National MP Alfred Ngaro says Israel Folau should have the freedom to express his religious beliefs.
The ousted Australian rugby star is currently embroiled in an employment dispute after he was let go from the Wallabies for posting controversial Instagram posts which said gay people were going to hell.
The Conservative Christian would not be drawn on Folau’s views but told TVNZ1's Q+A that "the conversation has now changed...All the debate is around freedom of speech".
"Anyone should have the freedom to express their view, unless that view incites violence of harm to other people."
When asked by host Jack Tame if he agreed with Folau's belief that gay people were going to hell, Mr Ngaro said he agreed Folau "should have the freedom to express his religious beliefs".
"I agree with what the Bible says. All of us, not just gay people, who do not have a relationship through the Lord Jesus Christ, a relationship with God...will be committed to hell.
"It's not my role to judge whether God will accept them or not. What is part of my role is to love and accept all people."
Mr Ngaro said he did not contribute to Folau’s fundraising page for his legal challenge.
When asked if there should be a separation between church and state, Mr Ngaro said, "of course there are separations... but there should never be a separation between the values we take".
"Why should those be Christian values?" Tame asked.
"They can be other values, those are just my values," Mr Nagro said.
"What this nation needs is to acknowledge is we are under the auspice of a Christian set of values that is important to who we are as a democratic nation... The fact is we should be acknowledging that we have a Christian heritage, a Christian base and we shouldn’t be afraid of that."
Mr Ngaro recently dabbled with the idea of creating a conservative Christian political party. However, he pulled back from the plan.
“It was just a consideration, in which people approached me, asked me if that was something I was interested in,” Mr Nagro said.
“I looked at the vision, the values and the leadership of the [National] Party, and I was satisfied as a conservative Christian MP that I had a place inside the National Party.”
He confirmed party leader Simon Bridges did not offer him an electorate seat and said he did not ask for one. Mr Ngaro said there were a number of fellow conservative Christian MPs.
On other issues, Mr Ngaro was against removing abortion from the Crimes Act and he said he does not believe that gender is non-binary.
The conservative MP briefly looked at creating a new faith-based political party.
Q+A is on TVNZ1 Mondays at 9.30pm, and the episode is then available on TVNZ OnDemand and as a podcast in all the usual places.
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