15/09/2026
โ ๏ธ PLEASE PRAY โ A SERIOUS BILL IS BEFORE STORMONT TODAY
I want to make our congregation and Christian friends aware of an important matter presently before the Northern Ireland Assembly.
The Conversion Practices (Criminalisation) Bill seeks to criminalise practices intended to change or suppress a personโs s*xual orientation or gender identity.
We need to be accurate: the Bill does not simply make Christian preaching about s*xuality illegal, and it contains safeguards concerning the expression of beliefs.
Nevertheless, the actual wording gives serious cause for concern.
The Bill expressly includes โcounselling or any form of talking therapyโ and โcoaching or instruction.โ It concerns attempts not only to change s*xual orientation or gender identity, but also to suppress it. Consent itself is not a defence, and its definition of psychological harm includes โfear, alarm or distress.โ
That raises an important question:
What happens when someone voluntarily asks a minister, parent or Christian worker to help them live according to what the Bible teaches about s*xuality and biological s*x?
My concern is not merely freedom to say what Scripture teaches, but freedom to help people who voluntarily ask us to live according to it.
We must oppose cruelty, coercion and abuse. But preventing abuse must not become a means of inhibiting legitimate Christian preaching, pastoral care, parental guidance or voluntary discipleship.
This is presently a Bill, not the law, and it can still be rejected or amended.
So please PRAY TODAY.
Pray for wisdom and courage for our MLAs.
Pray for Christian ministers, workers and parents.
Pray particularly for our children and young people.
Pray for continued liberty to preach and practise the Word of God.
And above all, pray for the Gospel.
Our battle is not against people. The homos*xual, the transgender person, the confused young personโand every other sinnerโneeds what we ourselves need: Jesus Christ.
We want sinners saved, not despised; brought to Christ, not driven from Him.
โI exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessionsโฆ be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authorityโฆโ
1 Timothy 2:1โ2