Why "Pride?"
Ground zero for the culture war.
June, 2021
Within the United States and other cultures, June is designated "Pride Month:" a salute to LGBTQ persons. Over the last several years, this has ballooned in popularity. Corporate advertisers are quick to create pride-themed commercials and special edition products—because of course they are. Individuals, also, seem quick to jump onto the "LGBTQ Pride Month" bandwagon. This raises an interesting question, one which examines an angle not often discussed:
Why does LGBTQ "pride," as reflected in things like Pride Month, have such an outsized presence in public discourse? Why are homosexuality, transgenderism, and so forth such frequently-mentioned topics?
The question here is not necessarily about "if" people take pride in their sexual preferences. It's not even about whether such preferences should be celebrated, even from a secular perspective. The real question is why LGBTQ concerns exert cultural influence extraordinarily beyond their representation in the population. Even at the highest estimates, only a tiny number of people in the real world are described by these letters. And yet, it seems for every person involved in alternative sexuality, multiple dozens vocally defend it.
That's not immediately a problem; there can be good reasons to defend something, even if you don't personally experience or want it. But the level of passion, pressure, and publicity associated with the LGBTQ movement seems grossly out of proportion to the real-world impact of such views. So, what's the reason for what one could argue is otherwise "undue" levels of attention?
One obvious cause is the imbalanced representation of such views in media, such as Hollywood, television, and advertising. Those controlling the microphones and cameras—quite literally, in this case— wield disproportionate control over how often such things are mentioned.
The broader answer is a deeper spiritual issue: widespread, innate self-interest (Romans 1:32). The "pride" being expressed is of the type which the Bible calls sin. This month's spotlight verse uses that word—"pride"—in that way. It's a defiant, celebratory attitude towards rebellion against God. In a not-subtle way, an insubordinate rejection of "traditional" morality is a deliberate theme behind things like "Pride Month."
In simple terms, alternative sexualities—now including things like transgenderism—exert outsized influence because they are so clearly incompatible with Biblical morality. So long as a culture retains a basic connection to Biblical morality, all violations of that morality will be discouraged. In other words, while the Bible's stance on right and wrong dominates, those who want to be left un-bothered about sin have a cultural problem (John 3:20).
History shows culture making prior attempts to buck Biblical morals, often by twisting the Bible's stance on issues. That can be seen in categories such as slavery, women, and government. Western culture tried to recast thousands of years of Judeo-Christian ethics to protect chattel slavery, which ultimately failed. It tried to use the plight of women to attack the Bible, only to realize the only cultures respecting women were those grounded in the Bible!
In the modern LGBTQ movement, worldly culture has found "the tip of the spear:" a means by which to truly begin separating civilization from Scripture. While gender issues, politics, and even various aspects of slavery are subject to some esoteric level of scriptural debate, this is not the case with issues such as homosexuality. Biblical, Judeo-Christian views on the topic are not subject to serious, sincere confusion.
Scripture unquestionably condemns homosexual behavior. It offers forgiveness, healing, and compassion to all sinners, including those who give in to those temptations (Hebrews 7:25; 1 Corinthians 6:9–11). Still, for literally all human history, Judeo-Christian morals have condemned homosexual activity. If a person endorses LGBTQ behavior, they must—by force of logic—reject Christian morals.
Whether individually or corporately, those who insist on doing so, eventually, abandon any meaningful connection to the faith. Sadly, many churches fall into this trap because they are more concerned with culture than with Scripture. The world around them uses words like "hate" and "love" and appeals to emotions. The world makes it clear how much easier it would be to accept the sin, rather than fight against it. Rather than endure the ridicule, or the struggle, or the social consequences, churches start looking for reasons to justify what they want to believe. It's not so much that they know it's wrong as they don't want it to be wrong. So, they choose an interpretation of the Bible which suits their preferences.
In other words, alternative sexualities are part of a small set of behaviors which can only be defended by rejecting the authority of the Bible, and Christian morality. If you're committed to supporting homosexuality, you're equally committed to rebuffing Scripture. Parallel effects arise in how people discuss premarital sex, abortion, and so forth. The overall opinion seems to be, "not only must you let me do what I want, but you're not allowed to tell me it's wrong." So, a person who wants—even subconsciously—to sin without the social consequences naturally fights against all social influence of the morals that they dislike (John 15:19).
That, in essence, is why so many people are willing to jump on the LGBTQ "Pride" bandwagon. It's not that they have a conscious, overt interest in severing culture from Christian influence. OF course, many do, and they know they do. Most wouldn't claim that as their root motivation, if asked—which doesn't mean that very view isn't the cornerstone. If LGBTQ preferences are beyond criticism, all other things which the Bible condemns become more socially acceptable. If a culture embraces homosexuality, it can no longer criticize others who violate Biblical morals.
In short, the "Pride" movement presents a clear contrast between Christian morals, and non-Christian immorality. And the world greatly prefers to be encouraged in sin, rather than scolded (1 Peter 4:4). And so—even if they don't entirely understand it—people applaud "Pride" attitudes because they're a tacit rejection of Christian morality in general. And that frees them to pursue their own moral preferences, without culture frowning at them.
Modern culture is moving beyond toleration to celebration—and leaning towards "coercion"—because being "allowed" to sin is no longer enough. The current demand is for everything to be embraced and celebrated (2 Peter 3:3). Via that impulse, anything in contrast to Christian ethics will be popular. The LGBTQ movement is the clearest, sharpest means to make culture choose between the Bible and their own opinions. And we know exactly how that decision typically goes (Proverbs 14:12).
-- Editor
