When The Government Outlaws Repentance: The Assault On Christian Counselors

In a stunning escalation of government overreach, the state of Colorado is now attempting to dictate not just what licensed counselors can say--but what they must say. At the center of this growing legal storm is Kaley Chiles, a Christian counselor who, because of her faith, dares to believe that repentance is real, transformation is possible, and that human beings are more than the sum of their feelings.

The state of Colorado, however, sees that kind of belief as a threat.

Colorado's law prohibits licensed counselors like Chiles from speaking to minors in a way that might affirm their biological sex or encourage them to move away from an LGBT identity--even if the client explicitly asks for such guidance. In short, if a 16-year-old Christian comes into a counseling session and says, "I want to live in alignment with my faith and my biology," Chiles is legally barred from helping them pursue that goal. Her silence is enforced by the threat of fines, professional ruin, and the loss of her license.

The government has crossed a line it should never dare to approach: it has not only censored speech, but criminalized a biblical worldview.

This is not merely a dispute over regulatory policy. It's not about making sure therapists follow safety protocols or avoid malpractice. This is about forced ideological conformity. The law does not ban all counseling on gender identity--it only bans one side of it. If a minor wants to pursue a transgender identity, the state encourages that exploration and even permits counselors to actively affirm it. But if a young person wants to find peace with their God-given body, the state slams the door shut.

Let's call this what it is: the establishment of a new state religion. A religion where autonomy is the highest good, where feelings define reality, and where repentance is heresy. In this belief system, the worst sin is to suggest that a person's desires might be disordered--or that a Holy God might call us to die to self and live differently.

In banning one direction of counseling, Colorado has done something deeply sinister. It has outlawed the biblical doctrine of repentance.

Counseling is supposed to be a space of trust--a safe, confidential relationship where people can wrestle with questions, confront painful realities, and seek healing. But under Colorado's law, the government barges in like an ideological bouncer, telling counselors, "You can only help your client if you affirm the state's definition of identity."

Imagine a teen struggling with pornography addiction or confusion about their gender. They seek out a Christian counselor, desperate to reconcile their life with their faith. But that counselor is legally handcuffed--unable to offer the very guidance the client came seeking. This isn't compassion. It's coercion. It's the state hijacking a sacred, private conversation and replacing it with a script.

And make no mistake: this script leads somewhere. It leads toward life-altering hormone treatments and surgeries that leave physical and emotional scars. It leads toward broken identities and the silencing of dissenting voices--especially Christian ones. It leads toward a future where the only legally protected path for confused kids is the one paved by pharmaceutical companies, radical ideologues, and politicians who believe they know better than God.

At its core, this isn't just a political battle--it's a spiritual one. The gospel of Jesus Christ has always offered the radical, counter-cultural promise of transformation: "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation" (2 Corinthians 5:17). That promise includes every part of us--body, mind, soul, and yes, even our sexuality and gender identity.

But the state of Colorado is trying to erase that possibility.

Why? Because the gospel begins with the call to repent. And repentance, by definition, means turning away from sin. It means acknowledging that we are not the final authority--that God is. And that's the rub. That's what this law is really trying to suppress: not just speech, not just therapy--but the very notion that something might be morally wrong and in need of forgiveness.

Colorado isn't just regulating counseling. It's criminalizing the belief that LGBT behavior might be sinful--and thereby outlawing the first step of the Christian gospel.

You cannot preach "repent and believe" if the government tells you that certain sins are no longer sins.

This case--Chiles v. Colorado--isn't just about one counselor or one state. It's about whether Americans still have the right to speak truthfully, to live faithfully, and to counsel compassionately. It's about whether religious belief has any place in the public square--or whether every Christian professional must now choose between their conscience and their career.

More broadly, it's about whether hurting people--especially vulnerable kids--can receive the help they want, or only the help the state allows.

Kaley Chiles stands not only for her own rights, but for the rights of every parent, pastor, teacher, and therapist who believes that truth is not defined by government. She stands for every young Christian trying to follow Jesus in a culture that tells them their convictions are hate. And in the end, she stands for every American who believes that free speech isn't just a privilege, but a foundational human right.

As the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to hear Kaley's case this fall, the Church must speak--and pray. This is not the time for lukewarmness or silence. The freedom to preach the gospel--to call people to repent and believe--is on the line. If the state can tell a counselor she cannot affirm God's design for human identity, how long before it tells pastors they cannot preach the same from their pulpits?

This is not a "culture war" to be won with better slogans. It's a spiritual war, and our weapons are truth, love, and unshakable faith. We must love those caught in confusion, yes--but that love must tell the truth: God made you on purpose, in His image, and Jesus offers you not affirmation of sin, but freedom from it.

And that freedom always begins the same way: repent, and believe the Good News.

Unless Colorado succeeds in outlawing those words.

Let us pray it doesn't.