Church counseling is now “torture” …

Apparently to militant gay ‘rights’ activists, voluntary church counseling on the gay lifestyle equates to ‘torture’:

Holsinger has come under fire from gay rights groups for voting to expel a lesbian pastor from the United Methodist Church.

[…]

Also, Holsinger helped found a Methodist congregation that, according to gay rights activists, believes homosexuality is a matter of choice and can be “cured.”

As president of the Methodist Church’s national Judicial Council, Holsinger voted last year to support a pastor who blocked a gay man from joining a congregation. In 2004, he voted to expel a lesbian from the clergy. The majority of the panel voted to keep the lesbian associate pastor in place, citing questions about whether she had openly declared her homosexuality, but Holsinger dissented.

[…]

As for the congregation Holsinger helped establish, Hope Springs Community Church, the Rev. David Calhoun told the Lexington Herald-Leader last week that the Lexington church helps some gay members to “walk out of that lifestyle.”

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, which is opposing the nomination along with the Human Rights Campaign and other local and national groups, calls such a practice “nothing short of torture” for gays.

James Taranto responds:

This is an attack not only on Holsinger but also on the U.S. Constitution. The First Amendment guarantees freedom of religion, which means that the government has no business dictating its moral preferences to the United Methodist Church. That same First Amendment protects all congregants who find the Hope Springs approach objectionable. They are free to follow their conscience, or to find another congregation, denomination or religion.

… and then quips:

Finally, take note of that quote, which comes from a statement by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, that so-called reparative therapy is “nothing short of torture.” This may shed light on some of the hysterical claims about the treatment of terrorists at Guantanamo. After all, if voluntary counseling is “torture,” then pretty much everything is.

I personally think having to listen to hypocrites who want special rights while demanding the rights of others be taken away from them (as is the case here) is agonizing and should be listed as a form of torture in the Geneva Conventions. Anyone with me?