Policians are finding it hard to think straight when it comes to gay conversion laws.

Take Victorian Liberal MP Tim Smith who today insisted that attempts to change or to suppress a person’s sexual orientation – even through prayer – must be criminalised because “you are what you are”.

“This is pretty cut and dry,” the outspoken MP declared. “You are what you are. I read reports about people praying, or some such to stop people from being gay or some rubbish. I mean this is nonsense.

“You know I prayed 20 years ago that I’d be six foot four, well I’m five ten. This is actually quite insane. It’s demented. You are what you are. We are all made in the image of God. Can I make that point as a very, very bad Anglican.”

God will judge whether Mr Smith is a very, very bad Anglican. I think we can all judge that Mr Smith is a very, very bad thinker.

Mr Smith believes it should be illegal to pray for a gay man to go straight since “you are what you are”. He believes homosexuality, like height, is a biological constant that cannot be changed.

Well okay, leaving aside the fact that science is yet to find a gay gene, let’s indulge Mr Smith and imagine he is right about homosexuality being as genetic as one’s height, or the shape of one’s nose, or the colour of one’s eyes or the type of one’s genitals … 

Wait. Did someone just say genitals? 

The same Mr Smith who insists it should be illegal to pray for a person to stop being gay because biology, also insists it should be illegal to counsel someone out of a sex change because feelings.

It would be fascinating to hear Mr Smith explain how it is that same-sex attraction is an immutable biological fact while one’s gender is a feeling, completely disconnected from chromosomes or from genitalia.

Mr Smith is a politician who enjoys the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.

And he’s a politician who enjoys the luxury of speaking “as an Anglican” without the inconvenience of believing like an Anglican. 

He’s the sort of person who could do with your prayers. But praying for Mr Smith would be “demented” and “quite insane”. He is what he is.