The Australian Christian Lobby’s Managing Director Lyle Shelton has announced his resignation, announcing his intention to run for federal parliament at the next federal election.

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Shelton has been with the conservative lobby group for over a decade and spent the last five years as its Managing Director. He also headed the Coalition for Marriage, the conglomerate of groups opposed to allowing gay couples to wed.

At this stage Shelton has not given any indication of which party he may be joining to make the move to federal politics, but has announced he’ll be leaving Canberra to return to his home state of Queensland.

It has been widely tipped that he’ll be joining Cory Bernardi’s Australian Conservatives, and Shelton is expected to make an announcement with Bernardi tomorrow.

In a video announcement Shelton was joined by the Australian Christian Lobby’s chairman Jim Wallace, the man he replaced as Managing Director.

“Last year during the marriage campaign I felt very much drawn to the political side of things, the partisan side of politics.” Shelton said.

“I do believe politics needs Christian influence from the inside, and political parties  need good people from the inside, but I want to make it very clear to everyone that I’m not leaving the battle for the values that you or I hold dear, just going to a different part of the battlefield.”

Wallace announced that Shelton would be replaced by Martin Iles, who was previously Shelton’s Head of Staff and currently heads the Australian Christian Lobby’s Human Rights Law Alliance.

Iles said he was pleased to be taking the reins from Shelton citing it as a “crucial time” for Christians in Australia.

“There’s never been more pressure on people of faith, and on the church, simply for living out our timeless convictions. Therefore there’s never been a more crucial time in history in Australia for the church and for Christian people in Australia to engage with law, and politics and culture.”

Watch the full announcement below. 

OIP Staff