If you are not aware, we are in the month of June and June is known as Pride Month. Pride Month is a month-long celebration where the LGBTQIA+ community showcases and celebrates their individual sexual identity. It traces its roots to the 1969 Stonewall Riots, which started on June 28, 1969, when police raided a gay bar in the Stonewall Inn, New York City. Over time LGBTQ activists pressed for greater public recognition until President Bill Clinton officially declared June “Gay and Lesbian Pride Month” in 1999. Not satisfied with this, the activism continued to gather momentum, pressing into the halls of government, the board rooms of corporations and the classrooms of our schools.
The result is that over a relatively short period of time we have experienced perhaps the largest moral revolution in all of human history. A revolution that not just embraces homosexuality, but every other sexual identity one can imagine, hence the “+”. And far beyond just tolerating another’s sexual identity, it says you must openly embrace and celebrate it. Perhaps this is something you are facing as a Christian in your school and workplace and are unsure what to do. I would like to give you five reasons why, as a Christian, I cannot celebrate Pride Month but also provide a few things I can joyfully celebrate.
1) Pride Month is rooted in rebellion
I am not talking about its roots in Stonewall, but roots that stretch way back to the Garden of Eden. It is no small consequence that the LGBTQ community chose the word pride as their slogan. The Bible states that God hates “pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech” (Prov 8:13). The problem with pride is that it allows us to live for a time with a false idea that we are the king of our own universe. It was pride that caused Adam and Eve to rebel against God in the garden, plunging the world into sin, and it is pride that fuels all other rebellion, including Pride Month.
2) Pride Month actively celebrates hatred
This may surprise you since the whole promotion of Pride Month is one of love and inclusion. However, God calls the activity promoted during this month as sins that are an abomination (Lev 18:22), impure, dishonourable, unnatural and shameful (Rom 1:24-28). All sin, including these, stem from a lack of love and a rejection of God’s goodness, which inevitably hurts others. I cannot celebrate that which wars against God’s good design for human flourishing and blessing.
3) Pride Month actively distorts God’s design for gender and human sexuality
The Bible clearly states that God made two genders, male and female, and these should not be confused or distorted (Gen 1:27). I in no way want to delegitimize someone’s struggle with their own gender but it should give us comfort that the God who made us makes no mistakes, and His designs are always perfect. But the “T” in LGBT denies this reality and seeks to promote that which both God and biology say otherwise.
4) Pride Month actively celebrates activity that caused the crucifixion of Christ
In the greatest display of love known to mankind, Jesus was crucified on the cross, because of humanity’s sin. It is very important for us to grasp this, particularly those in the LGBTQ community. God had every right to immediately obliterate Adam and Eve for their rebellion but chose to delay judgement until the incarnation of Jesus Christ, where God became man. During Jesus’ early life He lovingly and graciously called people to repent of their sins, while promising freedom from sins’ punishment through belief in Him. But this gift came at the cost of His own innocent life through crucifixion where, we are told, He experienced the wrath of God for people’s sin (Isa 53:6-8; Rom 5:8; 1 Pet 3:18). Therefore, how can I celebrate the very thing that caused the crucifixion of my Saviour? It would be like celebrating murder. I can’t do it.
5) Pride Month actively celebrates activity that will send a person to eternal hell
This should be the most chilling of all. The Apostle Paul said, “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor 6:9-11). “They will”, Paul says, “suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord” (1 Thess 1:9). Paul is clear, if anyone continues in the sin of sexual immorality, including any sexual activity outside of marriage between one man and one woman, they can expect an eternal hell. I cannot find joy in that.
While there is much a Christian cannot celebrate during Pride Month, there are some things which I believe we can. Here are a few:
1) The hand of Christ is held out in love
We are familiar with the story of the woman caught in adultery, in John 8:1-11, who was brought before Jesus for judgement. Jesus received her with mercy and compassion while the Pharisees with ridicule and judgement. Interestingly, the difference between Jesus and the Pharisees is that while they both agreed on the sinfulness of the woman, the Pharisees cared more about the sin than the sinner, while Jesus cared more about the sinner than the sin. Hear me clearly. Jesus did not discount the sin – for he specifically commanded her to turn and sin no more. But he was more interested in showing mercy by leading the woman to the place of repentance and forgiveness than keeping her bound in the chains of judgement. Indeed, we cannot compromise by calling wrong right or using gender affirming pronouns, but we can speak the truth in love, as we hold out our hand of love and mercy as Jesus did His (Prov 15:1).
2) The Gospel is powerful to change and save
Despite what the current anti-conversion law states and the LGBT community promote, the gospel “is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes” (Rom 1:16). The gospel can change a person and save a person who is caught in sexual immorality. The Apostle Paul, after stating that no one sexually immoral will enter the kingdom of God, goes on to say, “And such were some of you” (1 Cor 6:11). That is staggering! “But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor 6:11). I can celebrate during Pride Month knowing that the gospel can bring true and lasting change and healing to all caught in sin.
3) God is sovereign over this sinful world
Lastly, despite the growing influence of the LGBT community I can celebrate in the knowledge that God is sovereign over this world. I can rest assured that His will, will be done. That all wrong will be put right. That even if you or I receive persecution for not celebrating Pride Month in the way that governments, companies, friends and family demand, God’s kingdom will advance and our good will be promoted (Rom 8:28).
Believer, there are certain things we cannot celebrate during Pride Month but there are also certain things we can. Celebrate the goodness of God in the face of sin. Celebrate the fact that you will not be judged according to your sins for they have been buried with Christ. Celebrate the fact that the gospel is powerful to save. And, as the Apostle Paul tells the church at Philippi, go forward and “be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to (or, ‘holding out’) the word of life” (Phil 2:15-16). Be the hands and feet of Jesus as we embrace the sinner in truth and love, saying, “Go and sin no more”.
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