Author Archives: Chris Adams

Chris Adams first became involved in politics in the summer of 2011 when he began working for Mark Williams, then MP for Ceredigion, before joining the party in February 2013. Prior to that, as an academic historian, Chris worked as a tutor at the History Department at Aberystwyth University, having studied there for Bachelors, Masters and PhD. In 2017 Chris stood in the General Election as the Parliamentary Candidate for Greenwich and Woolwich.
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Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends

By Chris Adams | Thu 17th October 2024 - 10:37 am

Much of the debate against assisted dying has focused on the sanctity of life, and the need to protect vulnerable people from being pressured into giving up their lives due to the burden of being caref for, and the effect this may have on those around them.

I sympathise deeply with this perspective – it is the main logical objection I had to assisted dying for a long time: a desire to protect the vulnerable – alongside my own faith which felt like it provided a moral objection to assisted dying on principle.

Yet over recent years, seeing some elderly relatives grow ever older and more infirm, I have considered the fate of one of my grandmothers, who died quite suddenly of a heart attack in her mid-70s. As part of working through the grief, it was a comfort to know that she died quickly, in the arms of a close friend (by sheer luck), at a time when she was still able to go for long walks in the mountains. She could doubtless have gone on for a few more years, but would have struggled to remain independent for much longer.

Compare this to my other grandmother, now in her late 80s. She has been almost immobile for years – and now finally has reached a stage where my ageing grandfather is no longer able to take care of her. She is confined to a care home, and I know she prays for God to take her. She wants to die, but is instead left languishing as her body slowly gives up on her. I do not think she would want the option of assisted dying. I also know that as a family we would never countenance the idea that she should feel pressured in any way to take it up.

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged assisted dying | 10 Comments

How to be liberal, Christian and gay

By Chris Adams | Fri 2nd February 2018 - 2:55 pm

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Recently, for better or for worse, Tim Farron has decided to make his theological opinions (not his faith) front and centre of his public persona as an MP. His decision recently to speak out on gay sex being a sin, yet again, this time to correct what he said on national television during the election campaign last year, has prompted me to want to tell the other side of the story.

I’m a Christian. I have been for over 13 years. It’s part of who I am and it’s what makes me a liberal. I read the bible and I read of a God who stands up for the oppressed; who loves all equally. He calls us to do the same – to love justice and hate inequality. As Christians it is our job on this earth to act out that love for all, to stand up for the oppressed and to do so justly, no matter who they are or where they are from. To treat others the way God treats us – in full acceptance. That’s why I’m a liberal: I believe in the value of each individual.

I am also gay. Which means I know that all too often, Christians don’t stand up for me or accept me as I am, in the way God does.

Let me be blunt: God is not two-faced. God does not judge me on the one hand and fight for me on the other. He doesn’t love me unconditionally, but tell me I’m not accepted as I am. That wouldn’t be the God defined by the perfect love described in 1 Corinthians 13. That’s not my God. Anyone who feels that they can truly stand up for my rights while believing that there is something fundamentally morally wrong with my being is kidding themselves if they believe they are acting coherently.