Tim Farron has quit his position as leader of the Liberal Democrats citing the suspicion he faced regarding his religion.
Interview after interview put his views on gay sex front and centre. Sometimes he tried to dodge the question, other times he stressed that he could act secularly as a politician.
Can you truly be a committed Christian and in support of gay rights? It's something that I've struggled with for a long time. Growing up Catholic, coming out was compounded by the question of my faith.
I remember as I was figuring out how I felt, I was confiding more and more in two teachers. They genuinely wanted to help and at one point, I think they realised I needed more support. That resulted in my pastoral care teacher calling me down and though she was kind, she also said that the ethos of the school made it difficult for them to offer specific support.
About a year later, things got rough when I came out properly. During that time, religion was the predominant reasoning behind the push back to my coming out.
I have to say my experiences of priests though had been generally positive. At one point, I tried confessing my sins to my local priest. In hindsight, he probably didn't want to hear in quite exacting detail how I'd lost my virginity with 'Like a Virgin' blasting. He was entirely professional throughout though and when I was done, offered a conciliatory tone. There was no sin in feelings he argued, only the act. 'If you stumble then just ask for forgiveness and God will be there for you'.
He was undoubtedly being kind. But the problem was I didn't want to be forgiven. I had to hide the glee in recounting my coming out story. I knew I wanted to go again. And again.
That's the problem in a nutshell really. It's probably the reason Farron is stepping down. It's trying to put a square peg in a round hole. Just how can you hate the sin and not the sinner when the sinner sees that sin as fundamental to their character.
Then again my faith has been fundamental to me too. I've felt myself come back to it time and time again. Coming out as Christian can be as difficult as coming out in a religious environment and in a limited way, I can empathise with Farron's evident anger that people haven't taken his faith at face value. I sense that he's frustrated people seem to think his faith make him homophobic.
I think though that he's not fully appreciating the experience of faith that LGBT individuals often encounter. It's hard not to pick up on an implicit homophobia when you're being taught in a class - funded by the state - that children can't be brought up as well by a same sex couple as mixed sex one.
The Christian Church is a broad one though and acting like they all have the same approach to homosexuality is ignorant. St. Mary's Cathedral on Great Western Road is an excellent example of a faith community that is incredibly welcoming to all.
Farron's departure is sad if he felt that it was related completely to reaction to his faith. It points to a society struggling to reconcile religion and liberialism. Rejection of the more archaic and extremist elements of the Christian faith should be heralded as progressive but I do feel that a place for faith remains in our society and it would be sad for that to be removed completely.
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