Mauck & Baker is a well-respected Chicago law firm committed to protecting religious liberty through the application of biblical principles. In the service of this commitment, they have issued a statement regarding Republican Governor Bruce Rauner’s deeply troubling abandonment of conservative principles through his enactment of a controversial, anti-autonomy law that prohibits mental health professionals from helping minors who seek assistance in resisting unwanted, unchosen same-sex attraction, rejecting a “gay” identity, and/or accepting their physical embodiment:

Rauner Signs Bill Restricting Sexual Orientation Counseling for Minors

(Chicago, Illinois) Late last Friday, Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner signed into law the deceptively titled “Youth Mental Health Protection Act,” becoming one of only three states to make it illegal to counsel minors on how to cope with or overcome unwanted same-sex attraction. The Act further provides that “no person or entity may, in the conduct of any trade or comer… represent homosexuality as a mental disease, disorder, or illness.”

The law is written broadly enough to put at risk not only licensed counselors but also pastors and others  who are in “commerce” (compensated for counseling) and refer to homosexuality as an illness or “disorder” (i.e. sin) to any counselee, minor or adult, with the purpose of helping the counselee be free from same-sex attractions. Those who continue to provide such counseling and care will face disciplinary actions by the state and are subject to suit under the Illinois Consumer Fraud Act.

Attorney John Mauck, partner at the law firm Mauck & Baker responded, “According to Scripture, it is possible for all of us who have sinful tendencies and compulsions to change and become holy in God’s sight. The Apostle Paul indicates this is also true for those involved in homosexual conduct. In 1 Corinthians 6:11, speaking of ‘homosexual offenders’ and others, Paul writes, ‘such were some of you.’”

Licensed counselors, minors who struggle with same-sex attraction, or pastors, are encouraged to contact Mauck & Baker to discuss their civil rights and join with others interested in challenging the law. Also, the full length documentary, “Such Were Some of You” from Pure Passion Media is a valuable resource for testimonies of ex-gays and how Jesus helped them leave the gay lifestyle. To purchase the DVD for $15, call (312) 726-1243 or email info@mauckbaker.com.

Governor Bruce Rauner lied—or perhaps more precisely his wife, helpmeet, and mouthpiece, Diana Rauner, lied for him.

In a campaign ad, Mrs. Rauner stated with a Cheshire grin and a long nose that “Bruce doesn’t have a social agenda.”

Oh really…

Just this afternoon following the day during which we had to hear more about Planned Parenthood’s bloody baby-breaking business—which Ms. Rauner heartily supports—Governor “No-Social-Agenda” signed into law the anti-autonomy “Youth Mental Health Act,” deceitfully called the “conversion therapy ban” by radical LGBTQQIP activists. HB 217 will now become law.

Now minors who experience same-sex attraction as a result of sexual molestation will be prohibited from receiving counseling that may help them reject an unwanted, unchosen “gay identity.”

And minors who experience gender dysphoria will be prohibited from receiving counseling to help them accept as good their physical embodiment and to affirm a “gender identity” consonant with their objective, immutable biological sex. Even liberal sexuality and gender scientists Dr. Eric Vilain and Dr. J. Michael Bailey expressed their opposition to bans on so-called “conversion therapies” for gender dysphoric minors. I guess the powerful Wizard of Springfield knows something these experts don’t.

Or…he has a social agenda, and one that’s as colorful as Obama’s rainbow-dipped D.C. home.

If you still doubt Rauner’s social agenda, please note that he could have done nothing and the bill would have become law anyway.

Alternatively, he could have used his “amendatory veto power,” which only a few governors have and which he used recently with the marijuana law. Socially quiescent Bruce could have used this power to request the following changes which we sent him several days ago:

1.) Request that the bill be amended to prohibit only coercive aversion therapies.

2.) Request that the bill be amended to define specifically what constitutes aversion therapy.

3.) Request that a specific exemption be added to allow counselors to discuss the connection between childhood molestation and sexual orientation confusion and/or same-sex attraction. The liberal American Psychological Association admits the following:

Although much research has examined the possible genetic, hormonal, developmental, social, and cultural influences on sexual orientation, no findings have emerged that permit scientists to conclude that sexual orientation is determined by any particular factor or factors. Many think that nature and nurture both play complex roles….

Even homosexual counselors acknowledge that childhood molestation can result in “sexual orientation” confusion. Minors who have been sexually molested have a right to explore the link between their molestation and subsequent same-sex attraction.

4.) Request that the bill be amended to exclude gender dysphoria, “gender identity,” and “gender expression” from this bill. We have a very unusual definitional construct in Illinois law. The Illinois Human Rights Act specifically includes “gender identity” and “gender expression” under the rubric of “sexual orientation.” Because of this unusual legal definition, this bill would effectively ban any therapeutic modalities in which counselors help gender dysphoric minors accept their physical embodiment (i.e., their objective biological sex). Well-respected, liberal gender/sexuality scientists oppose bans on “conversion therapy” for gender dysphoric minors.

5.)Request that the bill be amended to permit minors who voluntarily seek counseling to help them construct an identity that does not affirm same-sex attraction to be able to access such counseling. Since gender dysphoric minors are permitted access to medical help in voluntarily rejecting their unwanted, unchosen physical embodiment, other minors should be able to access medical help in voluntarily rejecting their unwanted, unchosen same-sex attraction.

Governor Rauner could have done nothing or he could have used his amendatory veto power to request reasonable changes, but he didn’t because he has a pernicious social agenda that will undermine human flourishing.

Oh well, I guess in the big picture, what really matters are not the rights and welfare of minors and those who love them most. What really matters is that adult LGBTQQIP activists are sated and pensions are funded.

Illinois Family Institute
Faith, Family and Freedom Banquet

Friday, September 18 , 2015
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Written by David E. Smith and Laurie Higgins

How did they vote?

Yesterday afternoon, the Illinois Senate voted 34-19-1 to pass HB 217, a bill that will censor professional therapists who want to help children who suffer from unchosen, unwanted same-sex attraction. Republican State Senators Christine Radogno (Lemont) and Chris Nybo (Hinsdale) voted with the majority of Democrats to pass this tyrannical legislation. Five state senators did not vote, while State Senator Bill Haine (D-Alton) voted present — which is as good as a “no” vote.

This bill was introduced by LBGTQ activist and State Representative Kelly Cassidy (D-Chicago), and sponsored in the Illinois Senate by Senators Daniel Biss (D-Chicago), Andy Manar (D-Bunker Hill), Iris Martinez (D-Chicago), Toi Hutchinson (D-Chicago Heights), Don Harmon (D-Oak Park), Michael Noland (D-Elgin), David Koehler (D-Peoria), Dan Kotowski (D-Park Ridge), William Delgado (D-Chicago), Martin Sandoval (D-Chicago), Heather Steans (D-Chicago), and Emil Jones III (D-Chicago).

Click HERE to see how your state representative voted on this legislation, or look at the graphic below. (Look up your state senator HERE.)

The bill now moves to Governor Bruce Rauner. While he campaigned as a “no social issues” candidate in 2014, he now has to face the reality that the Illinois General Assembly is filled with politicians who want to advance radical legislation dealing with social issues–many of whom want to champion a far left social agenda agenda. Gov. Rauner will now be compelled to reveal his position on this highly divisive and controversial “social” issue.

Take ACTION: Click HERE to send an email or a fax to Governor Bruce Rauner’s office, asking him to allow licensed and professional therapists to do their job.  Urge him to veto HB 217.

Background

It is stunning to realize that legislation suppressing the speech of professional therapists would get this much support. Thankfully, the bill received robust deliberation and criticism on the floor during debate yesterday. State Senators Kyle McCarter (R-Vandalia), Dale Righter (R-Mattoon), Jim Oberweis (R-Aurora), Tim Bivins (R-Dixon) and freshman Neil Anderson (R-Moline) did a great job questioning the sponsor of the bill and/or speaking against HB 217.

IFI is grateful for the moral fortitude displayed by the members of the Illinois Senate who vocally opposed this unwarranted, unethical, and poorly written legislation.

It is important to note, HB 217 makes no distinction between coercive aversion therapy and “talk therapies” that would allow minors a measure of autonomy in constructing an identity that does not affirm unchosen, unwanted same-sex attraction.

The bill’s sponsors never addressed whether minors whose same-sex attraction or “sexual orientation” confusion may be the result of sexual molestation will be able to receive counseling to address the potential connection between molestation and same-sex attraction.

The bill’s supporters never explained why gender-confused minors should be able to access medical help in rejecting their unchosen, unwanted physical embodiment but those who experience same-sex attraction should be prohibited from accessing medical help in rejecting their unchosen, unwanted same-sex attraction.

Those who voted in favor of this bill ignored the urgent warnings of scientists who argued in an op-ed in the Chicago Tribune and LA Times that there is insufficient evidence to justify the passage of bans on reparative therapy for gender dysphoric minors. (Read more HERE.)

The bill’s supporters never addressed the galling way the bill was passed in the house, when the acting speaker allowed less than 5 seconds of time for floor debate before he called for a vote.

This bill is not a reasoned attempt to protect children. It’s a political maneuver that serves the strategic interests and profoundly selfish desires of adults committed to perverse activity and delusional thoughts. Once again, corrosive Illinois political chicanery in the service of some privileged coterie comes before wisdom, truth, knowledge, and even the needs and rights of hurting children.

While “progressive” Americans view the desire of those who suffer from Body Integrity Identity Disorder to amputate healthy limbs as barbaric, they ignorantly view the desire of those who suffer from Gender Identity Disorder to amputate healthy breasts and penises as sound medical practice. What a stupid, barbarous culture we’re becoming. Maybe when the lawsuits against doctors who facilitate barbarism, mutilating bodies and rendering young men and women sterile, start arriving on our crumbling cultural doorstep, this madness will stop. Too bad so many young people will have to suffer before that happens.

Please pray that Gov. Rauner does the right thing, and rejects this terrible policy.

Written by Laurie Higgins and David E. Smith

How did they vote?

Late yesterday afternoon, the Illinois House voted 44 to 51 to reject HB 5569, a legislative proposal by State Representative Kelly Cassidy (D-Chicago) that would have allowed the government to usurp the rights of parents and their children to get the kind of help they want to change unwanted same-sex attraction. HB 5569 was co-sponsored by State Representatives Naomi Jakobsson (D-Champaign), Greg Harris (D-Chicago), Ann Williams (D-Chicago), Sara Feigenholtz (D-Chicago), Robyn Gabel (D-Evanston) and Mike Smiddy (D-Rock Falls).

Click HERE to see how your state representative voted on this legislation, or look at the graphic below. 

In an article last month on this issue, IFI’s Laurie Higgins pointed out that the “ultimate motivation behind this legislation is to promote the Leftist assumptions of adult homosexuals who seek to wipe disapproval of homosexual acts from the face of the planet even if doing requires deception, harms children, undermines parental rights, and corrodes fundamental First Amendment speech and religious liberty.”

In a remarkable display of rhetorical excess, Cassidy argued that minors who desire to change their unwanted same-sex attraction through counseling are “horribly and humiliatingly abused.” It boggles the mind that Cassidy would expect her colleagues to believe that every counselor who helps minors with unwanted same-sex attraction “horribly and humiliatingly” abuses their young clients. Further, Cassidy expected her colleagues to believe her without any conclusive studies to support such an outlandish claim.

It defies logic that “progressives” believe that gender-confused minors should be able to receive treatment to change their unwanted  “gender identity” but other teens should not be able  to receive treatment for their unwanted sexual preferences.

It’s curious that Cassidy and her ideological compatriots never bring up “queer theory,” which emerges from the “LGBT” community. Queer theorists hold that “sexual orientation” is not fixed but, rather, is fluid, which means that “sexual orientation” can and, in fact, does change in many people.

Cassidy further asserted that “This treatment plan causes depression, causes suicidal actions and is incredibly harmful to children.” Interestingly, Cassidy did not identify what specific “treatment plan” she was  referring to, nor did she present any research proving that counseling to help minors with unwanted same-sex attraction causes depression, suicide attempts, or harm. 

This is a critically important victory for parents and minors, particularly minors who have been sexually abused. This bill would have prevented children from getting treatment to change unwanted same-sex attraction that results from abuse.

It’s also an important victory in that it will offer hope to those in other states who will be fighting this battle soon. Illinois now joins Maryland, Minnesota, and Virginia in defeating bills that seek to prevent minors and their parents from getting the kind of help they want.

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Written by Weston Gentry, Christianity Today

Exodus International president Alan Chambers has, in the past week, explained the Orlando-based ministry’s recent U-turn on reparative therapy to everyone from The New York Times to NPR to MSNBC’s Hardball.

And while the organization’s stance remains acceptable to most evangelicals, some scholars fear that Chambers’s theological convictions—sprinkled throughout those interviews—have not.

“It’s not that he is simply not saying the warnings [against homosexual activity] in Scripture. I could live with that,” Pittsburgh Theological Seminary professor Robert Gagnon said of Chambers’s recent comments. “It’s that he is saying the exact opposite of what Scripture clearly teaches … . He’s preaching an anti-gospel.”

The theological heresy in question is antinomianism. The term was coined by Martin Luther to refer to those who believe that since faith is sufficient for salvation, Christians are not obligated to keep God’s moral law.

Gagnon, author of The Bible and Homosexual Practice and a plenary speaker at Exodus’s 2009 Freedom Conference, said that a June interview in The Atlantic shows that Chambers’s views have veered. “Some of us choose very different lives than others,” Chambers said of gay Christians in same-sex marriages. “But whatever we choose, it doesn’t remove our relationship with God.”

When asked to clarify whether or not that meant “a person living a gay lifestyle won’t go to hell, as long as he or she accepts Jesus Christ as personal savior,” he replied, “My personal belief is … while behavior matters, those things don’t interrupt someone’s relationship with Christ.” In the course of the interview, Chambers made it clear that he believes that homosexual acts are sinful.

A 35-page response written by Gagnon called into question not only Chambers’s soteriology, but also his ability to continue his 11-plus years of leading Exodus, which boasts some 260 affiliates domestically and internationally.

According to Gagnon, Chambers’s statements unwittingly affirm that active homosexuals need only make an “intellectual assent” or “pray a prayer” to guard against eternal punishment, instead of stipulating the importance of repentance and change.

“I am not saying [Chambers] has to—in a sort of callous, unloving way—shout from the rooftops, ‘You are going to hell,'” said Gagnon. “But he does need to make clear that there are these warnings [against homosexual behavior] in Scripture. It would be unloving and ungracious for him to assure people of things that Scripture does not.”

Echoing the criticisms of “cheap grace” popularized by the late German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Gagnon said that Chambers’s remarks “provide assurance to people that all is well when they live a life not led by the power of the Holy Spirit, but are led by the controlling influence of sin.”

“In reality, all is not well,” he said. “[Chambers] unintentionally deceives people into extending this philosophy of ‘cheap grace’ in their life, which puts them at risk of not inheriting the kingdom [of God].”

Defending his public remarks, Chambers told Christianity Today, “If someone tells me that they have a saving relationship with Jesus Christ—in the way I understand it and have experienced it—they still know Jesus regardless of what types of behavior they’ve chosen to be involved in.”

“I don’t know how anyone could call grace cheap when it cost Jesus everything,” said Chambers. “I find it disheartening that we [evangelicals] are so inconsistent and over-focused on one group of people over another. We aren’t talking about this in any other subculture of people except this one [the LGBTQ community].”

Chambers says he isn’t advocating that gay Christians simply “lie down and give up.” The 40-year-old ex-gay husband and father of two maintains that celibacy is a gay Christian’s most biblical option. But he prefers encouraging people to “seek Christ” over “shaming them into a particular set of patterns of behavior.”

“Our focus should never be on how good we do, but on how good God is,” Chambers said. “When we are focused on the truth of his word and the grace that he embodied, I don’t think your life can help but be changed.”

Some critics traced their concerns over Chambers’s soteriology to his home church, Grace Church Orlando. Senior pastor Clark Whitten, who serves as Exodus’s chairman and recently published Pure Grace, could not be reached in time for comment. But he explains on the church’s website that only God can judge those “who say they are Christian yet continue in their sin,” so “the best thing we can do for that person is to keep loving them and telling them about our awesome King who died for them.”

Russell Moore, dean of the School of Theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, finds Chambers’s motives commendable but his doctrine problematic.

“I can only imagine the sort of situation he finds himself in—trying to speak in a winsome sort of way to people who feel hated by evangelicals,” said Moore. “I just think that he has uploaded some really bad, reactionary tendencies from popular evangelicalism.”

“There is something going on in evangelicalism where everyone is always reacting against whatever error they encountered in childhood,” said Moore. “A lot of people who grew up in legalist, performance-based churches are over-reacting with an antinomian, repentance-lacking gospel.”

“The problem biblically is: legalism sends people to hell and antinomianism sends people to hell,” he said. “Reacting against a hellish-legalism with a hellish-antinomianism is still sending people to hell.”

Unfazed by the accusations of theological error, Chambers addressed his detractors with some pointed words.

“It’s disappointing to see Christians drive personal agendas at the expense of other human beings,” he said. “We’ve received a tremendous response from men and women who are desperate for grace.”

(Read Laurie Higgins’ take on this controversy HERE.)

Originally posted at Christianitytoday.com.