Christian councillor exonerated after investigation into Pride tweet

A tweet by a Christian councillor criticising the Pride movement just isn’t homophobic, the Conservative Party has concluded after a six month investigation.

Cllr King Lawal, 31, was suspended as a councillor at North Northamptonshire Unitary Council last July after he tweeted that “Pride is a sin not a virtue”. 

The full tweet, which was later deleted, read: “When did Pride grow to be a thing to rejoice. Because of Pride Satan fell as an arch Angel. Pride just isn’t a virtue but a Sin. Those who’ve Pride should Repent of their sins and return to Jesus Christ. He can prevent. #PrideMonth #Pride23 #PrideParade.”

He said he posted the tweet after becoming concerned in regards to the adult nature of some Pride events despite being attended by children. 

In response to the tweet, he had the whip removed by the local Conservative Group on the council and was faraway from various positions, including chair of the Health Scrutiny Committee and vice-chair of the Scrutiny Management Board.

In an extra twist, Anthony Stevens, a councillor on Wellingborough Town Council, was arrested at home in front of his children for an alleged hate crime after speaking in support of Lawal. The police later decided to take no further motion.

Defending his views, Lawal later tweeted, “When Christians confer with ‘sin’ or ‘sinners’ we’re speaking of ourselves. We should not singling out specific people or groups of individuals as sinners.

“Sin in response to the Bible includes lying, stealing, gossip and hatred, not only things like homosexuality, adultery and sex outside of the wedding. Jesus said that even to have unholy thoughts that we never act on is sinful. Therefore each considered one of us is sinful by this standard, including myself.

“I subsequently don’t come against those celebrating Pride to attack who they’re, my intention was to say that I might not rejoice this any greater than I might rejoice a month of gossip or anything the bible calls sin.”

A grievance alleged that the unique post was homophobic and that Lawal had “did not sustain” and was “in conflict with the aim, objects and values of the Conservative Party”.

A disciplinary sub-committee at Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ) has now concluded its investigation into his original tweet and rejected the grievance.

In a written judgement sent to the councillor this week, the panel said “it might be flawed to conflate an objection to the Pride movement as homophobic”.

“The Panel recognises that [Cllr Lawal’s] posts are a representation of his religious beliefs, which he’s free and entitled to carry. Accordingly, the posts, whilst they could be offensive to some, would on balance to not be considered by an inexpensive and fair-minded observer to be discriminatory or homophobic per se,” it said. 

Lawal welcomed the judgment but said he was “appalled” to have been investigated in the primary place.

“For over six months I even have had the cloud of this investigation hanging over me, even when the local group reinstated me,” he said. 

“What has happened to me is a microcosm of what’s coming under a possible Labour government, and the way in some ways significant factions of the Conservative Party have turned their back on their very own supporters and values.

“How I even have been treated is de facto troubling for a democratic society. It must ring alarm bells as this may now occur to anyone that just isn’t in support of this extreme LGBT movement.

“The Bible tells us that to live out a real Christian calling you have got to choose up your cross and that the world will hate you for standing for Him and truth. I’m determined to proceed to fight for justice and to clear my name and make sure that this doesn’t occur to a different person.

“My ambition for the long run is to face as an MP. This country and the Conservative Party especially, needs more passionate Christian leaders and politicians, not less. It is time that the true voice of the vast majority of Christians was heard in Parliament.”

Andrea Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, which supported Cllr Lawal, said he had faced “unprecedented” repercussions for expressing his Christian beliefs.

“What happened demonstrates that Christians who hold public office can now not express their beliefs without having their careers and lives dismantled,” she said. 

“CCHQ must have stood by Cllr Lawal and defended his Christian freedoms as an alternative of joining within the attack and mirroring intolerant Labour Party activists determined to eradicate Christian beliefs from the general public square.

“What has happened to Cllr Lawal, and Cllr Anthony Stevens, has been a stain upon the Conservative and Labour parties, and more should be done to guard Christian MPs and councillors who express standard Christian beliefs on a spread of necessary issues.”