Presbyterian church head says Victorian ban on gay conversion practices should be ignored

The head of the Presbyterian church in Australia says its pastors will not be directed to obey the Victorian government’s new law banning gay conversion practices, calling the bill “a declaration of war on scripture”.

In an interview with Guardian Australia on Thursday, the moderator general of the Presbyterian church in Australia, Rev Peter Barnes, called the bill – which passed Victoria’s parliament earlier this month – “authoritarian” and said the church would ignore it on the basis that church leaders “don’t get our instructions from parliament house”.

“Civil authorities have a God-given right to govern, I’m not questioning that, but its authority is not open-ended,” he said.

“If the government passes legislation I don’t think is wise, that’s one thing. You’re not going to please all people all the time. If I think they should lower taxes but they raise them, I still pay my taxes.

“But there are limits, and this legislation puts itself very obviously against scripture. It was a declaration of war against scripture.”

The bill, which passed the parliament in February, outlaws practices that seek to change or suppress a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. Penalties for those found to have engaged in conversion practices resulting in serious injury face penalties of up to 10 years jail or up to $10,000 in fines.

The bill also empowers the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission to investigate reports of suspected conversion practices.

Advocacy groups including the Brave Network, the LGBTQIA+ committee of the Uniting church in Australia and Rainbow Catholics lauded the bill as the “world’s most significant achievement in legislation curtailing the diabolical influence of the conversion movement”. During a marathon debate on the bill in parliament, Labor’s Harriet Shing – the first openly lesbian member of Victorian parliament – said the bill helped to “recognise the pain and the trauma and the hurt of victims and survivors”.

The bill goes further than one passed in Queensland last year in that it prohibits harmful practices not only in healthcare settings but also in religious settings.

This includes “carrying out a religious practice, including but not limited to, a prayer-based practice, a deliverance practice or an exorcism”.

A number of religious groups opposed the bill when the Victorian government put the proposal out for consultation in October last year, or pushed to have it cover only conversion practices deemed to be carried out without consent.

That report quoted survivors of conversion practices who spoke about the lasting impact it had on their lives and mental health, including one anonymous submission which discussed feeling “shame to such a degree that my mental, physical and spiritual health all suffered” and experiencing “suicidal ideation” after attending a prayer therapy group which sought to fix the person’s “sexual deviance”.

Barnes published a statement on the church’s website earlier this month entitled “Where to from here?” after the bill passed. In it, he wrote that the church was “obliged before God to preach all that He has revealed to us, whether law or gospel, and to do so in a spirit of love and truth”.

“There is nothing unique in such legislation. When King Darius exceeded his God-given authority, Daniel did ‘as he had done previously’,” he wrote.

Asked by the Guardian on Thursday whether that meant he was advocating in favour of ignoring the legislation he said: “I’m saying that and a lot of people feel the same way.

“The official policy of the church is to preach the whole counsel of God – I was just saying that’s what we signed up for.”

During the debate around the bill, religious groups distanced themselves from older practices including electro-shock treatment or aversion therapy, and Barnes said he had “never heard of that happening”. But he said if someone “comes to me and asks me to pray for them or help them” he would not “turn them away”.