“God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” — James 4:6
If we could step back from our world and view the United States from a heavenly perspective we would see an amazing phenomenon, not only in western civilization, but particularly in the United States of America. Given her unique history, the U.S. was an objectively Christian country, if merely nominal now. Still, there remain roughly 210 million citizens who not only claim to be religious, but specifically Christian. Whether or not they are Protestant, Catholic, liberal or conservative, what's surprising is that this “Christian” country somehow fails to honor Christian virtues, but colorfully celebrates the Christian vice of pride.
And this observance of a universal immorality is not just for a singular 24-hour period, as most other holidays, but for an entire month.
From the vantage point of a heavenly onlooker, one would obviously be left questioning: How can a civilization claiming to be followers of Jesus spend thirty days celebrating not just one of the seven deadly sins, but the first and foremost of the cardinal vices? Isn’t this quite odd? For there’s no period of time in which this Christian country celebrates the opposite of the seven sins like humility, charity, chastity, gratitude, temperance, patience, or diligence.
Surely, thinks the extraterrestrial, there must be a rational explanation for this incongruity of believing in the moral virtuousness of Christianity while celebrating what it clearly deems sinful.
Certainly, this nation wouldn’t just extol pride apart from its supposed savior, would it? And if this Christian country only observes soldiers who sacrificed their lives for her freedom one calendar day from the year, then shouldn’t they be celebrating the collective pride in their Lord and Savior that much more?
Peering down through the clouds, the other-worldly reassures himself that this must be the case. He’s aware that one of Christianity’s greatest leaders wrote that some boasting is actually good, just as long as it is directed in the appropriate place — as it is written, “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.” 1 In addition to this, the bright and colorful symbol for this month long glorification of pride is non other than the rainbow, the very celestial sign of the covenant that God made with Noah after He destroyed the world with a flood due to the “great the wickedness of the human race.” 2
With this knowledge of biblical history the heavenly observer would undoubtedly conclude that this persistent worship of pride made visible through the biblical symbol of the rainbow was somehow tied to their deep faith in God.
But upon further investigation, the distant onlooker hopelessly squints his eyes trying to make sense of the longest and most awkward acronym in human history: LGBTQQIP2SA. Obviously standing for, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning, Intersex, Pansexual, Two-Spirited, and Asexual.
How surprised he must’ve been to find out that this “Christian” nation is celebrating neither pride in their religion nor the promises of their God. On the contrary, these people are boasting in certain sexual preferences, behaviors, and identities. But which ones? Well, essentially those clearly forbidden by God as expressed the Bible.
If you think aliens would be confused by this contradiction of a national professed belief in Jesus and a thirty day celebration that opposes the moral laws of his revelation, you’d be correct. But the better question is not what some fictional foreign beings might be thinking, but what God Himself must be thinking?
We have yet to mention that this current celebration of Pride month has intentionally targeted young children. Provocatively dressed drag queens across the nation are being welcomed with open arms to dance and read books to minors about how it’s perfectly normal to change one’s gender. And to further poke a stick in the eye of anything Christian, Target, the seventh largest retailer in the United States and advocate of Pride month has an open Satanist designing one of its children’s clothing line. Indeed, the LGBTQQIP2SA Pride movement is prodigious in its size and nature.
It’s one thing for gay people to celebrate not being discriminated against as they were in New York in 1969. It’s something completely different to boast in sexualizing (some say grooming) children while taking pride in any sexual identity or desire outside of God’s good will.
Christian, a sign of maturity in our faith is to be able to differentiate between what is good and what is evil. As the author of Hebrews wrote, “solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to distinguish between good and evil.” 3 There is a place in this culture war where Christians worth their salt must unite in holding fast to the truthfulness of God’s word and speaking it to all people with grace and love. Loving what God loves and hating what God hates is part of faithfully following Him and how can we do that if we can’t tell the difference between the two.
May we not concede that celebrating pride has anything to do with a heavenly love. For in the words of the apostle Paul, the true and heavenly love of God, “is patient and kind; does not envy or boast; is not arrogant." 4
But what do you think?
Micah Coate, President and Host of Salvation and Stuff
1 Corinthians 1:31, NIV.
Genesis 6:5, NIV.
Hebrews 5:14, NASB.
Corinthians 13:4, ESV.
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