June, 2023. I got married to Erin at the beginning of May, and my new wife celebrates her birthday this month. The other day she was telling me that as a child June always felt kind of marred to her. It was her birthday, but it was also a month of extreme controversy among many people. In 1999 then president Bill Clinton declared June as “Pride Month”, a time to celebrate the rights and existence of Lesbians and Gays. In 2008, Barack Obama expanded pride month to include the whole of the LGBTQ etc. Community.
Every year when June rolls around, Christians and conservatives brace for the coming onslaught of virtue signaling and forced acceptance. Scared of what might happen if we vocalize our thoughts, most of us shrink down behind our walls, voicing what we really think in our secret echo chambers of people we know won’t disagree with us. This reasoning is not unfounded. We’ve seen in recent years what seems to be a refusal of anyone on the left to have a rational conversation about these things. Instead, we have people screaming for their way, and if they don’t get it immediately, they either scream louder or leave. Sounds a bit like a small child in need of discipline, now that I think about it.
So how do we respond? As Christians, we know that it is not right for us to watch what God calls an abomination happen before our eyes and not do anything about it. Yet we feel rather helpless, unable to really make a difference in the spiritual battle. I believe that we see in scripture clear patterns for how we should respond to wickedness like this. Let’s look at three principles for responding to pride month (and really the whole sodomy issue) as a Christian.
Refuse to compromise
It’s not hard to find examples in scripture of people who refused to compromise their God-given morals. Joseph, Daniel, and David (apart from his well-known failure) are a few Old Testament examples that come to mind. In Deuteronomy 5, after receiving the Ten Commandments, Moses tells the people in verse 32:
“You shall be careful therefore to do as the Lord your God has commanded you. You shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. You shall walk in all the way that the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live, and that it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land that you shall possess.”
Clearly, God takes his people obeying his commands rather seriously.
Perhaps one of the best examples in scripture showing God’s refusal to accept moral compromise is found in the book of Revelation. The letter is Christ’s message for seven local churches in Asia (1:4, 11). In chapters 2-3 Jesus addresses each of the churches directly with a very specific tailored message for each of them. In 2:20 he addresses the church in Thyatira with a very serious message:
“But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.”
He goes on to state that he is going to judge both this woman and the people who have accepted and tolerated her wickedness. However, just a few verses earlier, we see a stunning contrast to this. In 2:2-3 Jesus is addressing the church in Ephesus:
“I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary.”
Now, to be clear, we see in the following verses that this church has issues too, but the point here is that Jesus praises them for their absolute refusal to compromise for the evil.
Do not feel alone in your efforts to stand strong against the evil all around. It’s not easy, but it never has been. Jesus sees and he will reward you for your stand. Refuse to compromise.
Preach Jesus, Preach Jesus, Preach Jesus
I have been reading through the book of Acts in my own personal Bible study the last few weeks. One of the things that has struck me is how persistent the apostles and converted Christians are in preaching the gospel. They are mocked, beaten, commanded to stop, put in prison, threatened, and killed. But their fervency for the gospel only increases. In the face of wicked people they do not shrink back, but rather they surge forward with the message of Christ as their only weapon.
Many of us know that this should be our default, yet how often it isn’t! Though we believe with our minds that we should preach Christ boldly in the face of evil, often we don’t really believe it with our hearts and our hands. If we did, the moral landscape would look vastly different. I get it, it’s scary out there! No one wants to be called a bigot, risk threats, even risk fines or imprisonment. But do not forget that the early Christians faced these things too, with the added threat of death, something we do not yet face. What did these Christians do?
“And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness… And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.” - Acts 4:29, 31
Do we follow this example? Do we earnestly pray that God would fill us with boldness and with his spirit so that we may go out and boldly proclaim the word of God? I truly believe that if we did, we would see God shake our culture mightily.
Realize that we will win
In 1 Corinthians 15:24-27a Paul writes:
“Then comes the end, when he [Jesus] delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For ‘God has put all things in subjection under his feet.’”
Paul here is speaking in the context of Christ being the church’s hope in everything. Do those verses above give you hope? They should! How encouraging is it to know that all the evil we see and that we face every day is all completely under the subjection of Christ? That he is reigning over it all? The evil only continues because Christ has allowed it to persist for a time, but we know that Christ is actively putting each of these things under his feet until the day comes when he returns and places the final and ultimate enemy of death under his feet. That leaves no room for fear of the evil; Christ is over all things, including pride month! He is displeased and saddened by it even more than we are; he created these people that are floundering in their sin. He is giving them time to see his grace and repent, just as he said of the woman in Revelation 2. It is supposed to be our mission to go to them and preach Christ to them before it is too late. For make no mistake, the day will come when he wipes that evil away from his good creation, and all who are still dead in their sins will be wiped away as well. May we see the hope that evil will not win, but also feel the urgency in bringing them the gospel.
So, how do we respond during this pride month? Be defensive: refuse to compromise. Be offensive: preach Jesus day in and day out, in private and in the public square. And lastly, be encouraged by the fact that righteousness will win.
A good challenge, thank you!