June is upon us. Traditionally, June has been one of my favorite months of the year, as it is the beginning of summer. The kids are home from school. Vacation is only a few weeks away. The warm weather means flip flops, days on the lake, and laying in a hammock. The past few years, however, I have met it with mixed feelings. It has become pride month in full. No longer a barely noticed blip on the calendar, rainbow flags and apparel start popping up in stores in mid-may in preparation. It has only gotten bigger each year. By now nearly every corporation in America is eager to swear fealty to the new flag and will gladly incorporate it into their own logos, demonstrating to all that they are allies of the cause.
And what is the cause? Pride. Specifically, pride month is about gays, lesbians, bi-sexuals, transgender and queer people who believe they ought not be ashamed of their sexual desires and gender identities. They instead should be proud of them. They once faced public condemnation for their behaviors as abnormal and immoral and felt they had to hide or suppress their desires. Now, in revolt, they reject the idea that their sexuality is evil or shameful in any way. Instead, they demand that the world recognize and celebrate them as well. To fail to do so is to be a bigot, a homophobe, or worse. In short, pride month preaches that it’s not LGBTQ+ people who ought to change their thinking or behavior, but everyone else.
This puts Christians in an awkward space. If we are biblically faithful, we must honor God and believe what he says about the wickedness of sexual immorality generally (1 Cor 6:18; Gal 5:16-21), but also sexual perversions of various kinds (Gen 2:18-25; Lev. 18; 20:13; Rom 1:26-27; Jude 1:7) and the reality and goodness of the gender binary (Gen 1:27). This puts us at odds with an entire cultural movement that calls good what God’s Word calls evil, and vice versa (Isa 5:20). Christians are increasingly in the minority on this issue, and hostility will surely increase. How can we respond? What I am mainly addressing is pride month as a cultural icon, a month long pagan festival that stands against God’s Word and demands allegiance. However as it concerns individuals, Christians should desire and seek the salvation of LGBTQ people, who need a Savior the same as anyone (1 Cor 6:9-11). The gospel of Christ is for everyone and we must love our neighbor as Christ commanded us (Mk 12:30-31). As we seek to live the call to honor Christ during this month, let us consider four principles.
1. What we are Witnessing is God’s judgment
The first chapter of Paul’s letter to the Romans is a fascinating read. It sounds like he is describing our own generation, and in many ways he is. The sum of verses 18-32 is that pagan people of the world may not have the benefit of knowing God’s written word, but God has imprinted a sense of God’s existence and glory on the hearts of all his image bearers and in creation. Everyone knows that God exists, however the unbelieving world sinfully suppresses that knowledge (1:18-20). They instead exchanged true worship of the Creator for worship of the creation. God’s wrath against this is evident–both in Paul’s time and in ours– in that God gives people over (exchanges them) to their sin. When people reject God, God responds in judgment by letting them go. We see this time and again in history. Sin is self-destructive, foolish, and deadly. When God gives a person, a people, or a nation over to their sin, it ends badly. It ends in idolatry.
Furthermore, God gives people over to ‘impurity’, ‘the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves’, ‘dishonorable passions’, relations that are ‘contrary to nature’’, being ‘consumed with passion’ and ‘committing shameless acts’, which is a “due penalty for their error,” (Rom 1:26-28). In the context, all of this is speaking about gay and lesbian sex, which Paul uses as an example of what God gives people over to as a punishment for rejecting him. In short, Christians reading Romans 1 understand that widespread same-sex activity among a people is a sign of God’s judgment. It is an indication that he has given people over to degrading sins. This should sober us concerning the state of our nation.
2. Stand upon the Truth and Promote it
There is one final sting in Romans 1. It is not only the people who practice these and other such sins that are condemned (v 28-31), but also those who give approval to it (31). It is a great evil to celebrate what God condemns, or to condemn what God approves. It is a sin to be an ally to a cause that contradicts God and condemns people to hell (Jas 4:4). This movement will not end in making individuals whole, families holy, or societies healthy. If we really love our LGBTQ neighbors, which we must, then we must not celebrate the false gospel which is keeping them from Christ. Instead, we must give them the truth of a Savior who died for them, who loves them, who can give them hope and a future. Do not lay aside God’s timeless Word for a temporary trend. God’s word is forever fixed in the heavens (Ps 119:89) and every word of it proves true (Prov 30:5). So when a pride march runs through your town, it’s ok to say, “This is wrong.” And when they ask why, you don’t have to cite a study, or focus just on how it affects kids, or that it creates traffic problems, or any other secondary reason that avoids the crux of the issue. You can just say, “because God has said so in his Word.” Remember that the powerful spiritual weapon God has given us is the ‘sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God’ (Eph 6:17). Why keep it sheathed?
3. Peaceful Resistance is Appropriate
Christians should by no means join in the celebration. There is something powerful when God’s people who are sober-minded simply have the courage to say “No.” “No, I’m not going to bow to Nebuchadnezzar’s image” (Dan 3). “No, we midwives aren’t going to do the evil Pharaoh commands of us,” (Ex 1); or ‘No, I’m not going to sign off my emails with my pronouns.” If you have the opportunity to effect institutional change, by all means do so in a Christ-like manner. But the least we can do is simply not go along with the madness of sin. Quiet acceptance hasn’t slowed things down, but only served to drive the train off the rails faster. Consider this, the ‘+’ at the end of LGBT+ should strike an ominous chord. Who knows what other sexual proclivities we will be required to affirm in times to come. Would anything surprise you at this point? If not now, at what point would you say, ‘no, that’s too far.’
4. Pray for Salvation and Revival
Christians should be hopeful and not overly pessimistic. Christ is King! I say again, CHRIST is King. “All authority in heaven on earth has been given to me,” (Mt 28:18). Some say ‘love wins’, and by this they mean something entirely different than the love of God demonstrated in Christ: holy, honoring, saving, sacrificial, eternal. Rather it is selfish and self-centered love that permits people to sleep with whoever they want. That love doesn’t win. That path leads to death for individuals, for families, and for society. Christ and his love for his bride wins.
The common estimate for those who truly experience same-sex attraction and gender dysphoria is somewhere between 3-5%. Probably more now. Let’s say we double it for argument sake and say 8-10% of the population is genuinely within the LGBTQ+ group. That small population by persistence, dedication, and belief in the rightness of their cause has changed the whole shape of the world in a few decades. You have to admire their tenacity. Is there not 10% of the population of Christians who believe Christ is Lord of Heaven and Earth who can pray to change it once again? Can God who has brought a revival of repentance to whole generations not also save our generation? Can he bring mass conversion? Can he bring us to our senses? Even Nineveh, a pagan nation repented, can we? I hope, pray, and believe that it is possible, if God shows us mercy. Pray for the gospel to go out in power and for the word of God to change minds and bring healing. So instead of pride month, consider making it Prayer Month. Treat it as you would a Christian living in an Islamic country during Ramadan. Pray for your family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, and classmates. Pray for revival in churches, repentance in our nation, and reformation culture. The month of June still belongs to Christ. They all do.
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