YouTube has banned a sermon preached by Pastor John MacArthur after the platform deemed the message a violation of their policy on ‘hate speech.’
MacArthur, pastor of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, gave the sermon on 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 last month, outlining the Biblical view of sexuality and gender.
The sermon was delivered in response to a new Canadian law that could see pastors,
Christian counsellors, and parents jailed for up to five years for their obedience to the Bible.
In the message, MacArthur said the notion that you are something other than your biology is a cultural construct, which he described as “an assault on God.”
“The only way you can address it, honestly, is to say, ‘God made you and God made you exactly the way He wanted you to be. You are not only fighting God in His physical creation, you are fighting God in His sovereignty. You are fighting God in His spiritual relationship to you,” he said.
“This is a war on God.”
Not long after it was published, YouTube removed the clip from the video-sharing platform, saying the video had been reviewed and deemed “hate speech.”
MacArthur had urged ministers to preached on the biblical view of sexual morality on January 16 to protest the Canadian government’s decision to pass Bill C-4, a bill that will amend the Criminal Code to ban a dangerously broad definition of “conversion therapy.”
In an open letter to “Ministers of the Gospel,” published on December 28, MacArthur warned the new law “directly comes against parents and counsellors who would seek to offer biblical counsel with respect to sexual immorality and gender.”
According to the legislation, conversion therapy is defined as, “a practice, treatment or service designed to change a person’s sexual orientation to heterosexual; change a person’s gender identity to cisgender; change a person’s gender expression so that it conforms to the sex assigned to the person at birth; repress or reduce non-heterosexual attraction or sexual behavior; repress a person’s non-cisgender gender identity; or repress or reduce a person’s gender expression that does not conform to the sex assigned to the person at birth.”
The Preamble to the bill also officially defines the biblical view of marriage and sexuality as a fiction, describing the belief that “heterosexuality, cisgender identity and gender expression that conforms to the sex assigned to a person at birth are to be preferred over other sexual orientations, gender identities and gender expressions” as a “myth.”
The law would see “everyone who knowingly causes another person to undergo conversion therapy – including by providing conversion therapy to that other person – is guilty of an indictable offense and liable to imprisonment for a term of not more than five years.”
Similarly, “everyone who knowingly promotes or advertises conversion therapy is liable to imprisonment for a term of not more than two years.”
Pastor Andrew DeBartolo of Encounter Church in Ontario, Canada, said the definition in the legislation is intentionally broad.
“It can clearly be used against any preacher or elder who either speaks against homosexuality/transgenderism or who counsels a person to obey Christ and abandon their homosexual/transgender actions and lifestyle,” he said.
Speaking with Todd Starnes, Jenna Ellis, special counsel for the Thomas More Society, who successfully represented MacArthur when Los Angeles County tried to shut down his church services, described the Canadian law as “insane.”
“The big tech oligarchy in the United States is implementing the equivalent of Canada’s insane law by censoring truth and the right of pastors to teach the Bible,” she said.
“If Americans don’t stop big tech, this new Regime will circumvent the Constitution to foreclose our fundamental rights to speak and exercise religion and the impact will be devastating.”
