Celebrating “Pride Month”

June 4, 2022

“For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.” Philippians 3:18-20

So it’s “Pride Month.” Yay. 

I read a piece yesterday on World Magazine’s website (wng.org) in which the author observed that our most significant national memorials get a day of celebration every year: Independence Day, Memorial Day, and Veterans Day. But the celebration of homosexuality with all its associated expressions of extreme moral perversion gets a whole month. Yay.

This month we will get invitations to “Celebrate Pride” from every corner of marketing and propaganda. I have already received this kind of spam mail from companies with which I have registered products. You probably have too. We will hear it in radio commercials and see it in TV commercials. The flags will be out. As I type, Google has a link: “Honoring Pride and supporting the LGBTQ+ community.” And you can go check out all the events that Disney is planning for its “Pride Weekend” at its theme parks. Apparently Disney is more inclusive than Google though because their stuff is for the “LGBTQIA+” community. 

Of course, the sad irony of the entire campaign is that sexual perversion is extremely shameful and degrading. It is nothing to be proud of and nothing to celebrate. Yet our secular culture props it up like an idol to worship and adore. The Scripture says that this kind of flipped logic is exactly what we should expect of those who “walk as enemies of the cross of Christ.” In their desperate Psalm 2 attempt to break free from bondage to God, their belly has become their god and their shame has become their glory (Phil 3:19). “Claiming to be wise, they became fools” (Rom 1:22).

I say “of course” very intentionally. The twisted nature of the whole celebration is obvious. Of course it is shameful. Of course homosexual activity is perverse. Of course the ideology is backwards. Of course it is a tragic rejection of God’s design and purpose. Of course boys competing as girls in sports is social injustice. Of course small children being taught about transgenderism in our schools is pure evil. These things are obvious.

Yet what we have in Pride Month is the taking of the most flagrantly warped perversion of beauty and order, the most flagrantly damaging message to children and families, the most flagrantly disgusting behavior, the most flagrantly damning direction for a nation . . . and brazenly claiming it as glorious. Yay.

It is all, in fact, extremely sad.

But you know, Christian, if you get your biblical bearings straight, there are some things that we can celebrate about Pride Month.

We can celebrate that the farther our culture goes down the dark path LGBTQIALMNOP+ endorsement, the brighter the light of God’s goodness shines. When an honest person looks at God’s design for humanity, for marriage, for the family, and for society–not to mention for speech, for purity, for joy, for faithfulness, and for love–and then looks at the current state of our pride-in-evil culture, it should be really easy to see which one is light and which one is darkness. The fact that “the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5) is something to celebrate.

We can even celebrate the sad fact that so many people are “glorying in their shame” as a confirmation of the Bible’s truthfulness. How can anyone explain an entire culture running headlong into such obviously twisted things? The Bible’s answer is the only one that makes sense: People are born dead in their sins (Eph 2:1-3). People are blinded by Satan to the glory of Jesus Christ (2 Cor 4:4). The great section on sin in Romans 1-3 makes perfect sense of what we actually observe in our culture. The Bible’s diagnosis of man’s fundamental problem is clearly accurate.

We can also celebrate that in Christ Jesus we have been rescued from such a dark path and transferred to the kingdom of light (Col 1:13). We too were born dead in our sins (Eph 2:1). We too were blinded to the ways of God and enslaved to our immoral lusts. But praise be to God that he has set us free (John 8:36)! He provided a way of salvation and saw fit to put us in it! When we turned to the Lord, the veil was removed (2 Cor 3:16)! Now by his grace “our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Phil 3:20)! So we can celebrate the good news that we are now included in the beautiful, eternal plan of God.

We can also celebrate that as God’s people, we now know the one right place to put our pride: “Far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Gal 6:14). “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord” (2 Cor 10:17). So when we hear the invitation to “celebrate pride,” we can shout: We are proud of our Savior, and we rejoice that he is “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6)!

We can also celebrate that everyone without exception is invited to join God’s kingdom (Rom 10:13). “Whosoever believes on him will not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). “Whosoever” means anyone from the ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ+ community can become a part of the family of God! The King has an immeasurably huge heart (Ps 103:11). He has plenty of grace to cover any sinner (1 John 1:9). All prodigals are totally welcome to abandon their ridiculous pride and come home to the ridiculously merciful Heavenly Father (Luke 15:22-24). 

We can celebrate that this exact thing happens every day and will happen again and again until Jesus returns. Which means that even some of those who are currently glorying in their shame will one day be glorying in their Savior. Satan’s kingdom of darkness, as dark as it may be, is daily plundered by the God of light (1 John 1:5). The gates of hell cannot prevail against him (Matt 16:18)!

Finally, we can celebrate the awesome privilege of being God’s ambassadors who invite the lost into the joy of the King (2 Cor 5:20). We can share in “the priestly service of the gospel of God” (Rom 15:16). We can share the greatest story of the heroic God of redemption rescuing sinners through his Son. We can testify that it is so much better to be all about the Lord than all about ourselves. We get to tell proud sinners about the God who laughs at human pride (Ps 2:4) but blesses the poor in spirit (Matt 5:3), who “opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (Jam 4:6), who says, “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite” (Isa 57:15). 

So it’s “Pride Month.” Yay!