Concern is growing among pastors and Christian counselors that a bill working its way through the California legislature would put them at odds with the law if they hold to biblical standards of sexuality.
The fear is that California’s AB 2943, a bill that purports to declare “sexual orientation change efforts” to be an “unlawful business practice”, makes selling books, holding conferences, advertising events or offering counseling services that hold to biblical teachings on sexual relations and gender the equivalent of consumer fraud.
AB 2943 also declares — “efforts to change behaviors or gender expressions, or to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attractions or feelings toward individuals of the same sex” is considered consumer fraud.
Constitutional attorney and author David French calls the last sentence “far broader than the traditional definition of so-called reparative therapy,” and “an attempt to change mere behavior.”
French was highly criticized on social media when he suggested that the legislation is so broad it could even ban the Bible. He says the debate in the California Assembly has proven him right. When asked about worst-case scenarios for the ill-defined bill during debate, assembly member Al Muratsuchi declared that it’s time for the faith community to “evolve with the times.”
The proposal now heads to the California Senate.