Gay sex is a sin and I’m sorry I said otherwise, says Farron
TIM FARRON has said he regrets saying that gay sex is not a sin and only did so because of pressure ahead of the general election.
The former leader of the Liberal Democrats, an evangelical Christian, was repeatedly asked to clarify his position on homosexuality in the run-up to last year’s vote.
After initially failing to clearly answer questions about his stance he told the BBC’S Eleanor Garnier in April that he did not believe gay sex was a sin.
But he has now said this answer was “not right” and he only gave it because he wanted to end heavy focus on his Christian beliefs. Speaking to Premier Christian Radio, Mr Farron, who quit as leader of the party after the election, said he felt under pressure to say it was not a sin.
“Of course I did. And there are things that I said, including that, that I regret and there was a sense in which I felt I’ve got to get this off my table,” he said.
“All they wanted to do was talk about my Christian beliefs and I would say foolishly and wrongly I attempted to push it away by giving an answer that frankly was not right.”
He said non-christians had a different understanding of sin to Christians.
“In the end, the difficulty is if you’re a Christian you’ve got a very clear idea of what sin is, and that is us falling short of the glory of God, and that is something we equally all of us share.
“So in one sense to be asked that question is to persecute one group of human beings because sin is something we are all – Jesus excepted – guilty of. But if you’re not a Christian, it’s to be accused of something, it’s to be condemnatory.”
When he resigned his party leadership, he said it was impossible to reconcile his religious beliefs with the role. He said he felt “isolated”, and added: “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.”