Matt Drapps Profile picture
Oct 4, 2022 34 tweets 11 min read Read on X
RIGHT.

Let's talk about the Scottish Expert Advisory Groupon Ending Conversion Practices Report and Recommendations

I have only just started it and, honestly, it's incredible.

#ConversionTherapy

I cried immediately.
After just a quick scan, it's clear this is a report which has LISTENED and HEARD and RESPECTED.

#LGBT #LGBTQ
The very fact it is aligned with a separate report called:

LGBT+ POC and Minority Ethnic Faith Experiences of Conversion Practices

shows they have taken a broad approach, a listening approach, a respectful and thoughtful approach.
It's a long document, with two additional pieces along with an extensive contents, and a lot of Recommendations, but I will try end go through it all in the next couple of days.
First of all you might note that #ConversionTherapy has been rightly replaced with the term: Conversion Practices.

I have to say I agree with this fully. CT is not Therapy, but also does not always take the form of "talking therapy" and the term Practices is much more clear. Conversation Practices
You can pick up the full report here:

gov.scot/publications/e…

Okay, let's get into it.
I know a few people who were involved, and it's been incredible to hear about the process, which centered survivors as experts of their own experience, along with other experts, faith organisations, politicians, etc, being brought into conversation throughout.
Already I've seen nervous churches saying these recommendations will take away their right to religion, but, um, they always said they don't DO Conversion Therapy sooo 🤷🏻

But really, this is why it's good to note (multi)faith organisations were consulted throughout.
32 guiding principles have been drawn out, "measures under criminal law, and measures outside criminal law, to end conversion practices." These are supported by specific recommendations, included in the Annex.

It's important to do education, etc, along with "criminal" change.
As an abolitionist/having studied some of the ways the police complex works against minorities, the idea of a fully CRIMINAL basis for ending Conversion Practices has always been uncomfortable. Which is why I'm glad this is a wider, broader approach.
Knowing the ways Conversion Practices have impacted mental health and led to some people's dependence on/connection to drugs, alcohol, sex work, homelessness, incarceration, mental health issues, etc, the concept of just using Criminalisation, policing, etc, is uncomfortable.
Which is why I'm glad to know it's a wider approach. I'll talk more when we get to the recommendations.
"The Group believes that conversion practices infringe upon the human rights of individuals, in particular the victims' freedom from discrimination and freedom from non-consensual medical treatment." 😭
"Conversion practices can also violate the prohibition of torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and are capable of violating children's rights to be free from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury, or abuse."

These honest descriptions... 😭😭😭
"...where expression creates the potential of significant harm to others, a prohibition of a practice is justified and necessary as a proportionate way of protecting the interests of the victims..."

YESSS. Thought through, concluded.
No LGB without the T.

We stand together. We ARE one. What affects those of us who are lesbian, bisexual, gay, affects thought who are gender queer, trans, intersex. People enforcing boundaries and gender borders affects us ALL.
People, reporters, etc, always ask: Did you CHOOSE to do this? (go through anti-gay exorcism at St Thomas Philadelphia in Sheffield)

And what am I supposed to say? 😭

📢 You CANNOT consent to torture.📢
Uuugch yes. The kind of groups who "provide" CP aaaaaalways give the impression they are trying to do a good thing, not to intentionally cause harm. So what? You are causing harm. 🚮

I love this.
This paragraph seems to make it clear that interpersonal conversations and early conversions interactions with actual health professionals etc are not the key areas being scrutinised, yet those are the areas people exaggerate into wanting the whole thing derailed.
Strong statement. 💪

You wanna read this and weep folks. 💅
Ahhhhh omg YES THIS. Because who doesn't know a senior pastor who had directed out allowed abusive practices to occur in their organisations without getting their own hands covered in blood? We see you. 👀 *cough* Dr [redacted] *cough* The Overlord *cough* C of E *cough* Baptists
We know about people being sent to America, we know about people being taken to England, this is important. IMPORTANT.
I don't know enough about crime and sentencing to comment, but I know a lot of thought and process went into these recommendations and they are CLEAR.
HELLO YES HELLO!!!!!!!! REMOVAL OF CHARITY STATUS HELL YEAH.
YESSS to setting up a Commission with responsibility for education locally and internationally on this 😭
Yes to building holistic, healthy and trauma informed REBUILDING for those who have been injured through CP.
"The Group recommends that any person, including victims and potential victims, are able to report conversion practices and that an investigation can then follow, removing the onus from survivors on to a public body."

PLEASE 🙏 YES 🙏 WE HAVE CARRIED TOO MUCH. 🙏 THANK YOU.
I know I keep saying it but: YES, YES, ABSOLUTELY, YES
"Through research conducted by the Group, it is clear there are feelings of apprehension around reporting of conversion practices in ethnic minority communities who have experienced historical prejudice and discrimination within the criminal justice system."

IMPORTANT.
THANK YOU.
Okay darlings, I have to sleep, but just this introduction has filled me with HOPE and ACKNOWLEDGEMENT in ways nothing else has done. To hear with clarity the impact, the danger, the abusive torture these practices are and to think of @YorksBaptists and @churchofengland ignoring
- the evidence of their existence in their Diocese and under the very eyes and responsibility of their Regional Minister.

Just as one example. My blood boils.
But this, this, is something tangible and real and evidence based and copy-able.

Let's go.
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More from @MattDrapps

Jun 23
A year ago, Living Out dropped a secret project - - now they are ready to roll it out.

"For over a year, the Emerging Generations team here at Living Out have been beavering away on a top-secret project..."

That project was Keleidoscope - an explicitly anti-gay kids project... Kaleidoscope is our series for youth groups, available for free here on our website.  The series is all about giving young people the space to explore big questions about sexuality, gender and faith.  Giving young people the space to explore big questions about sexuality, gender and faith.
If you don't know, Living Out is a Christian organisation in the UK which is based on the "celibacy" model of Conversion Therapy Practices, encouraging people to suppress their same-sex attraction in order to follow "God's" design for marriage Image
They used to be endorsed by Mike Pilavachi, including a quote from him on their website. Mike modelled their celibacy model. They swiftly removed his endorsement after his fall from grace, as they explained to me, they were coincidentally thinning the website at that time Dear Matthew,     Thank you for your recent email.     We recently took the decision to reduce the number of commendations on our website. Given the recent allegations against Mike Pilavachi, his was one of those we removed – pending the outcome of the ongoing investigation.   At Living Out we are always reviewing our own lives, the material on our website, and the content of our events and training, to check they are consistent with the life to the full that Jesus promises, and the Bible teaches.   Like others, we want to commend all those that have the courage to speak out about abuse – y...
Read 22 tweets
Jun 12
I'm back because I want to do a long form here on Mountain of Fire and Miracles and talk about Conversion Therapy Practices not being just a white story with white survivors, white queer culture and Church of England assumptions
I was recently sent this horrific book of Healing and Deliverance Prayers for Gays and Lesbians (@ The Midnight Gate) by Anthony O. Akerele. Also known as:

Homosexuals: People Paying for what They Did Not Buy! Copy of the very brightly coloured book
This anti-gay book is published (2011) by Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries Virginia. But I've been shown evidence of it being used in the UK as a form on Conversion Therapy Practice in MoFM churches
Read 41 tweets
Dec 26, 2024
A very brief history of Megachurch Branding, given by Lizzie, in the LESSER LIGHT, Boxing Day chapters:
"It was branding, wasn’t it? All of it. Morgan needed a theory of Christianity he could brand as his own. Christianity is always being rebranded...
... About every forty years the whole system changes. Did you know, in the early 1900s, there were streams of Christanity laser focused on maintaining white supremacy by any means, and a bunch of proof texts were dragged out of context to ‘protect’ against interracial marriage.”
She made air quotes. “Preachers and politicians greased each others palms with arguments that backed one another up. In America, being antisegregation was considered anti-church...
Read 40 tweets
Nov 8, 2024
I'm reading the Makin Report. I'm not planning a detailed live read after the Soul Survivor Report tweets really took it out of me. I will make comment as I go. I'm confident the report speaks for itself, and recommend reading in full and digesting the implications for all
The opening points 1.1-1.12 alone are enough to lead to mass resignations. This Report is truely heartbreaking and I'm on page 2 of over 200.
Calls for an independent organisation, if only one had already been set up and not disbanded by the House of Bishops, hmmmmm

"...the development of a wholly independent body, free from direct influence by senior Church officers..."
Read 82 tweets
Oct 13, 2024
Ok, I'm diving into the next bit of the Soul Survivor Report. Wish me luck.
When we were last here, we were looking at the nature of the report and the nature of the organisations, and noting the writers had made choices which minimised the Active choices made by Mike Pilavachi, and implied a Passive oopsydaisey things happen approach to Spiritual Abuse.
Read 52 tweets
Oct 8, 2024
Alright, let's go then.

I've got time.

#soulsurvivor
#scoldingreport
#pilavachi
#exposeChurchAbuse
#churchabuse
#spiritualabuse Independent Review into Soul Survivor
"He was ebullient, generous-hearted, kind to many, and an inspirational figure. But alongside that, hiding in plain sight, was someone who manipulated and controlled others, bullied and sought to abuse his power over those whom he worked alongside in the church" He was ebullient, generous-hearted, kind to many, and an inspirational figure.  But alongside that, hiding in plain sight, was someone who manipulated and controlled others, bullied and sought to abuse his power over those whom he worked alongside in the church and those who came to learn alongside him.  That abuse of power has caused deep psychological harm to many with whom he worked closely over 30 years.  This report seeks to explain why he was allowed to accrue such power, what he did with it and why and how this could have happened.  Mr Pilavachi’s behaviours around young men and youn...
"That abuse of power has caused deep psychological harm to many with whom he worked closely over 30 years."
Read 65 tweets

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