UK pol says he can't be a "progressive liberal" and a Christian

This rather boyish-looking individual is Timothy "Tim" Farron. [Not "Timmy"?" Ed.] As you might guess from the pin-striped suit and the image of Westminster behind him, he is a British politician. He was, for a short time -- not long enough to get his English teeth fixed -- the leader of Britain's Liberal Democrat Party.

Mr Farron is also a Bible-believing Christian, which is the reason he gives for his recent resignation from his lofty position. (Not so lofty, really, considering that his party finished this month's election with but 12 of the Westminster Parliament's 650 seats.) He says his party's "progressive" platform, which he advocated during the election, is "no longer compatible with his Christian faith."

"To be a political leader, especially of a progressive liberal party in 2017, and to live as a committed Christian, to hold faithfully to the Bible’s teaching has felt impossible," Mr Farron explained. "we are kidding ourselves if we think we yet live in a tolerant, liberal society."

During the recent election campaign, the Liberal Democrat leader was repeatedly attacked -- sometimes by members of his own party -- for past statements indicating that he believed homosexual acts and abortion to be sinful. This, of course, is the opposite of the pro-queer agenda of the "progressives" and all right-thinking persons of the 21st century. Mr Farron waffled on the question after winning the party leadership in 2015. Asked repeatedly whether his Christian faith meant he believed homosexuality was a sin, he first prevaricated, then eventually said he did not think homosexuality was sinful.

Following the election, Lord Paddick, who is the UK's most senior openly gay police officer, resigned as the Liberal Democrats' home affairs spokesman over "concerns about the leader's views on various issues that were highlighted" during the election campaign. In his resignation statement, Mr Farron said he had found himself torn "between living as a faithful Christian and serving as a political leader." To make himself perfectly clear, he added, "I seem to be the subject of what I believe and who my faith in is."

Canadian Liberals (and other liberals) will be quick to urge the new leader of Canada's Conservative Party, Andrew Scheer, to follow in Mr Farron's footsteps down the straight and narrow path before his (Mr Scheer's) Roman Catholic faith -- already labelled "social conservatism" -- becomes and embarrassment to him.

Read the whole story here: "Tim Farron resigns as Liberal Democrat leader, saying it felt ‘impossible’ to lead party and be Christian", Catholic Herald, 14/6/17.