As Esther writes this morning in a Prism & Pen article, the conservative Christian establishment is working hard, has never stopped working hard, to push the discredited practice of conversion therapy. A century of clinical data shows us that such mental health practices are intensely harmful and all but completely ineffective.

But such is lack of conservative Christian empathy, that they must insist the practice works, and they must attempt to enforce it. They must "prove" (to themselves) that our humanity is a manifestation of illnes — and that refusing to be "cured" is our fault.

It doesn't matter that the evidence shows them to be wrong. Such is the societal breakdown: dated-driven institutions and ideas be damned.

Burn the witch, eh?

Back in Puritan times, the "witches" were Quakers who were burnt in Boston's common square, or Catholics who were driven out of the city.

It's always some group. It's always some Other whose humanity can be denied.