Post by Gort on Dec 6, 2020 10:50:17 GMT 10
Interesting move here in Victoria ...
Perhaps another step in the long journey to curtail the power of churches.
The main "beef" seems to centre on the right of religious followers to pray for whatever they want. Fair enough.
But where an individual is targeted by religious followers ... is it fair enough too to say: "Barley Charlie"?
Gay conversion legislation puts Andrews on a collision course with churches
By Farrah Tomazin
December 5, 2020 — 11.30pm
A Victorian government plan to crack down on churches using prayer to change LGBTI people has been branded as the biggest threat to religious freedom in years, placing Premier Daniel Andrews on a collision course with the nation’s faith groups.
Days after introducing a long-awaited bill to criminalise gay conversion practices, Mr Andrews and Attorney-General Jill Hennessy have been accused of “over-reach” as a contentious debate regarding human rights and religion looms in Parliament.
Murray Campbell, lead pastor at Mentone Baptist Church, is worried about the state government's "gay conversion" legislation.CREDIT:WAYNE TAYLOR
Victoria’s proposed laws have been described by survivors of gay conversion as “world leading”, because they prohibit harmful practices not only in healthcare settings, as is the case in Queensland, but they also target “prayer-based practices” that attempt to change or suppress sexuality or gender identity, as well as abuse within families.
This is important given many conversion practices – from celibacy support groups aiming to overcome same-sex attraction, to exorcisms and attempts to "pray away the gay" – are often hidden in informal and religious settings, as opposed to extreme medical interventions that were sometimes previously used, such as shock treatment or aversion therapy.
However, criticism of the bill's reference to prayer is building, not just from the religious right, but from mainstream churches, with Melbourne's Catholic Archbishop Peter Comensoli telling The Sunday Age: “Who I pray to, how I pray, what I pray for, and most particularly, who I pray with is not of concern to any government.”
Peter Comensoli, Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne. CREDIT:PENNY STEPHENS
"Most mainstream Christian churches reject coercive practices or activities that do harm to LGBT people and we're ready to work with government to find ways of ensuring that people are protected. But the bill goes well and truly beyond that," the Archbishop said.
Under the reforms, anyone found trying to suppress or change another person’s sexuality or gender identity faces up to 10 years’ jail or fines of almost $10,000 if it can be proved that their actions caused serious injury.
To explicitly mention prayer in Victorian legislation is astonishing.'
Murray Campbell, lead pastor at Mentone Baptist Church.
Victoria's human rights watchdog will also get new powers to deal with complaints that fall short of the criminal standard, and to launch own-motion investigations into systemic issues as part of a new civil scheme for victims.
In another significant move, the Family Violence Protection Act will be amended to clarify that suppressing or changing a family member's sexuality or gender identity is a form of domestic violence, empowering people to take action against their relatives. The regime governing Personal Safety Intervention Orders will also be strengthened to prevent harassment on that basis.
Debate on the bill is scheduled this week with the Liberal Party still undecided about whether to allow a conscience vote. Shadow attorney-general Ed O’Donohue has called for the government to delay debate until next year to give MPs time to assess the details.
Victorian Attorney-General Jill Hennessy.CREDIT:JASON SOUTH
However, Ms Hennessy said the changes “strike the right balance" between protecting LGBTI people – who are at higher risk of self-harm and suicide – and respecting freedom of speech and religion. Survivors agree.
“If asking people to refrain from this kind of harmful practice is somehow the biggest threat to religious freedom, then it is even more evidence of why this bill is needed,” said Nathan Despott, who runs the Brave Network, an advocacy group for LGBTI people of faith.
Churches and ministries, on the other hand, fear they will be sanctioned for wanting people to live in accordance with their faith.
Christian think tank Freedom for Faith has described the bill as “the most aggressive action ever taken by an Australian government to attack freedom of religion".
University of Newcastle religion expert Neil Foster, an Evangelical, raised concerns about the “very significant” powers the Human Rights Commission would have to probe faith groups.
And Mentone Baptist Church senior pastor Murray Campbell told The Sunday Age pastors might now question where to draw the line if a same-sex attracted Christian sought their support.
“If someone said to me: 'I affirm the Bible's vision for human sexuality, can you pray for me', my reading of the bill is that I could fall foul of the law if they later felt harmed by that,” he said. "This is the most significant threat to religious freedom in Victoria... To explicitly mention prayer in Victorian legislation is astonishing.”
The government insists that sermons and other prayer-based practices that do not specifically target an individual will not be captured in the legislation. For the criminal sanctions to apply, injury would also need to be proven beyond reasonable doubt.
For example, if a same-sex attracted person sought spiritual guidance from a faith leader who then tried to suppress or change their sexuality through regular prayer sessions or conversion "therapy", negligently causing physical or psychological injury to that person, a jail term or fine could be imposed.
Sanctions could also apply if a parent sent their child to an overseas conversion therapy camp, or if a Christian counsellor recommended group therapy designed to overcome same-sex attraction.
The Change and Suppression (Conversion) Practices Bill is the latest in a series of contentious progressive social reforms introduced under the Andrews government, which also went to war with religious groups over assisted dying laws, safe access zones around abortion clinics, and transgender birth certificate legislation.
Advocates say the bill will save lives, because conversion therapy is essentially based on the dangerous notion that being gay is a form of “brokenness” that ought to be fixed. Many LGBTI people of faith have attempted to "convert" only to self-harm or to suicide when they were unable to do so.
One person, Percy Gurtler, recalled having a mental health breakdown as a 19-year-old university student after being forced to suppress their queer identity as part of an evangelical community. "These laws are important because they will prevent really deep psychological harm from occurring," they said.
Reverend Elenie Poulos, a doctoral researcher into the politics of religious freedom, said it was "disingenuous" for church groups to say the bill went too far because all religiously-based conversion practices are rooted in prayer.
"That's the idea of it: you pray for someone to be 'healed' of an illness," said Rev Poulos, a non-executive director at the Uniting Church. "This is not an attack on prayer; it's an attack on a harmful, religiously-based practice."
Meanwhile, the right-wing Australian Christian Lobby has embarked on a campaign to stop the reforms from being passed, with volunteers polling households, describing the new bill as “communist” and urging people to contact state MPs ahead of the debate in Parliament this week.
The passage of the bill in the upper house, where the government does not control the numbers, will also present challenges for the Liberal opposition, which values religious freedom but whose MPs are on the record saying they do not agree with gay conversion therapy.
Equality Australia chief executive Anna Brown described the bill as "a common-sense law that prevents people from causing injury to others, including by deceptively encouraging LGBT people to believe they are disordered, ill, or in need of a cure”.
The bill comes after a 2018 investigation by The Age found numerous churches and ministries engaging in change and suppression practices cloaked in the form of “spiritual healing”, one-on-one counselling, exorcisms and deliverance.
www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/gay-conversion-legislation-puts-andrews-on-a-collision-course-with-churches-20201204-p56ks6.html
Perhaps another step in the long journey to curtail the power of churches.
The main "beef" seems to centre on the right of religious followers to pray for whatever they want. Fair enough.
But where an individual is targeted by religious followers ... is it fair enough too to say: "Barley Charlie"?
Gay conversion legislation puts Andrews on a collision course with churches
By Farrah Tomazin
December 5, 2020 — 11.30pm
A Victorian government plan to crack down on churches using prayer to change LGBTI people has been branded as the biggest threat to religious freedom in years, placing Premier Daniel Andrews on a collision course with the nation’s faith groups.
Days after introducing a long-awaited bill to criminalise gay conversion practices, Mr Andrews and Attorney-General Jill Hennessy have been accused of “over-reach” as a contentious debate regarding human rights and religion looms in Parliament.
Murray Campbell, lead pastor at Mentone Baptist Church, is worried about the state government's "gay conversion" legislation.CREDIT:WAYNE TAYLOR
Victoria’s proposed laws have been described by survivors of gay conversion as “world leading”, because they prohibit harmful practices not only in healthcare settings, as is the case in Queensland, but they also target “prayer-based practices” that attempt to change or suppress sexuality or gender identity, as well as abuse within families.
This is important given many conversion practices – from celibacy support groups aiming to overcome same-sex attraction, to exorcisms and attempts to "pray away the gay" – are often hidden in informal and religious settings, as opposed to extreme medical interventions that were sometimes previously used, such as shock treatment or aversion therapy.
However, criticism of the bill's reference to prayer is building, not just from the religious right, but from mainstream churches, with Melbourne's Catholic Archbishop Peter Comensoli telling The Sunday Age: “Who I pray to, how I pray, what I pray for, and most particularly, who I pray with is not of concern to any government.”
Peter Comensoli, Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne. CREDIT:PENNY STEPHENS
"Most mainstream Christian churches reject coercive practices or activities that do harm to LGBT people and we're ready to work with government to find ways of ensuring that people are protected. But the bill goes well and truly beyond that," the Archbishop said.
Under the reforms, anyone found trying to suppress or change another person’s sexuality or gender identity faces up to 10 years’ jail or fines of almost $10,000 if it can be proved that their actions caused serious injury.
To explicitly mention prayer in Victorian legislation is astonishing.'
Murray Campbell, lead pastor at Mentone Baptist Church.
Victoria's human rights watchdog will also get new powers to deal with complaints that fall short of the criminal standard, and to launch own-motion investigations into systemic issues as part of a new civil scheme for victims.
In another significant move, the Family Violence Protection Act will be amended to clarify that suppressing or changing a family member's sexuality or gender identity is a form of domestic violence, empowering people to take action against their relatives. The regime governing Personal Safety Intervention Orders will also be strengthened to prevent harassment on that basis.
Debate on the bill is scheduled this week with the Liberal Party still undecided about whether to allow a conscience vote. Shadow attorney-general Ed O’Donohue has called for the government to delay debate until next year to give MPs time to assess the details.
Victorian Attorney-General Jill Hennessy.CREDIT:JASON SOUTH
However, Ms Hennessy said the changes “strike the right balance" between protecting LGBTI people – who are at higher risk of self-harm and suicide – and respecting freedom of speech and religion. Survivors agree.
“If asking people to refrain from this kind of harmful practice is somehow the biggest threat to religious freedom, then it is even more evidence of why this bill is needed,” said Nathan Despott, who runs the Brave Network, an advocacy group for LGBTI people of faith.
Churches and ministries, on the other hand, fear they will be sanctioned for wanting people to live in accordance with their faith.
Christian think tank Freedom for Faith has described the bill as “the most aggressive action ever taken by an Australian government to attack freedom of religion".
University of Newcastle religion expert Neil Foster, an Evangelical, raised concerns about the “very significant” powers the Human Rights Commission would have to probe faith groups.
And Mentone Baptist Church senior pastor Murray Campbell told The Sunday Age pastors might now question where to draw the line if a same-sex attracted Christian sought their support.
“If someone said to me: 'I affirm the Bible's vision for human sexuality, can you pray for me', my reading of the bill is that I could fall foul of the law if they later felt harmed by that,” he said. "This is the most significant threat to religious freedom in Victoria... To explicitly mention prayer in Victorian legislation is astonishing.”
The government insists that sermons and other prayer-based practices that do not specifically target an individual will not be captured in the legislation. For the criminal sanctions to apply, injury would also need to be proven beyond reasonable doubt.
For example, if a same-sex attracted person sought spiritual guidance from a faith leader who then tried to suppress or change their sexuality through regular prayer sessions or conversion "therapy", negligently causing physical or psychological injury to that person, a jail term or fine could be imposed.
Sanctions could also apply if a parent sent their child to an overseas conversion therapy camp, or if a Christian counsellor recommended group therapy designed to overcome same-sex attraction.
The Change and Suppression (Conversion) Practices Bill is the latest in a series of contentious progressive social reforms introduced under the Andrews government, which also went to war with religious groups over assisted dying laws, safe access zones around abortion clinics, and transgender birth certificate legislation.
Advocates say the bill will save lives, because conversion therapy is essentially based on the dangerous notion that being gay is a form of “brokenness” that ought to be fixed. Many LGBTI people of faith have attempted to "convert" only to self-harm or to suicide when they were unable to do so.
One person, Percy Gurtler, recalled having a mental health breakdown as a 19-year-old university student after being forced to suppress their queer identity as part of an evangelical community. "These laws are important because they will prevent really deep psychological harm from occurring," they said.
Reverend Elenie Poulos, a doctoral researcher into the politics of religious freedom, said it was "disingenuous" for church groups to say the bill went too far because all religiously-based conversion practices are rooted in prayer.
"That's the idea of it: you pray for someone to be 'healed' of an illness," said Rev Poulos, a non-executive director at the Uniting Church. "This is not an attack on prayer; it's an attack on a harmful, religiously-based practice."
Meanwhile, the right-wing Australian Christian Lobby has embarked on a campaign to stop the reforms from being passed, with volunteers polling households, describing the new bill as “communist” and urging people to contact state MPs ahead of the debate in Parliament this week.
The passage of the bill in the upper house, where the government does not control the numbers, will also present challenges for the Liberal opposition, which values religious freedom but whose MPs are on the record saying they do not agree with gay conversion therapy.
Equality Australia chief executive Anna Brown described the bill as "a common-sense law that prevents people from causing injury to others, including by deceptively encouraging LGBT people to believe they are disordered, ill, or in need of a cure”.
The bill comes after a 2018 investigation by The Age found numerous churches and ministries engaging in change and suppression practices cloaked in the form of “spiritual healing”, one-on-one counselling, exorcisms and deliverance.
www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/gay-conversion-legislation-puts-andrews-on-a-collision-course-with-churches-20201204-p56ks6.html
