One Christian Response to LGBTQ+ Pride Month
It is June 1st, 2021, and my Google calendar tells me today is the first day of LGBTQ+ pride month. I am sure you have noticed. This new tradition seems to be here to stay, and many conscientious Christians who hold to a biblical sexual ethic may wonder how to respond.
I would like to suggest one biblical response, though I am sure we could come up with dozens more. It is a simple response we need to learn quickly to engage an increasingly secular culture.
Simply put, we must not fear mockery. More than that, we need to recognize mockery is one of Satan’s chief tactics in spiritual warfare. What did Satan say in the Garden to Eve when she told him God’s command? “You will not surely die.” The Hebrew words literally read, “You will surely die- not!”
Satan was mocking God’s command. He had already successfully planted the seed of doubt in Eve’s mind, and with his mockery he launched his full-on frontal assault. Satan knows that the art of persuasion does not merely aim for the mind; it rattles the heart. We are complex creatures, fashioned with a mind, emotions, and a will. If Satan can weaken the mind and pressure the emotions, he knows he can get at our will. Much of the bare logic of the LGBTQ+ movement makes no rational or natural sense. It cuts across the grain of humanity’s created design. But peer pressure needs no argument to shift the heart. Shame will do quite nicely.
Today the world wants Christians to doubt God’s good command, just like the temptation of the first couple in the Garden. We live in a world that worships and serves the creature rather than the Creator (Romans 1).
But, dear Christians, you need not give into mockery and shame. You can humbly proclaim what God has said and let him defend himself (and you!). Surely if he is the Creator, as he claims to be, mockery and intimidation cannot threaten him. God has already reassured us he is not mocked. By these truths our sovereign God guards our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus. By his grace we can unashamedly and graciously respond, “We must obey God rather than men.”
Cameron Pollock serves as assistant pastor of youth and music at First Baptist Church of Lebanon, PA. He blogs at Worship as a Way of Life. We publish his material by permission.