A bishop has praised Tim Farron, former leader of the Liberal Democrats, for speaking out against the threat of intolerant liberalism.
In a lecture last week hosted by the think tank Theos, Mr Farron said that if you hold religious beliefs, “you are deemed to be far worse than eccentric. You are dangerous. You are offensive.”
Farron, an Evangelical Anglican, said that liberalism was founded on Christianity. “If we relegate Christianity, then we hollow out liberalism,” he said.
He argued that liberalism, having succumbed to the “tyranny of opinion”, may have “eaten itself” because it now has difficulty in accepting competing worldviews.
Bishop Mark Davies of Shrewsbury said that Farron seemed to share the same fears as GK Chesterton and Pope Benedict XVI.
The bishop told the Catholic Herald: “It seems highly significant that Tim Farron, as a political leader who strongly identifies with liberalism as a cause and interpretation of history, should speak so clearly of the growing intolerance of liberalism from which he has himself suffered.
“We have seen how the claims of Christian faith and morality have in some circles come to be regarded as so offensive that they can barely be tolerated, from those who interview politicians to those who determine how schools should be inspected.
“In Farron’s words, ‘we will tolerate you, as long as you remain on the edges’. It was another political Liberal, GK Chesterton, who came to see how Christian orthodoxy is in fact not only ‘the guardian of morality and order, but is also the logical guardian of liberty, innovation and advance’.
“It seems Tim Farron has now arrived at similar conclusions to those of Chesterton, and indeed of Pope Benedict XVI, that it is a ‘dictatorship of relativism’ which poses the gravest threat to human rights and freedom.
“We can be grateful that Tim Farron joins a growing number of voices in raising the alarm that ‘our liberties are now in the hands of unstable forces because we cannot call upon any authority in support of those rights’.”
In his lecture Farron said that Christianity was the “essential underpinning of liberalism”.
“If our values are relativistic, if they are shifting, if they depend upon the temporary norms of this age, then the freedoms you bank upon today cannot be guaranteed tomorrow,” he said.
Farron stood down as leader of the Lib Dems after spending much of this year’s election campaign being questioned on his views of gay sex.
In a statement following his resignation, he said: “To be a political leader and to live as a committed Christian, to hold faithfully to the Bible’s teaching, has felt impossible to me.”
In his lecture he said Christians should not imitate St Simeon Stylites, a 5th-century monk who was “so determined to keep away from being corrupted by the world that he lived his life for 37 years on the top of a pole in Aleppo”.
“Stylites was wrong. As Christians we are told not to be of the world, but to be in it.” Farron’s aim now, he said, was to be the “best constituency MP anyone has ever known”.
Third council seeks to ban vigils
The London borough of Southwark has become the third council in England to vote to ban prayer vigils outside abortion clinics.
Councillors voted overwhelmingly last week to seek the creation of “buffer zones” following similar votes in Ealing and Portsmouth. Pro-abortion campaigners have accused pro-lifers of harassing women outside clinics. The Good Counsel Network, which organises vigils in Ealing, strongly denies the claims.
Areas of Catholic Herald business are still recovering post-pandemic.
However, we are reaching out to the Catholic community and readership, that has been so loyal to the Catholic Herald. Please join us on our 135 year mission by supporting us.
We are raising £250,000 to safeguard the Herald as a world-leading voice in Catholic journalism and teaching.
We have been a bold and influential voice in the church since 1888, standing up for traditional Catholic culture and values. Please consider donating.