John MacArthur Calls On U.S. Pastors To Preach On Biblical Sexuality On Jan. 16 In Response To New Canadian Law
Canadian pastors are warning that a new “conversion therapy” bill, just passed by parliament, will likely ban them from teaching that homosexuality and transgenderism are sins according to the Bible.
The bill in question, known as C-4, unanimously passed both the House of Commons and the Senate before receiving Royal Assent on December 8, meaning it will officially become law on Jan 8. On the surface, it’s meant to outlaw “conversion therapies”— that is, psychological treatments intended to re-train same-sex attracted people to prefer the opposite sex and individuals who believe they’re transgender to embrace their biological sex. When approached in a coercive or abusive manner, nearly all mainstream Christian denominations also condemn such therapy.
But critics say C-4’s language is so broad it also effectively bans preaching and teaching that draw on biblical sexual ethics. For instance, it could prevent counseling that references the many Old and New Testament passages that demonstrate God reserves sex for one man and one woman within the bond of marriage. It could also criminalize any instruction that confirms human beings are created as wholly male or female from birth (the Bible has no category for transgender other than to condemn men dressing like women and vice versa in passages like Deuteronomy 22:5).
Even further, the bill makes it a crime for parents to provide Christian therapy to children suffering from gender dysphoria and prevents pastors and other religious leaders from offering biblical counseling or advice to same-sex attracted individuals who desire to obey the God’s commands to repent from the sin of homosexual practices. Violations carry a penalty of up to five years in prison.
In response, John MacArthur, longtime senior pastor of Grace Community Church in Los Angeles, is asking for ministers across the U.S. to join him in preaching about God’s standard for sexuality on Jan 16. MacArthur’s statement, issued Dec. 28, calls for a show of solidarity that will “put the Canadian and the U.S. governments on notice that they have attacked the Word of God.”
In his appeal, MacArthur quoted Canadian minister James Coates (who was jailed earlier this year for keeping his church open in violation of government Covid-19 restrictions), saying the bill could be used to “criminalize evangelism.”
“I am eager to support our Canadian brothers and to preach on biblical sexual morality on January 16, and I invite you as a faithful pastor to do the same,” MacArthur wrote, later adding, “We are all well-aware of the evil power and destructive influence of the homosexual and transgender ideology. Our government is bent on not only normalizing this perversion, but also legalizing it, and furthermore criminalizing opposition to it.”
He then went on to point out that similar laws have made their way through state legislatures in the U.S.
In 2012, California enacted a law that prohibited conversion therapy, though it’s purview is much more limited than C-4’s. New York, New Jersey, Oregon, Massachusetts, Nevada, and a number of other states passed similar bills soon after. On a national level, the Democratic Party included banning “harmful conversion therapy practices” in its platform at its convention last August. At the same time, activist LGBT teachers and school counselors, who face no corresponding legal restrictions, have grown much more aggressive in teaching young students that they may be gay or transgender.
As Anna Nienhuis of Canada’s Association for Reformed Political Action has pointed out, while C-4 bans any attempts to help someone turn away from unwanted homosexuality or transgenderism, it imposes no limits on and requires no penalties for activists, counselors, or teachers attempting “counsel a cisgender or heterosexual individual to become transgender or homosexual.”
In his open letter, MacArthur, whose daily Bible teaching program, “Grace to You,” is one of the most popular radio ministries in the world, quoted Andrew DeBartolo, teaching elder at Encounter Church in Ontario. DeBartolo stressed the importance of pushing back against government authoritarianism on this issue and thanked his American brothers for their willingness to stand alongside him:
“In the Preamble of the Bill, it says that the belief that “heterosexuality, cisgender gender identity and gender expression that conforms to the sex assigned to a person at birth are to be preferred over other sexual orientations, gender identities and gender expressions” is a “myth.” According to Canadian law, as of January 8, 2022, the belief in God’s design for marriage and sexuality will now be seen as a myth…
On January 16, 2022, faithful men across this country (and many in the United States as well) will be preaching on God’s design for marriage and a biblical ethic of sexuality. We will be doing so illegally, declaring to the State that there is one God and one Lord over His church, and that Christ alone gets to both define marriage and dictate what is required in the pulpit. We are honored that our American brothers will be joining
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