God or the Totalist State?

The sexual militants’ war on Christianity:

Many of us have warned for many decades now that the implementation of the radical homosexual agenda would have far-reaching ramifications for all of society, including the Christian church. Not just public expressions of faith would come under attack, but even private expressions as well, including prayer and simple discussions with others.

That has been going on for quite some time now. Christians have lost their jobs, been fined, and even jailed for daring to stand for their beliefs when it comes to things like human sexuality and marriage and family. And it keeps getting worse. Consider the current situation in Australia.

Recently NSW joined various other states in passing legislation effectively outlawing prayer. In the guise of fighting “conversion therapy,” these laws tell us that offering counsel or help to those struggling with their sexual issues is now a hate crime. And that includes even praying for such people!

I just did a quick look, and I now have 36 articles on this matter of “conversion therapy”, going back to 2013. Few believers back then were even aware of where all this was heading. In a 2018 article I said this for example about where we were going with all these oppressive laws:

The endgame of the militant homosexual lobby has always been this: the complete and final elimination of any and all opposition and criticism. Not only that, but the compulsory promotion and celebration of this lifestyle has also been actively sought after and worked for.

 

And the biggest obstacle to all this has always been the Christian faith. The radicals have long known that the full acceptance and enforcement of their agenda can only take place when the Christian church is completely silenced. When it is muzzled by the heavy hand of the law, then the final triumph of homosexual activism will be complete. https://billmuehlenberg.com/2018/12/11/the-war-against-conversion-therapy/

When the Victorian legislation was being discussed in 2019, I wrote this:

Various places around the West are denying genuine choice to those who may most need it. I refer to bans on help and counsel for those who are not happy with their same-sex attractions. Many governments today are so utterly in the iron grip of the homosexual activists that they are actually outlawing those who want to make such help available.

 

In some places if you even dare to pray for such a person you might run afoul of the law. Imagine that! Just decades ago many groups – secular and religious – existed to help such people, because most folks knew this was an unwanted and abnormal lifestyle.

 

But now governments are teaming up with the militants to crack down on those offering counselling and therapy. Now the ones on the outer are those who actually believe heterosexuality is the norm, and that those struggling should be able to get help in these areas. How things have changed in such a short period of time. https://billmuehlenberg.com/2019/11/23/banning-conversion-therapy-and-the-war-on-choice/

And when the law went through in early 2021 I wrote this:

I have said it often enough: Victoria under Dan Andrews and the Labor government is becoming the Antichrist State. And a vote in the Victorian Upper House last night was the final nail in the coffin. There we had politicians formally voting to turn Christians and other concerned citizens into criminals.

 

And all the media headlines got it wrong. It is not “conversion therapy” that is now illegal in Victoria. It is Christianity, prayer, counsel, biology, common sense, and help for those struggling that is now banned in Victoria. Dare to live out your faith in this Australian state and you can be imprisoned for a decade! https://billmuehlenberg.com/2021/02/05/we-are-all-criminals-now-in-victoria/

As I say, a number of other Australian states have already gone down this path. Queensland, South Australia, and the ACT have passed such draconian legislation, and just this month NSW joined them. Passed late last year, The Conversion Practices Ban Act 2024 has just come into effect.

So now a person can be imprisoned for up to five years if they are found to have offered to help someone to change or repress their sexual orientation. If a person struggling in this area comes to a Christian pastor or counsellor or even just a Christian friend, seeking help in this area, if that believer offers advice and a word of prayer, that person can now be arrested and charged as some lowlife criminal.

So even if a believer is specifically asked by a person for some prayer and advice, the one offering help can still be targeted by the state. Of course the utter insanity of all this should be apparent. Someone with homosexual attractions or feelings is being forced to forever remain this way, whether they like it or not. Yet the same sexual activists and their statist supporters are insisting that a person can change their sex by simply willing it!

On the one hand homosexuality is an inviolate condition which can never be altered. Never mind the thousands of ex-homosexuals who exist and thrive. I personally know many of them. But when it comes to the trans madness, anyone at the drop of a hat can somehow magically be transformed from a male to a female, or the other way around. The godless state is fully in bed with the activists in both areas.

Thankfully some NSW pastors, church leaders and Christian workers are resisting this evil edict, and have created a site where people can join in on the cause. They also penned an open letter to the government on this matter. It says in part:

We hold to orthodox and historic Christian teaching on gender and sexual ethics. In our churches, we seek to honour God by welcoming and serving people from all backgrounds and stages in life, including those who experience same-sex attraction or suffering from gender dysphoria. We always aim to do so with love, gentleness, and respect, and we utterly reject the use of any form of coercion or control. We do so in a variety of ways, primarily through telling them the good news about the love of Jesus Christ as revealed in his life, death, and resurrection. We teach all people that there is life, hope, forgiveness, and transformation to be found in Jesus alone.

The name of the new group, “Open Windows,” comes from an Old Testament reference:

In Daniel 6, the prophet Daniel found himself subject to legislation which restricted the peoples’ ability to pray freely in accordance with their conscience. In response, he opened his windows and prayed publicly to God. For our part, we have no desire to become criminals, and as Christians we place a high value on submitting to and honouring our government. However, should these laws remain in place, we will have no option but to “open our windows” – we will continue to exercise orthodox Christian ministry and discipleship, including counselling and praying with individuals concerning the Christian view of sex, marriage, and gender. We must obey God rather than men. https://openwindowsletter.com/

To see just how bad all this is getting, consider the situation here in Victoria. As mentioned, the law on this went through some four years ago. And the real worry is how many churches have fully capitulated to this, even siding with the state against helping people who really need and want help. For example, the Melbourne Anglicans have told their members that they must sign a Code of Conduct or no longer be able to serve in the church.

But, some might ask, is it not a good thing to have a code of conduct? The religious liberty expert Elizabeth Kendal makes it clear why Christians cannot go along with this:

Article 6 has a long list of about 30 prohibited activities. When you get right down to 6.2 (y), you’ll find that you will not engage in any conduct to change or suppress a child’s gender identity or sexual orientation. It does tell you that the referring legislation is the Victorian state government’s Conversion Prohibition Act. So there can be no confusion what it’s talking about. I just immediately saw it and said, well, I can’t sign that.

 

I mean what if a 12-year-old girl tells me that they’re going to socially transition and they don’t want to be called Mary anymore, they want to be called Kevin, and then they’re going to start on puberty blockers and testosterone. There’s no way known I can affirm that child and assist them in their transition. That’s what the state government requires and that is now what the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne is complying with. https://vision.org.au/read/news/australia/conversion-laws-dilemma-for-melbourne-anglicans/

Having been involved in these various battles for more than 35 years now in Australia, I have seen far too many cases of statist overreach wherein our political leaders and elites happily side with the sexual revolutionaries over against ordinary Australians who do not want all this woke nonsense being rammed down their throats.

And I have also seen far too many churches, pastors and even entire denominations go right along with all these anti-Christian laws. They have sold their souls to the devil in order to just get along, not rock the boat, and to get any government handouts and subsidies.

These ‘Christian’ folks would have considered Daniel to be a troublemaker and would have readily sided with the Babylonian overlords in seeing him punished – even put to death. Thankfully back then God intervened, and he was spared from becoming a meal for the lions.

But today too many church leaders just do whatever the secular state tells them to do, no questions asked. They need to go back and reread the book of Acts. For example, when the religious authorities were threatening Peter and John, they replied: “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:19-20).

After that, we next read about how all the believers there prayed for boldness! We need to do the same today. People who are broken by sin, be it sexual sin and or any other sin, are in desperate need of biblical truth, of our prayers, and of our help. If the state tells us we can no longer offer this, then we must resist the state and remain true to Christ.

The state is always quite happy when the churches meekly acquiesce and capitulate. As R. J. Rushdoony put it in Christianity and the State:

“The churches represent the great area of freedom from statist controls in many countries. This is a condition which the modern state finds intolerable and is determined to alter. The state’s great ally in this struggle is all too often the church itself. The humanism of so many churchmen makes them dedicated allies of statist objectives.”

And as Francis Schaeffer put it decades ago in How Should We Then Live?:

If we as Christians do not speak out as authoritarian governments grow from within or come from outside, eventually we or our children will be the enemy of society and the state. No truly authoritarian government can tolerate those who have a real absolute by which to judge its arbitrary absolutes and who speak out and act upon the absolute. This was the issue with the early church in regard to the Roman Empire, and though the specific issue will in all probability take a different form than Caesar-worship, the basic issue of having an absolute by which to judge the state and society will be the same.

Most Western states, along with the sexual militants, have become the new Caesar. Will you resist, or simply bow down and worship at the feet of these false gods?

[1958 words]