The last thing LGBTQ2 Canadians need is MPs misquoting scripture at them – iPolitics.ca
It was only a matter of time before the absurd remarks of Conservative MP Tamara Jansen went viral on social media, and it was entirely justified.
Addressing a Liberal bill aimed at criminalizing conversion therapy, the MP for the B.C. riding of Cloverdale—Langley City said, “I’m going to invoke the words of the Apostle Matthew: ‘Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees. You hypocrites! You’re like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside, but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.’ ”
After she was roundly criticized for implying that people who oppose conversion therapy — and members of the LGBTQ2 community, in particular — were perhaps “unclean,” she said she was in fact referring to hypocrites, rather than homosexuals. But with more than 780,000 words in the Bible, it’s a little strange she chose these so deliberately.
Jansen went on to discuss someone named Charlotte, whose parents, she explained, had found their daughter a counsellor because she no longer wanted “to continue with her lesbian activity” and “struggled with self-worth and depression.” It didn’t seem to occur to the MP that young gay people do indeed sometimes struggle with self-worth and depression, not because of their sexuality, but because of people who condemn that sexuality, and often quote scripture to make them feel unloved and unnatural.
Conversion therapy is more prejudice than science, more hysteria than study. It’s been discredited by every scientific body worth its name, banned in many jurisdictions and countries, and, according to the International Forensic Expert Group, violates the global ban on torture and ill treatment. Ontario, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island have banned it for minors, and Vancouver, Edmonton, and Calgary have passed municipal bylaws against it. Minister of Justice and Attorney General David Lametti describes it as “a cruel practice that can lead to lifelong trauma, particularly for young people. It sends a demeaning and degrading message.”
Generally, it’s only the religious right in Canada that wants to preserve the monstrosity, and they give it names like “sexual attraction fluidity exploration,” “reparative therapy,” and “deliverance sessions,” so to disguise its central purpose. Whatever they may claim, their motivation is an obsession with homosexuality, which is especially bewildering, in that lesbianism is never mentioned in the Old Testament, Jesus doesn’t refer to homosexuality at all and is liberatingly permissive in his response to sexual matters, and the handful of references in some of the New Testament letters are about abuse and exploitation rather than loving, same-sex relationships.
Believe me, any informed and serious study of the original languages, historical context, and theological intent reveals something profoundly different from what the Tamara Jansens of the world seem to think. When St. Paul, for example, writes on this subject, he is describing and criticizing straight men using boys for sex, rather than consenting adults of the same gender who are born gay and fall in love.
Nor is a ban on the so-called therapy a threat to personal or religious freedom, because people will still be able to seek advice from their priest or minister if, for some reason, they have concerns. It’s conversion therapy itself, with its grim track record of suicide attempts, emotional agony, and implicit contempt for LGBTQ2 people, that is under discussion.
Toronto Liberal MP Rob Oliphant, who, as well as being gay is a United Church minister, has called on Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole to disavow his MP’s remarks about opponents being “unclean.” This will, however, be difficult for the leader of a party that includes in its caucus a number of evangelical and conservative Roman Catholic MPs. It also has active and organized grassroots support that’s often deeply socially conservative, and angry at what it regards as the unfair treatment of MP Derek Sloan, who was expelled from the party caucus. Sloan had accepted a donation from a high-profile white nationalist, but many saw this as an excuse to remove a right-wing Christian whom O’Toole and his people found to be an embarrassment.
Then there is social conservative Leslyn Lewis, who did surprisingly well in the party’s leadership race, is likely to be an MP after the next election, and many see as challenging an increasingly disappointing O’Toole. If he alienates his base any further, it could damage him severely when he needs that support most.
The victims in all this, of course, are young LGBTQ2 people, especially those living in less urban communities and in conservative Christian families. Having a government and a legal system tell them they’re entirely normal, and that no therapy or conversion is in any way necessary, could change their lives, and, if we’re brutally honest, even save them.
Let me give Ms. Jansen and her friends another line from scripture, this time from the Gospel of John. “This is my commandment”, says Jesus, “that you love one another as I have loved you.” Don’t judge, don’t misquote scripture, and do understand the reality of sexuality and the significance of words. Now that’s a conversion we should all support.
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