This issue is perhaps THE crucial moral battle facing historic Christianity in the present age. God's and His Word will not be mocked.
Perspective on “Pride Month”
Dr David L. Hall, General Minister
Heart for God Ltd.
(I have given some things emphasis with italics)
Last year President Joe Biden commemorated Pride Month and signed into law a measure that designates the Pulse Nightclub as a national memorial. A mass shooting at the Orlando, Florida club in June 2016 left 49 people dead and 53 wounded in what was the deadliest attack on the LGBTQ community in U.S. history.
Biden also announced he is naming a special diplomatic envoy for LGBTQ rights,
ensuring that U.S. diplomacy and foreign assistance promote and protect the LGBTQ rights around the world.
“Pride Month” seems to be running at full throttle this year:
––Pizza Hut is promoting a book about “drag kids” in its reading incentive program aimed at children in pre-kindergarten through 3rd grade. The book “Big Wig” is a picture book for very young children and “celebrates drag kids,” according to the publisher’s website. A Pizza Hut email explained that the corporation’s reading program is promoting the book in honor of “Pride Month.”
––Mr. Misster, a gay bar in Dallas, TX, drew massive protests Saturday when it put on an event called “Drag the Kids to Pride,” a drag show specifically aimed at children. Promotions for the event explicitly called for minors to participate by dancing on stage. During the afternoon show, adult drag queens danced on stage and took dollar bills from kids. “It’s not gonna lick itself!” read a neon sign in the center of the room. After the event, the bar put out a statement accusing protesters of being “transphobic.” Local police told the media that they did not intervene other than to conduct “crowd control” amid the protests outside.
––Several baseball players on the Tampa Bay Rays team refused to wear “Pride Night” rainbow logos on their jerseys. Pitcher Jason Adam said: “It’s just that maybe we don’t want to encourage it if we believe in Jesus, who’s encouraged us to live a lifestyle that would abstain from that behavior, just like (Jesus) encourages me as a heterosexual male to abstain from sex outside of the confines of marriage. It’s no different.”
Those brave baseball players are an example of the faithful who take seriously what God has said in His Word….
Rom 1:18–28, 32 (RSV)
[18] For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of men who by their wickedness suppress the truth. [19] For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. [20] Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse; [21] for although they knew God they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their senseless minds were darkened. [22] Claiming to be wise, they became fools, [23] and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man or birds or animals or reptiles. [24] Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, [25] because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever! Amen. [26] For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. Their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural, [27] and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in their own persons the due penalty for their error. [28] And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a base mind and to improper conduct. [32] Though they know God's decree that those who do such things deserve to die, they not only do them but approve those who practice them.
Gen 18:17–20 (RSV)–– The LORD said, "Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, [18] seeing that Abraham shall become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall bless themselves by him? [19] No, for I have chosen him, that he may charge his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice; so that the LORD may bring to Abraham what he has promised him." [20] Then the LORD said, "Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomor'rah is great and their sin is very grave,
Gen 19:1–13, 24,25 (RSV) –– Two angels came to Sodom in the evening; and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them, and bowed himself with his face to the earth, [2] and said, "My lords, turn aside, I pray you, to your servant's house and spend the night, and wash your feet; then you may rise up early and go on your way." They said, "No; we will spend the night in the street." [3] But he urged them strongly; so they turned aside to him and entered his house; and he made them a feast, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate. [4] But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house; [5] and they called to Lot, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may know them." [6] Lot went out of the door to the men, shut the door after him, [7] and said, "I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly. [8] Behold, I have two daughters who have not known man; let me bring them out to you, and do to them as you please; only do nothing to these men, for they have come under the shelter of my roof." [9] But they said, "Stand back!" And they said, "This fellow came to sojourn, and he would play the judge! Now we will deal worse with you than with them." Then they pressed hard against the man Lot, and drew near to break the door. [10] But the men put forth their hands and brought Lot into the house to them, and shut the door. [11] And they struck with blindness the men who were at the door of the house, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves groping for the door. [12]Then the men said to Lot, "Have you any one else here? Sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or any one you have in the city, bring them out of the place; [13] for we are about to destroy this place, because the outcry against its people has become great before the LORD, and the LORD has sent us to destroy it." Then the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomor'rah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven; [25] and he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.
Psalm 11:4–5a (RSV)
[4] The LORD is in his holy temple,
the LORD's throne is in heaven;
his eyes behold, his eyelids test, the children of men.
[5] The LORD tests the righteous and the wicked,
Psalm 12:3–4, 9 (Grail)
They babble vanities, one to another,
with cunning lips, with divided heart.
May the LORD destroy all cunning lips,
the tongue that utters boastful words…
The wicked prowl on every side,
while baseness is exalted by the sons of men.
Long ago the holy God unleashed His wrath against sin; only Noah and his family were spared. As the earth recovered…. Genesis 9:8–17 (RSV) God said to Noah and to his sons with him, [9]"Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your descendants after you, [10] and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. [11] I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth." [12] And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: [13] I set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. [14] When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, [15] I will remember my covenant which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. [16] When the bow is in the clouds, I will look upon it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth." [17] God said to Noah, "This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth." Today, morally warped people have taken God’s covenant sign of the rainbow and turned it into a sign of perversion.
Hebrews 12:25–29 (RSV) –– [25] See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less shall we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. [26] His voice then shook the earth; but now he has promised, "Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heaven." [27] This phrase, "Yet once more," indicates the removal of what is shaken, as of what has been made, in order that what cannot be shaken may remain. [28] Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe; [29] for our God is a consuming fire.
1 Corinthians 6:9,10 –– Neither the immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such indeed you were. But you have been washed, you have been sanctified, you have been justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. We were sanctified, he says, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.
Isaiah 5:20 (NLT)…. Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!
This is especially grievous for Christians whose sensitivities have been tuned by the Holy Spirit to recoil at blatant sin: Ephesians 5:11–12… Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is a shame even to speak of the things that they do in secret….
There is grave warning for the time in the Church’s life when evil is called “good” and good “evil”….
2 Timothy 3:1-5 (NLT)…. [again, I have highlighted some descriptions in italics]
You should know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times. For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred. They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and have no self-control. They will be cruel and hate what is good. They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God. They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that!
2 Timothy 3:1-3(NLT)…. [again, I have highlighted some descriptions in italics]
You should know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times. For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred. They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and have no self-control. They will be cruel and hate what is good.
From No Option by Anthony Esolen, Touchstone
The churches are in a shambles. My church, the Roman Catholic, has slaughtered ten healthy practices of piety for every one it has invented, and closed ten schools or churches for every one it has built. The Protestant churches have lurched from orthodoxy, to liberalism, to unitarianism, to atheism or worse, a sub-pagan cult of Jesus as affirming every mind-paralyzing and life-destroying movement of our time; blessing the murder of children, the emancipation of women from womanhood, and the sowing of the seed of life in a sewer. The flood is upon us, and out comes the rainbow, not the one from God but the silly one from us, declaring that we know better than our creator, and if he remembers us, we will deign to accept the gift, but if not, that's all right, too.
Teachers strive to overcome their ignorance by arrogance. They are proud to work against the parents. What do you call a grown person who is eager to show other people's children sex toys, or instruct them about things to do in bed? We call that person a pervert, or we used to. Our schools are thick with such people. Nor do teachers have any strong connection to the neighborhood, which is mostly silent and empty.
Imagine hiring a plumber who spends his time, not fixing your pipes, but introducing your children to drag queens and warning them not to tell you about it. What would put your neighbor behind bars for corrupting the morals of a minor is not only done regularly in the schools, but defiantly. The family be damned.
We are in treacherous times. Some Christians will be called to speak out. All Christians are called to turn away and reject anything that is blatantly in opposition to the character of God and how He has revealed Truth in the Scriptures.
