Tennessee Passes Anti-LGBT Counseling Bill: It Would Allow Counselors to Deny Services

“On Monday Tennessee legislators passed a bill that could jeopardize access to mental health treatment for LGBT individuals, part of a string of recent anti-LGBT legislation in the South. The GOP-sponsored bill, which now goes to Gov. Bill Haslam (R), allows therapists and counselors to reject patients they feel would violate ‘sincerely held principles.’ Haslam hasn’t indicated whether he will sign the bill into law.”1

This bill was created to counteract the 2014 ACA Code of Ethics bill that states in section A.4.b. “Personal Values Counselors are aware of—and avoid imposing—their own values, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. Counselors respect the diversity of clients, trainees, and research participants and seek training in areas in which they are at risk of imposing their values onto clients, especially when the counselor’s values are inconsistent with the client’s goals or are discriminatory in nature.”2. This year, 2016, has been a year of enacting laws to counteract laws previously established. The country is now trying to recreate morality in the nation through legislation that will counteract the legalization of immorality.

If we think about the Code of Ethics statement pertaining to counselors not being able to counsel based on moral beliefs, we are left to wonder, from which basis do they counsel. In essence, it is not truly counseling if I cannot tell you how I’d handle a situation, but rather I just give you a generic answer to your problem created by a higher power. For a religious person, he or she would be able to best counsel a person based on what has helped him or her spiritually. The definition of counseling is the provision of assistance and guidance in resolving personal, social, or psychological problems and difficulties, especially by a professional. A person cannot successfully and efficiently counsel someone on a life-changing scale without teaching the principles of the Bible.

We see that America is fighting against itself, it is divided among itself. Since immorality was established by law, it seems that legalizing morality is the plausible solution. The Bible says that by doing this the National Sunday Law will be brought to the world. While a law that protects counselors to counsel based on what they believe is a good thing, and is potentially beneficial, it is leading up to a much bigger event. God’s people should not get on the bandwagon of legalizing morality because soon it will backfire on them.

Lastly, as far as this bill being discriminatory goes, it is easy to conclude that its not. If I go to you, I’m asking for your opinion or methods of improvement that have previously worked. I expect it to be what you believe is right. It is easy in today’s world to find counselors who side with the lifestyle of the LGBT community. The real issue is that the LGBT community is not satisfied with the world applauding it; it desires the church to willingly embrace it as well. We are not supposed to discriminate against a person; that is true. So do we uphold sin instead, God forbid! We are not discriminating against any person, but we are opposing a lifestyle that is being implemented in our society.

“We should all manifest respect for others, and should desire their respect in return. But at the same time there is need of discrimination as to whose approval is of real value. Evil-doers will not commend us unless we join in their sinful course. The approval of those who speak lightly of the Bible, or sneer at religion, is to be shunned rather than desired. Those who yield to the influence of this class, prove themselves unworthy of the favor of God. To obtain the good opinion of the proud, the vain, the pleasure-loving, whose chief aim is to please and glorify themselves, is to become defiled and corrupted by their ungodliness.” 3.

Tennessee Passes Anti-LGBT Counseling Bill: It Would Allow Counselors to Deny Services