Dr Paul Allen

By   TYLER O'NEIL   Published on  January 4, 2024 Imagine the government told you what you  can and cannot pray for , inside your own head. Such an idea seems better suited to “thoughtcrime” dystopias — such as George Orwell’s  1984  or Aldous Huxley’s  Brave New World , where the government attempts to control your every thought — rather than to the modern, free English-speaking world. Yet a government in the Australian state of Victoria has trodden on the sacred space of one’s own inner prayers, all in the name of protecting people  who identify as LGBTQ . The Change or Suppression (Conversion) Practices Prohibition Act 2021, which went into effect in August 2022, forbids certain practices aimed at changing or suppressing an individual’s gender identity or sexual orientation. The law also bans “carrying out a religious practice, including but not limited to, a prayer-based practice, a deliverance practice or an exorcism.” The Victorian Equal Opp...

Rosaria Butterfield, Ph.D., is one of the most articulate, clear-headed voices in the Church today addressing issues of sexuality and gender. As a former lesbian feminist, now a committed Christian, she understands the LGBTQ+ mindset and is able to confront it with eternal, biblical principles. At the same time, she is a human being, and like the rest of us, she has blind spots. Thankfully, in keeping with her Christian character, she has addressed one of those blind spots in her life, publicly confessing her error. As Butterfield explained, in 2014, in an article published by The Gospel Coalition, she wrote, “[Reparative therapy], a heresy, [is] a modern version of the prosperity gospel. Name it. Claim it. Pray the gay away.” Today, she writes, “This ranks among the most misguided words I have written as a Christian.” What a forthright, humble confession. False Concept of “Conversion Therapy” But how did she get things so wrong? Why did she believe that these efforts to help people ov...

O ver the past week, evangelicalism has witnessed an intriguing exchange surrounding the LGBTQ issue. Briefly, it began when RNS posted an interview with Jen Hatmaker in which she affirmed the holiness of LGBT relationships, to which Rosaria Butterfield responded , to which RNS responded . In reading these articles, and others like it, there seems to be a common confusion lining the discussion: What is love? What is unloving? What criteria determines if something is loving or not? Often the unloving penalty flag is (unlovingly) thrown into the mix of these conversations. It’s not possible to dissect all the issues. But briefly, it’s worth pushing pause and examining what we often label “loving” and “unloving.” Individuals are correct when they insist on the priority of love. “For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’” (Gal. 5:14). All that God commands is summed up in love. But this demands a question: why should ...

The Battle for Godly Marriage (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) I recently addressed a major national conference on “ The Gospel, Homosexuality, and the Future of Marriage ” held by the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention . As expected, the conference was one of the most responsible and edifying meetings yet held of Christians concerned about these issues. This is exactly what would be expected of the ERLC and its leadership. The conference was both helpful and historic. I had the honor of delivering the opening keynote address entitled “Aftermath: Ministering in a Post-Marriage Culture.” The full text of my address will be posted here shortly. Subsequent to the conference, it became clear that the vast coverage of the conference in the national press raised some issues that need to be considered further. One of these issues is sexual orientation . As I explained in my address, I had previously denied the existence of sexual orientation. I, along w...