The media has created a sense of crisis around conversion therapy and a ban is very likely. The Christian Institute supports protecting people from dangerous medical practices. But activists want prayer, pastoral conversations, preaching and even parenting to be caught. This is a fast-moving issue. This leaflet covers key developments since our previous briefing in November 2020.
Secular humanism plays an influential role in politics, education and the media today, and is explicitly anti-Christian. But it has hijacked the name and noble legacy of historic humanism. This briefing explores the roots of secular humanism in Unitarianism, showing how recently it emerged and the danger it poses.
Elections for the Scottish Parliament take place on 6 May 2021.
We have excellent laws on free speech. These include the freedom to disagree on transgenderism.
We live in a fallen world. But God’s common grace means the world is not as loveless, ugly and chaotic as it could be. The Bible teaches that God restrains evil so that God’s creation may be preserved, ordered lives can continue and ultimately that God may be glorified and the Gospel preached to all nations.
The Scottish Government’s original Hate Crime Bill was a major threat to free speech, including evangelism and Christian comment on sexual ethics. After a huge public backlash, Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf has made significant concessions. The Bill is less dangerous. But the Government still needs to go further to make sure freedom of speech and expression is not undermined.
There are good laws covering Religious Education in Wales. This framework is to be scrapped and replaced by arrangements which can be controlled by atheists and those personally opposed to religious faith.
Kirsty Williams’s Bill abolishes all existing safeguards. It contains nothing to replace them. She has said an ‘RSE Code’ will be written, but it hasn’t been published and any such Code can be updated by future ministers.
Jesus told the woman caught in adultery to ‘go and sin no more’. But saying the same thing to a practising homosexual could mean breaking a planned new conversion therapy law.
Vague ‘stirring up hatred’ offences in the Scottish Government’s Hate Crime Bill threaten free speech, including evangelism and Christian comment on sexual ethics. The plans have triggered a huge public backlash.