Carl Truman has an opinion piece at World called "America's LGBTQ Establishment: Pride Month Shows Who Really Has Power in America." In it, he discusses the month-long cultural celebration of pride, specifically in the form of sexual expression. Truman writes, "June, once the harbinger of summer sun and fun family vacations, is now a grim annual marathon for anyone who has hesitations about the orgy of identities and the exaltation of sexual expression that have laid claim to the mainstream of cultural life in America."
His main point is that pride month is not about civil rights or equality before the law. Instead, it is a flexing of power. The fact that there is a whole month in which businesses, politicians, and celebrities bow to pay homage to the sexual expressions of the LGBTQ community shows that the LGBTQ movement is not marginalized. As Truman points out, "If you are truly marginalized, you tend not to have months celebrating your existence." It's hard to see how a group can claim to be marginalized 11 months out of the year while having a month celebrating their viewpoint and denouncing any opposition to it (and the rabid support of the government, corporate America, and Hollywood for the entire year).
How Should We Respond?
This isn't to say that we should respond with hatred. Christians love those who treat them as enemies. We do that by speaking the truth of the gospel in love. Romans one tells us that this celebration of sexual rebellion is, in fact, an expression of pride. It is an exchange of the Creator to worship creation (ourselves and others). All of us are born in this truth-suppressing condition, and the wages of this is the righteous judgment of God. The good news is that Jesus came to free us from the darkness and rebellion so that we can be forgiven and transformed from enemies of God into children of God.
Besides sharing the gospel, we must also live as redeemed people. We must fight against our own pride, knowing that "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble" (James 4:6). We must eschew hypocrisy (i.e., don't denounce LGBT deviances while excusing our own).1 We must deal with our own indwelling sins and tell others to repent and believe in Jesus.
So, this June, let's celebrate the Lord as the Sovereign Creator by focusing on humility. We can highlight this to ourselves and others by making an extra effort to meditate on what the Scripture says about humility and faithfulness (Phil. 2, James 4). We can choose, by God's grace, to not live by our feelings or what the culture demands but by God's Word (Ps. 1, 119). We can faithfully fulfill our roles in our families, church, and civic life.
-----
1. To be clear, hypocrisy is speaking against sin while coddling it in my own life. It is not hypocritical to call sin for what is while also struggling against it in my own life.
