January 10, 2018
Former Lib Dem leader says he felt under pressure from party and gave answer that was ‘not right’ during election campaign
The former Lib Dem leader Tim Farron has said he regrets telling people he did not believe gay sex was a sin when he was forced to clarify his position during the election campaign.
The MP said he had felt “isolated” and under pressure from his party to say gay sex was not sinful, suggesting he ended up misleading the public about his views.
He said he had spent weeks dodging the question but wanted to draw a line under the issue, which led to him “foolishly and wrongly” giving an answer that was “frankly not right”.
Throughout the campaign, Farron was pursued by questions over his views on homosexuality. He eventually clarified in a BBC radio interview last April: “I don’t believe that gay sex is a sin.”
Farron resigned shortly after the election, saying he felt “remaining faithful to Christ” was incompatible with leading his party.
Asked by Premier Christian Radio why he suddenly changed his tune and whether he had felt under pressure to say gay sex was not a sin, Farron said: “Yeah. I’m going to write about this more in the coming weeks. But the bottom line is yes, of course I did.
“There are things, including that, that I said that I regret. There was a sense in which I felt, look, I’ve got to get this off my table … I would say foolishly and wrongly I attempted to push it away by giving an answer that frankly was not right.”
He said he could have tried to explain the theology behind his beliefs better but it would have been naive to think journalists would have been interested.
“It’s tricky really. In the end, if you’re a Christian you’ve got a very clear idea of what you think a sin is. It is us falling short of the glory of God. That is something that all of us share,” he said.
“To be asked that question is to persecute one group of human beings, because sin is something we are all guilty of. If you’re not a Christian, what does sin mean? It’s to be accused of something, it’s condemnatory. We’re talking different languages.
“Maybe I could have explained that, and the biblical teaching on sex and sexuality. But let’s be brutally honest, with the exception of programmes like this you don’t get more than 20 seconds to get your message across.”
Farron said part of the problem was that he had no Christians to help advise him in the Liberal Democrats. “I had a wonderful team around me at HQ but, with one exception, there were no Christians. It was not their fault they didn’t understand the issue,” he said.
The Liberal Democrats strongly denied at the time that Farron had been misleading people about his real beliefs on homosexuality.
Since the election, Farron has frequently spoken out about the difficulties of combining his faith with his political life, but he accepts the role he has got now as a Christian with a profile. “By the grace of God I have this profile, so let’s use it,” he said.
He told the radio programme that he was “a Bible-believing Christian, call me an evangelical if you want, who is a liberal and of the left … and the main thing is the gospel gets heard”.
He said Christians must be careful not to sound like victims. Asked if there was a glass ceiling in politics for Christians, he said: “I don’t know. There was for me.”