Censoring Human Freedom

‘There’s something deeply corrosive about attempting to live in such a way that demands everyone agree with you.’ Sonny Bunch

One highlight of our ‘Integration’ week at the TOB Institute was witness Steven Thanh, a Vietnamese immigrant, who articulated beautifully how Jesus and Church (including therapy and Living Waters) are restoring his manhood after a life marked by same-sex trauma and wandering in the ‘gay’ wilderness. Moving. Verifiable.

Dr. Joe Nicolosi Jr. just documented how therapy that identifies and resolves past traumatic memories results in freedom: an overall increase in client well-being and shifts from same to opposite-sex attraction.

And Dr. Paul Sullens rolled out his excellent study of persons who have pursued therapy for sexual integration; published in the world’s largest most rigorous journal of peer-reviewed psychological research, Sullens found that such therapy reduces suicidal tendencies, increases client well-being, and concludes that efforts to restrict or ban such therapy ‘due to elevated harm are unfounded.’

The world may never know. On the same day that Steven witnessed joyfully to his integration, Facebook and Instagram dropped Desert Stream from its accounts without warning. Deleted. Censored.

Big Tech also dropped Nicolosi’s YouTube platform. And a host of other ministries, including the Restored Hope Network, found accounts cancelled in a flash.

What is going on? Why are persons pursuing sexual integration in accord with Christian conscience being deprived of inspiration and empirical support of their goals?

LGBTQ+ person and their supporters can’t handle other points-of-view. So they cancel them. Kangaroo court judges rally and spew their vitriolic judgments online; they declare sharp thinkers like Nicolosi ‘conversion therapy’ monsters and Desert Stream’s healing groups coercive and abusive. They frame bright witnesses like Steven as under our spell, victims of torturous charlatans.

Listen to how a mysterious group like Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) describe us and a grab-bag of related organizations (including RHN and Nicolosi’s): ‘These practices {of conversion therapy} are inherently degrading and discriminating…they attempt to teach LGBTQ+ people that they are not perfect the way that they are…tragically, ongoing reporting indicates that forms of violent torture continue to surface in attempts to change the sexuality of LGBTQ+ people…’ I laughed out Ioud at these unfounded claims then proceeded to teach at training on Pope St. John Paul ll’s glorious call for every person to cultivate ‘a deep orientation to the personal dignity of what is intrinsic to masculinity and femininity’ (TOB 131:4).

Wow. That is integration—reconciliation to my sexual gift so I can confirm her value! Torturous and coercive? Nah. Simply an invitation for anyone to immerse in the love that restores wounded adult children and unites them to their sexual gift. Beaming Steven reminded me that healing is a fact for those who seek.

I don’t laugh at the aims of GPAHE to censor human freedom by persuading Big Tech to drop us and our friends. Their outrageous claims contradict far-reaching research on integration therapy. Yet Big Tech is listening to GPAHE and cancelling us. Now YouTube, Facebook and Instagram make our moral decisions for us. How? By refusing to hear another perspective. Perhaps this exposes the fragile confidence LGBTQ+ people have in their ever fracturing and multiplying ‘gender selves.’

Let persons have their truth. But give us our truth too. Banning Christian sexual dignity (in thought and therapeutic practice) from social media platforms bars seekers from the freedom that could be theirs. Ask Steven.