Heather Bellamy spoke with Dr Dave Landrum, the director of Advocacy for the Evangelical Alliance.

Dr Dave Landrum

Tim Farron has stepped down as leader of the Liberal Democrat Party because of the untenable position he's been in, constantly under suspicion because of what he believes and who his faith is in. In his resignation speech, he made the statement that, "We are kidding ourselves if we think we yet live in a tolerant, liberal society." Heather Bellamy spoke with Dr Dave Landrum, the Director of Advocacy for the Evangelical Alliance, about Tim's resignation and the wider implications.

Heather: Are you surprised by Tim's resignation?

Dave: I am and I'm not. I was surprised when it was announced, but the more I contemplated it, the more it probably makes sense from Tim's perspective. He was put under intolerable, insufferable pressure during the election campaign, when he was effectively hunted down by elements of the liberal media for his faith views.

Heather: Who would you say has been suspicious of him? Where has this pressure come from? Is it just the media?

Dave: The media is a very broad thing, but the media that moves things in politics is the news media. It usually starts in the liberal news media, which is Channel 4 News and the BBC and then it rolls out as a story onto everything else, because the media only watches what moves, so it makes things move and then it's picked up elsewhere. That's where it started.

Heather: What issues is this all over? Is it the one issue of homosexuality and same sex marriage, or are there other issues as well?

Dave: Same sex marriage, or the re definition of marriage by David Cameron, has been the touch point for this. It's the place that kicks it all off. But there was also his views on abortion that were rolled into the discussion and then it just became a general criticism of his faith and the place of faith in politics more generally.

Heather: Because of how he's been treated, he's said, "We are kidding ourselves if we think we yet live in a tolerant, liberal society." Do you agree with him?

Dave: I do agree with him. I've done a number of interviews on this issue and the secularists and others I've been interviewed with and debating with, try to play this down as if it's not important and not significant at all. But I believe it is. I believe when you have the head of the Liberal Democrat Party in the UK resigning his position on the basis of his faith, because he was harried out of office; not because of what he said, or how he voted, which was very liberal even in Christian terms, but because of what he believes, that is a profound shift in the way we do and understand politics and living in a free society, so yes, it's very significant.

Heather: Many people in the UK would think we do have a tolerant society. Tolerance is constantly promoted by the Government as a British value. What is the difference between how many people in Government and the media would define tolerance and how someone like Tim Farron, or perhaps yourself, would define it?

Dave: I know Tim personally and he would agree with me, I think, on this. He's what I would call a classic liberal. Liberalism is a political philosophy. It started with non-conformism and evangelicalism and it involves the idea that people can hold different views, but still work towards a common good and still really highly value liberty in public life. So you don't have to agree with somebody's point of view, but there is an expectation that you will respect the fact that they have a point of view and lifestyle choice that is different from yours. That's fundamentally changed here. What we've got is an illiberal form of liberalism that's rolling out in public life and the band width, if you like, for what is considered to be tolerated, has narrowed remarkably. Indeed, a friend of mine, Nick Spencer at Theos the think tank, he came up with the word 'totalitolerance' to describe this new form of tolerance and I think it's pretty accurate.

Heather: You've said that maybe we should, "Drop the pretence of calling ourselves a liberal democracy and simply legislate against Christians in public life." Why have you said that?

Dave: If we let this slide; if there's no push back against this, right across public life, then we can conclude that we don't live in a liberal democracy. I've got a PhD in political philosophy and 10 years' experience of working at Parliament and it's a very easy case to make. We are not a liberal society if we think that you're free to have views, you're free to express those views, as long as you're not calling for violence, but only within this very narrow band width, which is defined by secular, liberal progressives, usually who live in London. That's not liberalism, that's not a free society and our democracy that then hangs around that is also deeply tarnished by it.

Heather: That's what I wanted to ask you next. Do you think democracy itself is being damaged through these things that you're saying, through how Christians, people like Tim Farron, are being treated? Or do you think it's democracy working and people like Tim simply can't stand the pressure?