Deputy Director at The Christian Institute.
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK
Joined August 2020
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Simon Calvert retweeted
The Conversion Practices Bill in Northern Ireland is not just an attack on free speech. It also poses a serious threat to religious freedom.
The Bill will have a chilling effect on the day-to-day work of the Church, particularly pastoral care.
As James Kennedy points out, even if someone voluntarily asks their pastor to pray with them, the pastor could still face legal consequences. Under the proposed legislation, consent would not necessarily provide a defence. The fact that someone requested the prayer could make no difference.
Even conversations in the confessional could potentially be criminalised. Confession is at the very heart of the Catholic Church.
Religious leaders could also face up to five years behind bars if their teachings on sex, gender, family life or marriage were deemed to constitute a prohibited conversion practice.
If you're a parent, therapist or priest, the implications of this Bill should send shivers down your spine.
Watch on the FSU YouTube channel 👇
youtu.be/rWVrB8ovPiY?is=SAJ8…
The Joint Committee on the Draft Conversion Practices Bill has issued a call for evidence. Sign up at christian.org.uk/sign-up and we’ll email you with advice on how to respond. Closes 16 Nov. committees.parliament.uk/sub…
First oral evidence session by the Joint Committee on the Draft Conversion Practices Bill. Thursday 29 October.
Simon Calvert retweeted
Christian groups say proposed conversion therapy ban amounts to censorship
christiantoday.com/news/chri…
Simon Calvert retweeted
"This draft legislation is one of the most troubling attempts at censorship we’ve seen." - @SimonCalvert14
christian.org.uk/news/ci-urg…
Simon Calvert retweeted
TODAY AT 12.30PM
Go to: christian.org.uk/ct
The Westminster Government’s draft ‘conversion therapy’ ban could make it a crime not to affirm someone’s LGBTQ+ identity. Gospel ministry and ordinary parenting are at stake.
Join us on Thursday 22 October to find out how you can help oppose this threat to church and family life.
For more details 👉christian.org.uk/wp-content/…
@christianorguk @GLDeclaration @EvangelicalTime
Simon Calvert retweeted
This ministerial letter fails to engage with any of the substantial criticisms of the draft Conversion Practices Bill. The bill isn’t compatible with rights to family life, to free expression and to live in a society governed by a predictable, comprehensible criminal code.
Simon Calvert retweeted
How dare Bridget Phillipson and Stonewall say that parents that seek to dissuade their daughters from trying to live "as men" or their sons from trying to live "as women" are not compassionate.
“We would have been jailed...”
In this week’s podcast, @HJoyceGender speaks to the mother of a detransitioner, who warns that proposed conversion-practices legislation could result in families like hers facing criminal charges.
Watch and share: youtube.com/watch?v=GiAXq5IU…
Simon Calvert retweeted
We have now written an open letter to the Bridget Phillipson regarding the misinformation that appeared in her article on the conversion practices bill this weekend.
This level of nonsense in public debates is getting ridiculous and it is time she and her officials sorted it.
1/ We’ve written to the Secretary of State for Equalities concerning misinformation that appeared in an article she wrote over the weekend. It’s important that the debate around the draft conversion bill is accurate and the Minister should promote this.
gaymensnetwork.co.uk/letters
Simon Calvert retweeted
We agree with @bphillipsonMP, minister for women and equalities, that parents shouldn’t be prosecuted for having difficult conversations with their children.
But there is nothing on the face of the Conversion Practices Bill that protects them. We wrote to ask her to put that right.
Joint letter to the Minister for Equalities in response to her article in The Independent which inaccurately describes the conversion practices bill. From @christianorguk @affinitytalks and @GLDeclaration
Read the Secretary of State's article here:
archive.ph/BDRJN
Simon Calvert retweeted
“Getting law right must take precedence over getting law passed quickly.” 👏
@PamCameronDUP on why, when the legal warnings are this serious, a few extra weeks of Committee scrutiny of Tennyson’s ‘conversion practices’ Bill still won’t cut it.
Acclaimed KC Aidan O’Neill has branded the Bill “jellyfish legislation” 🪼 – vague and ill-defined, yet carrying severe criminal penalties. @Jebadoo2 warns it could cast “a shadow of criminal law across your kitchen table”.
Simon Calvert retweeted
Look at Bridget Phillipson's language here: a bill that 'allows people to be their true selves', to 'live openly and safely as themselves', that criminalises someone who tries to 'change who someone is'.
The Conversion Practices bill applies in the case of a child who says they're the opposite sex. Think about that.
Apply Phillipson's thinking to the parent of a four year-old boy who says 'mummy, I'm really a girl'.
Or to the parent of a teenage girl who is screaming 'I'm not your daughter I'm your son, you bigot!'
By trying to present the bill as completely reasonable 'common sense measures' Phillipson has only succeeded in exposing its ideological basis. Her language is pure trans activism.
archive.ph/BDRJN
Simon Calvert retweeted
Bridget Phillipson's assurance that 'refusing to accept a child's identity' will not be prosecutable under conversion practices legislation is contradicted by the bill itself, which says that 'psychological or emotional pressure' with the intention of changing 'transgender identity' could qualify as a criminal offence.
How can Phillipson know how a court will interpret 'refusing to accept a child's identity' given the vague and open-ended definitions in the bill?
An op-ed by a politician will be scant consolation when a parent is facing a criminal claim or a protection order that will destroy their relationship with their child.
And the question remains: what 'abuse' is the bill designed to tackle that is not already an offence in law?
archive.ph/BDRJN
Simon Calvert retweeted
The Minister does not appear to understand statutory construction in the criminal division. Criminal Court almost never look beyond the wording of a statute to apply it. Ministerial assurances are completely worthless and could never, as a matter of law, be taken into account.
Bridget Phillipson's assurance that 'refusing to accept a child's identity' will not be prosecutable under conversion practices legislation is contradicted by the bill itself, which says that 'psychological or emotional pressure' with the intention of changing 'transgender identity' could qualify as a criminal offence.
How can Phillipson know how a court will interpret 'refusing to accept a child's identity' given the vague and open-ended definitions in the bill?
An op-ed by a politician will be scant consolation when a parent is facing a criminal claim or a protection order that will destroy their relationship with their child.
And the question remains: what 'abuse' is the bill designed to tackle that is not already an offence in law?
archive.ph/BDRJN
Simon Calvert retweeted
🇬🇧 Genspect team attending #BattleFest panel on the draft Conversion Practices Bill.
1/ Panel discussion on the draft Conversion Practices Bill at @acadofideas #BattleFest
In 2025 care system cost £9.5 billion. Is bankrupting local authorities. 16,000 cases a year involving local authority. All with legal aid. £38,000 a year for foster care. £58,000 a year for residential care. Govt has made no impact assessment of the effect of the bill on any of this.
@SVPhillimore “everyone one of us will risk arrest for a criminal offence with a five year sentence.” Says family justice system costs. Local authorities are under a mandatory duty to investigate if is ‘reasonable cause to suspect’. CP allegation will trigger it. Pitting children against parents.