Banning the Prayers of People You Don’t Know to a God You Don’t Believe In
It’s a strange thing indeed that Australian state governments have taken a sudden interest in the prayers of citizens.
The NSW Government recently followed Victoria’s lead and made it illegal to pray for a gay or gender confused person – even at that person’s request.
Outlawing prayer, as the state’s Conversion Practices Ban Act 2024 does, naturally begs the question: Why?
What are they afraid of?
Are our politicians suggesting that prayers might have some kind of otherworldly, transforming power?
Is the prohibition against prayer an acknowledgment that prayer actually works?
But if, as I suspect, they do not believe in the efficacy of prayer, then why ban it?
If prayer is nothing more than empty words spoken into the ether to a make-believe Sky Daddy, what’s the problem?
Will they criminalise putting out milk and cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve next?
It’s curious that our government is not against prayer per se. It only finds certain prayers problematic.
It’s not illegal to pray that your neighbour drops dead. But it is illegal to pray that your gay neighbour starts being attracted to the opposite sex.
(I’m not suggesting it’s appropriate to pray for people to die. I’m just making the point that, unlike praying for a gay person to suppress their urges, it’s not against the law.)
And what’s really strange is that the ban on prayer applies even if your gay neighbour asks for it!
Follow the logic…
If my straight neighbour asks for prayer to control his urges, I’m perfectly entitled to pray for him.
But if my gay neighbour asks for prayer to control his urges, I must discriminate against him on the grounds of his sexuality!
The Left doesn’t hate bigotry after all!
Explain to me how this works…
It’s not illegal for my gay friend to ask me to ask God to help him be straight. But it is illegal for me to pass the message on, you know, to God.
And is it not passing strange that the conversion practices ban only works one way?
It’s not illegal to pray for a gender confused person to be granted access to puberty blockers for a sex change.
But it is illegal to pray for that same gender confused person to feel comfortable in the body God gave them.
The government will let me pray that you receive help from doctors to change your body into a different sex, but not that you will have the grace to accept the body you’re in.
If a straight friend decided he wanted to be gay and asked me to pray that he would find other men attractive, I could do so without fear of prosecution.
But if a gay friend decided he wanted to be straight, I’d be risking prosecution by clasping my hands in prayer.
So you can pray for gays and gender confused people, but you cannot pray “Thy will be done”. You must pray only “Thy Rainbow will be done”.
Speaking of the Rainbow lobby, they argue that the ban on prayer is because it is harmful to suggest that gay or trans people are somehow “broken”.
I’d counter that we are all broken. But I digress.
Anna Brown from the Human Rights Law Centre said…
“We need to look to a world where lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and trans people of faith can be embraced as whole and human by the faith communities they love.”
It amuses me that the Human Rights Law Centre is now telling “faith communities” around the “world” how they must believe and what they must “embrace”.
So… that’s Communist China, North Korea, the Islamic Republic of Iran… and the Human Rights Law Centre who just don’t do freedom of religion.
Or freedom of conscience.
Or freedom of association.
Or freedom of speech.
Which only leaves… nope… that’s your basic freedoms all gone.
People should be free to believe whatever they like about sexuality and gender. That’s the beauty of a free society.
But when you insist you have the power to police the prayers of strangers to a God you are sure does not exist, you have become the very thing you claim to detest.
That said, Nebuchadnezzar would approve.
___
Republished with thanks to The James Macpherson Report.
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Love the way you think James.
Pity the Politicians and Law Makers don’t think the same way!
Re David’s comment: does that make Albo a new Buddha or just one of the pantheon of Hindu gods?
To: Ian: Totally aagree re James. Sometimes I am sure his brain is wire in some VERY unique way! :)
Just fantastic!
Peak insanity is far closer than peak oil, or Global boiling….mmm, similar insanity.
Much appreciated! Many of us have asked the same logical questions. We can’t pray to a God they deny in case He answers against their ideologies. ??? I would have thought if God answers He could also judge! Thankfully we can pray long distance which is no distance to God.
why are we constantly throwing logic and rationality at these dumb politicians that simply don’t care about Christians or the church much less freedom of religion or any other freedom. why are we constantly curling up in a tight ball in a corner somewhere trying to find a happy place and a place in which we can pray without the fear of being found out? why can’t we break bad laws as Topher Field is want to do? making it illegal to pray for someone is and obviously, political interference in religion and it needs to be stopped. like same seed marriage which was a ruse for more profane dual behaviours, these clueless politicians are simply vying for even greater impositions on the weak and spineless Christian community until they have completely shut it down. Is this something God blesses or is the faithful community of God here meant to hold the government to account to uphold a just and civil society? I say, it’s time for good Christians to break bad laws… flood the prisons if necessary, bring this country back to faith as the Great South Land of the Holy Spirit that it should be.
Great article James. Thankyou again.
Isn’t it wonderful that people who say God doesn’t exist are so afraid of those who do believe!
If God doesn’t exist, he can’t answer any prayers so what are they worried about?
Even the atheist communists in Russia who aimed to exterminate all Christians had to admit the most ( only?) honest and best workers where all Christisns. Today the Russian Orthodox Church has 110 million communicants and about 36,000 Church buildings, most built since the collapse of communist control by donations from believers. The atheist communists murdered about 65 million people and aimed to stop God being worshipped. Now the church appears to be stronger than before the 1917 revolution. Our God moves and lives with great patience and power.