A federal appeals court on Thursday upheld Colorado’s counseling censorship law that bans so-called “conversion therapy.” Colorado’s law prohibits mental health professionals from helping minors struggling with unwanted homosexuality or transgenderism.

Kaley Chiles, a licensed professional counselor in Colorado, brought a lawsuit in an attempt to prevent enforcement of Colorado’s Minor Conversion Therapy Law, which was passed in 2019. Kaley helps clients with many issues — including unwanted sexual identity confusion and same-sex attraction.

But Colorado’s law prohibits her from helping minor clients, who struggle with these issues, live according to a biblical sexual ethic.

As the Daily Citizen has previously stated, “‘conversion therapy’ is a term invented by activists who oppose the truth that some people with same-sex attractions or gender identity confusion don’t want to embrace those thoughts, feelings, identities or behaviors. It is a non-existent practice — but these bans have the effect of prohibiting legitimate professional therapy for those with unwanted sexual identity confusion or homosexual identity, attractions and behaviors.”

As we also noted, “people actually do find freedom from homosexuality and transgenderism. Counseling can be helpful in that process.”

According to Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), which is representing Chiles, Colorado’s therapy ban violates her — and all counselors’ — freedom of speech and infringes on her free exercise of religion.

At an interreligious youth meeting in Singapore late last week, Pope Francis made some troubling statements about how people around the world can find God’s salvation.

Departing from his prepared remarks, Francis declared to the gathering that “every religion is a way to arrive at God.”

He continued, “Sort of a comparison, an example, would be they’re sort of like different languages in order to arrive at God.”

The leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics continued along this universalist tack: “But God is God for all. And if God is God for all, we are all sons and daughters of God.”

He lamented that some argue, “But my God is more important than your God!” and asked, “Is that true?”

Answering his own question to the young people, the pontiff finished,

“There is only one God and each of us has a language, so to speak, in order to arrive at God. Sihk, Muslim, Hindu, Christian. There are different paths. Understand?”

And the leaders on stage, representing various religions, happily shook their heads in agreement.

Crux, a Catholic news site, said of these statements from the Pope, “Such rhetoric has stirred controversy…among more conservative Catholics …”

An appeals court has ruled in favor of Dr. Allan Josephson, an honorable child psychiatrist who expressed his opinion that children with sexual identity confusion should not be given experimental, irreversible, body-damaging drugs, hormones and surgeries. Officials at the University of Louisville demoted and ostracized him for propounding these sensible beliefs, eventually demanding his resignation.

The court said his case against university officials who violated his freedom of speech can move forward, Alliance Defending Freedom reported.

ADF Senior Counsel Travis Barham said of the victory:

“Public universities have no business punishing professors simply because they hold different views than a few colleagues or administrators.”

In 2017 Dr. Josephson spoke at a Heritage Foundation symposium, “Gender Dysphoria in Children: Understanding the Science and Medicine.” At the time, he was the Division Chief of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychology at the University of Louisville, holding the position for nearly 15 years.

In addition to this work, Dr. Josephson also provided expert testimony, on his own time, in court cases about gender-confused children and youth who reject their biological sex and believe they are the opposite sex.

He participated in the Heritage panel as a private citizen with expertise in the treatment of children with mental health issues, not as a representative of the university.

Have you ever heard a well-meaning Christian use the term “politics” in a negative or derogatory sense?

Some Christians seem to believe that politics is inherently combative, uncharitable and vitriolic. They similarly assume that politics and politicians engage with amoral and subjective issues — think tax rates and trade policy, for example (though there are moral issues present even in both these).

A Christian with this perspective might give a disclaimer when referring to various topics and ideas by saying, “Don’t worry, this is not political.” Or they may assert, “Christians can engage in policy, but they shouldn’t do politics.”

While perhaps well-intentioned, this aversion to anything political is problematic. Let’s explore why.

The etymology of the word “politics” comes from the Greek politikos meaning “of citizens, pertaining to the state and its administration; pertaining to public life.” A polis was an “ancient Greek city-state.”

So “politics” means governing and ordering a society — for better or for worse.

In this sense, there is absolutely nothing problematic with politics as a discipline.

When humans engage in politics, they are discussing, debating and deciding how best to order their society.