Iain Lee's toe curling interview on homosexuality shows the massive gap between evangelicals and society

Sometimes people make mistakes and have to apologise. It happens to us all. This week it happened to Iain Lee, a presenter for BBC Three Counties Radio, with a phone guest on his show. Libby Powell, from campaign group Christian Concern, was discussing the case of Revd Barry Trayhorn, a prison worker taking his employer to a tribunal amid claims he was forced to resign for reading a Bible verse about homosexuality. In the ensuing interview Lee repeatedly accused Powell of being a ‘bigot’ when she defended her conviction that the Bible deems homosexual activity sinful.

The BBC admitted the language Lee used, and the tone in which he conducted the interview, was 'at several points inappropriate' and Iain Lee himself apologised on air.

To give a sense of the nature of the interaction here’s a transcript of part of the interview:

You can hear the interview in full here.

Iain Lee has apologised for ‘any offence given’ by the interview. But judging by the response from his followers on Twitter after he posted Premier’s news story on the apology, they (perhaps unsurprisingly) feel the presenter has himself been wronged:

@iainlee but they are bigots, why apologise?

— @JustHelens (@JustHelens) November 12, 2015

@iainlee @TogetherPremier it was a great interview. Well done for not giving intolerant bigots an easy ride. I'm proud of you.

— Mrs A (@glitterkitty70) November 12, 2015

@iainlee it was an excellent interview and was good to hear their nasty poisonous views be challenged

— Ali (@AlisonTarrant) November 12, 2015

For me the whole story demonstrates the fact that evangelical Christians no longer speak the same language as the non-Christian world when it comes to sexuality. The radio interview was a text book example of two people speaking past each other. Even as Powell tried to qualify her position as not being against gay people per se, Iain Lee was having none of it.

It was not so long ago that Christians who held a conservative position on homosexuality would have been deemed to have a right to their opinion by most secularists, even if they disagreed with it. Even same-sex equality campaigners like Peter Tatchell have defended the right of street preachers to air their views. Now however the narrative has moved towards seeing those who take a traditional Christian position on sexuality as narrow minded ‘bigots’, no matter how much they qualify their position that ‘God loves the sinner but not the sin’.

Iain Lee may have apologised (and it’s perhaps not too hard to imagine that he was leaned on by his BBC bosses do so), but the fact remains that most people in the secular world would take exactly the same line he did in the interview. If you believe that homosexual activity is sinful then it’s no longer simply an unpopular opinion that you are entitled to - you are a bigot. Full stop.

So how do Christians who do take a firm line on sexuality respond when it comes to airing their views in public? Are evangelicals who abide by a traditional biblical understanding of sexuality forever to be deemed by the wider world as moral dinosaurs who can’t accept that the world has moved on? Can we avoid interviews like Lee’s in which both sides seem to be talking past each other? In an age where most media outlets are looking for drama and soundbites, I’m a bit pessimistic about it to be honest.

I think the best hope for evangelicals who want to change the narrative is to engage at a deeper level. That’s where the work of people like Living Out comes in. An organisation where the chief spokespersons are themselves same-sex attracted church leaders who speak from a place of personal experience and pastoral sensitivity.

I could be wrong, but it’s hard to imagine the interview with Iain Lee would have had the same dynamic if he had been interviewing someone like Living Out’s Ed Shaw, a same–sex attracted church leader who has chosen to remain celibate. That lifestyle choice may be confounding and confusing for a secular audience, but it’s harder to label Ed a ‘bigot’ as someone who has lived the reality of experiencing same-sex attraction.

When it comes to LGBT issues the gap in understanding is growing ever wider between evangelical Christians and the secular world – anything that can be done to build a bridge across it, would be welcome.