Cal Thomas: Faith, freedom, and the Supreme Court

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MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Thursday, October 9th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. A case before the Supreme Court this week could have far-reaching consequences for Christian counselors across the country. Here’s WORLD commentator Cal Thomas.

CAL THOMAS: The central figure of the East Pediment on the Supreme Court Building is Moses with the 10 commandments. Not that most people see it as it is on the backside of the grand structure.

When the Supreme Court declared same sex marriage legal in 2015, I wondered by what standard they would use should polygamists appeal for similar rights. The question seemed far-fetched at the time…but ten years later the scenario is far from hypothetical.

We find ourselves in another “how did we get here” kind of moment. In accepting a case from Colorado Springs about whether a Christian counselor can advise minors with gender dysphoria and same sex attractions, the Supreme Court must once again weigh in on the debate between the free exercise of religion and the establishment clause in the First Amendment.

The case involves the parents of a teenager who claims to be a different gender than the one identified at birth. The Christian parents sought help from a counselor who shares their faith. But a Colorado law bans so-called “conversion therapy” for minors. The therapist, Kaley Chiles, says the law silences her and deprives young people of help. She maintains she does not try to convert anyone to her faith.

In familiar secular progressive fashion, The Washington Post found a person it identifies as a transgender man, who it says tried to commit suicide in 2010. The newspaper says that person calls conversion therapy “bad medicine.” As with abortion, the Post and other media regularly look for people who will affirm their editorial and moral point of view.

They would have done well to consult the October 2022 issue of WORLD Magazine which published an article titled: “Our voices can no longer be denied.” That article focused on de-transitioners—people who have reversed or stopped their gender transition. The story profiled three women who had gone through pharmaceutical or surgical treatments to suppress and modify their physical characteristics. They later expressed regret and remorse and changed their minds. That’s not conversion. It’s coming to one’s senses.

Conversion is something different. In some circles it’s known as “being born again.” I’ll never forget when the secular media “discovered” the phrase in 1976 when Jimmy Carter described his own transformation. True conversion happens when someone accepts Jesus Christ as Savior. That person is given the power to live a life different from the life he or she had been living.

That message goes back two thousand years yet still changes peoples’ lives today. For the law to deny a therapist or anyone else the right to share that message imposes—or one might even say “establishes”—secularism as the state religion. It denies individuals the right of choice, which is a sacred doctrine to the secularists when it comes to abortion.

So as long as there is no compulsion involved the Court should uphold the right of the therapist and strike down lower court rulings that seek to deny her constitutional rights. Those include the right to freely express her faith and that of the teen’s parents.

If the Supreme Court doesn’t recognize a standard by which truth and morality can be judged, it should remove the image of Moses, the great lawgiver, from the frieze on the back of its building.

I’m Cal Thomas.

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