In the Absence of Shame, Pride is Exalted
Ah, yes! Summer is at our doorstep once again! The weather is warming up. Kids are finishing up the school year. Lakes are peppered once more with boats racing across the water. After enduring our long Minnesota winters, my heart is always cheerful as we enter the month of June, which in my mind unofficially marks the beginning of summer. I look forward to spending time outdoors with my family, getting out onto the lakes to do some fishing, having bonfires with friends, grilling out in the backyard, and enjoying the beauty of nature while camping. Yet for all my excitement as the month of June kicks off, there is one thing that dampens my enthusiasm – the tsunami of reminders that June is “LGBTQ Pride Month.”
A Celebration of Sin in Plain Sight
For those in or aligned with the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or any of the countless other iterations of gender identities, Pride Month represents a month-long observance that commemorates the work of LGBTQ activists and celebrates the LGBTQ culture in America. For Christians who embrace a Biblical worldview, Pride Month is an annual reminder of the sexual perversion that has swept through our American culture and increasingly pervades every aspect of our society. Whether it’s formally solidified by government or informally acknowledged by society, dedicating an entire month to the veneration of LGBTQ ideology, morals, and values is a direct insult and declaration of defiance towards our Creator. Indeed, this annual celebration has been aptly named according to the sin which defines it. Pride.
From Shame to Applause: The Cultural Shift
If you are at all like me, you might find yourself both astonished and heartbroken over the prideful exaltation of aberrant sexual lifestyles and gender identities contrary to God’s design that have not only become widely accepted but celebrated in our culture today. Thinking back thirty, twenty, or even ten years ago, the widespread adulation of LGBTQ ideology paled in comparison to what it is now. This was largely due to the social stigma that still existed towards these types of lifestyles, and rightly so. Identifying with, embracing, or approving these sexual identities was still largely considered shameful in the eyes of many Americans. The phrase, “coming out of the closet,” was borne out of the social shame attached to identification with these supposed gender personas because in the eyes of most people, they were still viewed as sinful and worthy of shame.
So, what happened? How did we go from a culture that predominantly denounced the LGBTQ movement, to one that exalts it? To put it very simply, these sexual lifestyles and sensual preferences are no longer viewed by most people as shameful. And why is that? As our American culture continues abandoning the Biblically rooted Judeo-Christian values upon which our country was built, the natural outcome is their replacement with values that are worldly, carnal, immoral, and contradictory to God. Without a solid foundation established in an accurate understanding of God’s Word, the moral compass for many will remain broken, and thus in the absence of shame for what God has declared sinful, pride in those very sins will be exalted. The apostle Paul fittingly described prideful individuals like this as those “whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things” (Phil. 3:19)
Pride: The Mother of All Sins
The Oxford English Dictionary defines pride as “a high, esp. an excessively high, opinion of one’s own worth or importance which gives rise to a feeling or attitude of superiority over others; inordinate self-esteem.” This is a very fitting definition of pride. It is the elevation or lofty esteeming of someone or something. Be it a person, an ideology, a circumstance, or a movement, pride entails highly regarding something and viewing it in a favorable and positive light. In reference to Pride Month, this lofty assessment is being attributed to LGBTQ and other sexual orientations. But this begs a fundamental question: Is LGBTQ sexuality worthy of being celebrated? Is it something in which people ought to take pride, or should they be looked upon with shame? To answer this, we must look to the ultimate source of authority, God’s Word.
The Bible is abundantly clear that God hates pride, has judged it as sin, and declared that it is to be avoided. (Prov. 6:16-17, 16:5, Ja. 4:6) Pride may be viewed as the “mother of all sins” given that it was Satan’s lofty arrogance and ambition to supplant God that led to his fall and in turn, provoked his deception of Adam and Eve, resulting in the sin and fall of humanity. (Eze. 28:13-19, Is. 14:12-15, Ge. 3:1-7) One could argue that if you really deconstruct any sin—whether it is selfishness, laziness, jealousy, etc.—at the root of them all is pride.
Exalting Pride, Rejecting God
With Pride Month, there is a double insult to God as it isn’t just the sinfulness of pride that is being elevated; there’s an inherent denouncement of God’s traditional pattern for marriage and spousal intimacy through the exaltation of LGBTQ lifestyles. In other words, it is by nature a rejection of God’s sovereignty and rebellion against His authority. Sin is celebrated with more sin.
When deviation from God’s established paradigm for intimacy between a husband and his wife occurs, it is perversion. To be fair, this isn’t limited to LGBTQ lifestyles, but includes all sexual sin including adultery, fornication, and pornography, with which many people struggle, even Christians. The more that individuals move away from God’s standard, the more shame over sexual sin is diminished, eventually being replaced with pride in that which God views as evil. This is described in the book of Romans as a “darkening of the hearts” and being “given over to a depraved mind.” (Ro. 1:21, 28)
From Covenant to Counterfeit: The Rainbow’s Misuse
Tragically, this concept is blazingly seen in the symbolism of the rainbow that has become the hallmark icon of LGBTQ movement, hijacked and redefined from its Christian origin. Rather than being an emblematic reminder of God’s gracious promise to restrain Himself from destroying humanity again with a flood due to its perpetual wickedness, the rainbow has been transformed to represent the defiant adulation of sexual perversion. Instead of remembering the severity and consequences of sin as demonstrated by the flood, instead of viewing wickedness with a posture of remorse, many in our culture have chosen to extol the proliferation of a mindset that is contrary to God.
Lamenting with Purpose
As followers of Jesus, it is to be expected that the commencement of Pride Month would be accompanied by feelings of grief, sorrow, and lament. It is appropriate to have feelings of shame before God over the acceptance and exaltation of the sexual sin our nation has embraced.
Yet that doesn’t mean that we must sit back and do nothing. It doesn’t mean that we must be content with woefully lamenting or accepting an annual declaration of the prideful immorality sweeping across America. We can be engaged, we can be equipped, and we can effect change by sharing the Word of God with friends, family, neighbors, coworkers, or anyone else that the Lord may place in our path. Every believer in Jesus bears a responsibility to speak Biblical truth to the people with whom they interact.
Truth, Spoken in Love
Now, please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not advocating for hostility, harassment, or hatred towards those who embrace or are sympathetic to the LGBTQ movement. What I am proposing is communicating Biblical truth to those who are oblivious or misguided, motivated by a Christlike, compassionate love for them, and educating them with godly wisdom, values, and morals that will point them to Jesus. We can help them to understand God’s design for intimacy between a man and a woman within the context of marriage. We can show them how marriage is intended to reflect Jesus’ relationship with those who place their faith and trust in Him for salvation, that is, the Church. (Ep. 5:22-32) We can warn them about God’s opposition to pride and the associated risk of falling into trouble that proceeds it. (Pr. 16:18) We can also pray for them knowing that ultimately it is God who changes people’s hearts.
The Only Remedy is the Word of God
Sexual immorality will always be present in the world due to the inherent sinful nature of humanity, whether it is shamelessly celebrated with a formal month of prideful exaltation or informally praised among those promoting LGBTQ culture. This means there will always be a great need to do more than lament over the increasing immorality embedding itself into the culture of our nation. We as Christians must be Jesus focused, Biblically rooted, and culturally equipped, ready to speak the truth in love to those who desperately need to hear it. The only thing that will remedy the absence of shame and the prideful exaltation of LGBTQ ideology is acknowledgement and acceptance of the truth found in God’s Word. The path to embracing Biblical truth is found through a saving relationship with Jesus. So, let’s do as Paul instructed Timothy in 2 Tim. 4:2 and “preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.”