It is fantastic when a Christian politician with orthodox views on human sexuality runs for leadership of a political party as it means that the media start to get very interested in the concept of sin. Reporters positively fall over themselves to ask the latest candidate whether they think gay sex is a sin. Tim Farron got this treatment a few years ago, after becoming leader of the Liberal Democrats. Today it is the turn of Kate Forbes of the Scottish Nationalist Party. She has recently returned from maternity leave to run for leader and is now getting, what I call, The Treatment.
“The finance minister, Kate Forbes – who returned early from maternity leave on Monday to declare her bid for leadership of the SNP – told reporters in a round of interviews that she would not challenge the UK government’s block on Holyrood’s gender recognition reform bill, did not support self-identification for trans people and would not have voted for same-sex marriage.” Well, you can only imagine the meltdown.
The Times reported this by saying that “Kate Forbes risked blowing up her SNP leadership campaign on the day it was launched” for holding the shocking view that marriage is a union between one man and one woman – something that everyone believed in up to about five minutes ago.
I believe it is somewhat suspicious when newspapers and journalists, who do not even believe in the concept of sin, or heaven and hell, suddenly take a huge interest in it, should any politician dare to go against the ultra-liberal orthodoxy.
These media outlets will lecture us on being inclusive and welcoming, but should you diverge from what the mainstream media say is the new orthodoxy, namely that marriage can be whatever a bunch of politicians say it is, and a woman can be whatever a confused man says she is (and whatever else is the latest development in gender ideology), then you will find yourself very much on the outside. Then all the chat about being inclusive and diverse is exposed as the lie that it is. These media outlets are not interested in diverse views any more than they are interested in the theology of the body or the notion of sin.
Neither Tim Farron nor Kate Forbes are Catholics. Farron is a lifelong non-conformist Protestant. Forbes is a member of the socially conservative, evangelical Free Church of Scotland. However, how Christians of any stripe or tribe are treated by the media should concern us all, as what the media is trying to do is make certain views of human sexuality beyond the pale. They are attempting to create a political landscape whereby having an honest and true view of sexual ethics makes you a persona non grata and someone not to be taken seriously.
This should be absolutely opposed by all people of good-will and good conscience. The Guardian asked Forbes how she planned to pitch herself as a “leader who inspires confidence” to LGBT+ members of the party and the country, given her beliefs.
Forbes said: “In a pluralistic, tolerant society, I will defend to the hilt everybody’s rights to live and to love free of harassment and fear. I would hope that I might be afforded the same freedom and the same right to believe and practice fairly mainstream views that are actually common across the mainstream religions, in terms of Islam and so on.”
Anything other than this approach means we no longer live in a democracy – but a soft dictatorship where everyone must hold the same views on all subjects of importance.
If the media want to spend their time questioning politicians on their views of sin, I don’t think that is necessarily a bad thing, although I caution anyone looking to politicians for guidance on sin and morality. Arguably we don’t talk about sin enough, so perhaps the politician could use the interview to explore some complex theological questions. I bet that would turn the interview back to areas of economics and foreign policy soon enough.
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