive practices while ensuring people can receive the prayer and spiritual support they choose."
Last year, 500 church leaders across the country had said they would be prepared to face criminal charges if the new law would criminalize pastors teaching Christian viewpoints of sexuality and marriage.
"It should not be a criminal offense for us to instruct our children that God made them male and female, in his image, and has reserved sex for the marriage of one man and one woman. Yet this seems to be the likely outcome of the proposed legislation," they wrote.
