Two female evangelical politicians have been attacked for their views on sexual ethics by an SNP Member of Parliament.
John Nicolson MP branded MSP Kate Forbes a ‘sex obsessed religious fundamentalist’ and dismissed backbencher Miriam Cates’ recent sex ed exposé as “nonsense”, before saying: “That MP is a [sic] evangelical Christian.”
Nicolson, who describes himself as a homosexual “in a long-term relationship”, spotlighted the Christian convictions of Forbes and Cates while speaking on BBC Two’s Politics Live last week.
Asked to comment on Forbes’ beliefs about marriage, he responded: “I’m perfectly happy for Kate Forbes to believe whatever she likes.”
He added: “If Kate Forbes doesn’t want to be in a same-sex relationship, then Kate Forbes should not go into a same-sex relationship. But she shouldn’t tell me what relationship I can or cannot enter into.”
The MP for Ochil and South Perthshire also said: “The thing I don’t get about these religious fundamentalists is, why are they all so obsessed with sex.”
“The Bible tells us that we can’t wear mixed fabrics or eat shellfish as well, they don’t worry about that, but it’s sex that seems to fixate them.”
To understand the difference between the moral, ceremonial and civil law read our publication: The Three-fold Division of the Law or listen to the audio book.
Jonathan F. Bayes
Evangelical-Reformed theology has long held that Old Testament law can be distinguished into three parts: the moral, the ceremonial and the civil. Jonathan Bayes looks at the history of this threefold division.
Later in the same programme, Nicolson claimed Miriam Cates’ report on the use of age-inappropriate and extreme material in sex education lessons was fundamentally “untrue”.
He began by stating, “That MP is a [sic] evangelical Christian”, before claiming “she can’t justify any of the things that she said”.
He went on to say: “we know what this is about, it’s attacking trans people and trying to heat up a right-wing culture war imported from the States.”
Nicolson stated that he would be happy for school children to be taught about relationships and sex using resources produced by controversial LGBT groups Stonewall and Mermaids.
Earlier this month, Rishi Sunak committed to bringing forward a review of statutory guidance on Relationships and Sex Education in England in response to a question from Cates.
She told the Prime Minister that children are being “subjected to lessons that are age-inappropriate, extreme, sexualising and inaccurate, often using resources from unregulated organisations that are actively campaigning to undermine parents. This is not a victory for equality, it is a catastrophe for childhood.”
The DfE is currently collecting evidence, with a consultation on updated guidance expected later this year.
In response to complaints, in 2021 the BBC finally removed a resource for children aged nine to twelve which claimed there are over 100 ‘gender identities’.