Latest / The Daily Article / Supreme Court rules against ban on “conversion therapy”: A Holy Wednesday reflection

Transcript

Supreme Court rules against ban on “conversion therapy”: A Holy Wednesday reflection · The Daily Article

• 0:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: We're glad you've joined us for the Wednesday April 1st, 2026 edition of Dinosaurums Daily Article Podcast.
• 0:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm narrator Chris Elkins, giving voice to today's daily article written by cultural apologists Dr. Jim Dinosaur.
• 0:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that Colorado's ban on LGBTQ conversion therapy for young people inferences on the free speech rights of a Christian counselor.
• 0:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: Their ruling reversed a lower court's decision that upheld the law.
• 0:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: According to Associated Press, quote,
• 0:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: The justices agreed that the law raises free speech concerns and send it back to a lower court to decide if it meets a legal standard that few laws pass.
• 0:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: In quote, just as Neil Corsuch writing for the court said the law censors speech based on viewpoint and added that the first amendment stands as a shield against any effort to enforce orthodoxy in thought or speech in this country.
• 1:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: Notably, the court ruled 8-1 with Justice Katanji Brown Jackson, the loan dissenter.
• 1:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: However, the news is not all positive on the religious liberty front.
• 1:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: The Family Research Council has documented 1,384 acts of hostility towards U.S. churches occurring between January 2018 and December 2024.
• 1:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: Catholic churches have especially come under attack in this country.
• 1:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: In the Middle East, the Hoover Institution reports that Christianity is declining rapidly due to the persecution of believers.
• 1:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: In Finland, a member of the Parliament and a Lutheran Church Bishop were convicted for writing and publishing a pamphlet 20 years ago defending biblical sexual morality.
• 1:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: In India, Christian groups are speaking out against legislation they say could enable the government to seize their properties.
• 2:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: But none of that may feel especially relevant to you today.
• 2:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: If you're not a Christian counselor who seeks to share biblical truth with your clients, or an evangelical living in the Middle East, Finland or India, such threats may seem too distant to be personal.
• 2:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: Here's why they're not, and why this day in Holy Week is especially significant for our souls.
• 2:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: The same enemy who inspires persecution against Christians also persecutes us directly by tempting us into sin, knowing that its wages are death according to Roman 6th verse 23.
• 2:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: In this way, verse Peter 5, verse 8 tells us that every moment of every day, you are adversary, the devil, praises around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
• 2:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: John 10, verse 10, teaches that he is a thief who comes only to steal and kill and destroy.
• 2:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: The closer you are to Jesus, the more you are a threat to him.
• 3:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: This is why our Lord encourages us in Luke 22, verse 42, pray that you may not enter into temptation.
• 3:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: He knows that Satan is better at tempting than we are at resisting, that we cannot defeat this enemy in our own strength and resolve.
• 3:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: But our Lord can.
• 3:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: Jesus defeated every attack of Satan and thus, in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin, claimed in Hebrews 4 verse 15.
• 3:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: Consequently, because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted, Hebrews 2 verse 18.
• 3:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: When we turn to him for grace to help in time of need,
• 3:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: But before Jesus rose from the dead, ascended to heaven and set at the right hand of the father, where he is interceding for us today, according to Romans 8 verse 34, he knew to go to his father when facing his own temptation then challenges.
• 4:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: He fasted and prayed for 40 days and nights before defeating Satan in the wilderness, noted in Matthew 4 verses 1 through 11.
• 4:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: He prayed very early in the morning, while it was still dark, as he launched his public ministry found in Mark I vs. 35.
• 4:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: Most notably, he prayed repeatedly and earnestly in the Garden of the 70s on the night before his crucifixion, submitting himself to his father's will, claimed in Matthew 26 vs. 36 through 46.
• 4:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I believe he spent the day before that night doing the same.
• 4:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: This brings us to Wednesday of Holy Week.
• 4:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: On this day, Jesus did nothing that was recorded in Scripture.
• 4:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: Since he spent the evenings each week at the Bethany home of his friends Mary Martha and Lazarus stated in Matthew 21 verse 17.
• 4:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: Scholars assume that he spent this day there as well.
• 4:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: What was he doing?
• 4:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: This was the day before Passover, a day of preparation during which Jews typically remove from their homes, anything that is forbidden during the Passover meal.
• 5:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: Notably, firstborn males take part in the fast of the firstborn, fasting in gratitude for being spared from the plague of the firstborn in
• 5:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: As the firstborn son of his family, Jesus would have participated in this day-long fast, along with his friend Lazarus, and he would have prepared himself through time with his father for what he knew was to come.
• 5:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: Not just the physical torture he would face as horrific as it was.
• 5:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: but the spiritual torture of bearing the sins of humanity on his endless soul.
• 5:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: Like many theologians, I believe our Savior spent silent Wednesday preparing for good Friday.
• 5:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I believe the silence of this day is quote-unquote recorded in scripture as a model for us today.
• 5:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: When Job finally said to God in Job 40 verse 4, I lay my hand on my mouth.
• 6:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: He heard what the Lord needed him to know.
• 6:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: When God spoke to Elijah in 1 Kings 19 verses 12 and 13, through the sound of a low whisper, the prophet had to be silent enough to hear it.
• 6:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: Scripture is similarly breathed out by God, noted in 2 Timothy 3 verse 16, but we must be still to hear its voice.
• 6:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: Cognitive studies show that humans cannot effectively talk and listen at the same time.
• 6:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: The same is true spiritually.
• 6:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: Our Lord, therefore, invites us to be still and know that I am God, proclaimed in Psalm 46 verse 10, there's a comma in this verse, the first verb enables the second.
• 6:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: There are times when we are Martha in Luke 10, verse 41, working on many things to serve our Lord.
• 6:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: But as seen in verse 42, there are times when one thing is necessary, the choice Mary made in verse 39 when she sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching.
• 7:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: The days I do the same, the days I practice the presence of Jesus in conscious communion with Him are always my best days.
• 7:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: They are the days when sin is least attractive and the spirit is most powerful in my life.
• 7:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: eat philosopher Dallas Willard observed, if you don't come apart for a while, you will come apart after a while, which do you choose today?
• 7:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: For more of the power and privilege of personal worship, please see my latest Dennison forum website article titled, this has never happened before on American Idol.
• 7:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: A link to it is in today's podcast episode notes.