‘Nothing to Heal’? (Rien A Guerir?)
Author: Andrew Comiskey
February 21, 2022
Or so goes the tagline for
France’s new law that bans ‘conversion therapies’ and authorizes jail time and
fines for persons who accompany clients seeking to redirect their sexual
energies.
So much for fraternity, equality,
and liberty. Apparently, the French government knows better than her citizens
whose faith, sexual traumas, and addictions have led them to explore new ways
of relating.
‘Freedom’ in secular
France now means binding up the Christian conscience.
I discovered word on the
final vote (a slam dunk, 142-0) while perusing for the first time the French
translation of the newly revised Living Waters guidebook. Having yet to read it
in English, I frankly delighted in this ‘map’ for seekers seeking a new way of
understanding themselves, their relationships, and Merciful Jesus. I thought
about all my friends—smart, sensitive servants who accompany diverse strugglers
in churches throughout France. And I pray along with you that this renewed
guide will renew their efforts.
Torrents de Vie (Living
Waters) in France has flowed with humble dignity for over 25 years. It quenches the thirst of all persons (including persons with sexual identity conflicts—for
them, there is something to heal) seeking wholeness in Jesus. And they have
been hounded for the last couple decades by a handful of LGBTQ+ activists, dishonest
journalists, and politicians hell-bent on ridiculing, if not stopping, their
efforts.
To do so, the French
government claims that they are weeding out coercive and abusive
‘interventions.’ Yet these techniques neither exist in France nor in any
western nation, let alone in Torrents de Vie. In truth, the government is
imposing a sexual philosophy, and themselves as the ‘big brother’ who insists
on its trajectory. Or else!
This new national ban
applies only to clinicians, not lay pastoral helpers, and so Torrents de Vie is
not directly endangered. Yet the law casts a dark net over all French Christians
whose conscience directs them to take another way.
No government should
impose itself upon that conscience. Each citizen should have the right to
determine how he views himself, his sexuality, and his relational future. And
to secure support in route.
Sexual matters involve the
most personal movements and convictions of the heart. Persons, not parliaments,
determine what needs to be healed. As the French government already champions
LGBTQ+ everything, why not advocate for persons whose convictions guide them to
identify differently?
In passing this law, the
French government mocks equality, liberty, and fraternity.
Nothing to heal? Not for a
faithful few. Nothing can stop Torrents de Vie. May resistance strengthen them.
‘Wherever the river flows,
everything will live’ (Ez. 47:9).
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