Celebrating Sin!

"But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money  boastful, arrogant, slanderers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God" (1 Timothy 3:1-4).

The annual orgy that is "Pride Month" is once again in full swing. For those who may have spent the last 20 years of so under a rock or somewhere in the wilderness, June has been proclaimed gay pride month every year since Bill Clinton officially declared that the anniversary of the Stonewall riots would be celebrated and remembered back in 1999. Since then, every June has been set aside for a celebration of perversion. Only recently, however, has this "celebration" become so widespread; there is now even an international "LGBT Pride Day" which is commemorated on June 28th every year. Thus, even the rest of the world has been made complicit in celebrating perversion and pride.

No doubt, many of us must wonder how we could possibly have arrived at a place where not only pride (one of the so-called "seven deadly sins" in Catholic theology) is celebrated, but also activities that are clearly and unambiguously spoken against in the Bible. Of course, many attempt to deflect the condemnation that these Scripture passages proclaim against such conduct by way of ignoring them or trying to change their meaning. Take Andy Stanley as one glaring example. Stanley recently spoke of what he terms the "clobber passages" that speak against homosexuality (i.e., Genesis 18, Leviticus 19 and 21, Romans 1, 1 Corinthians 6, and 1 Timothy 1) and said that it would be "interesting" to deal with those. He, nevertheless, has chosen to ignore them and carry on with his "affirming" theology.

I wrote in my last article about the morally upside down society and how we have come to a place where truth is what the individual says it is. Thus, truly good has become evil and evil good. It is all fine and good to engage in public nudity and lewdness (all one has to do is search the internet and it will be easy to find a plethora of videos of "pride parades" where the participants are in various stages of undress), but it would be the height of offense to try to read a Bible in a classroom. We could attempt to indoctrinate children into the LGBT cult as often as we wish, but we dare not fly an "Appeal to Heaven" flag lest we be labeled a "white supremasist."

And so it goes. Our nation and the world, for the most part, have long ago abandoned any semblance of rationality and decorum. Today, the more raunchy and lewd you are the better. But the hypocrisy that many engage in give the lie to their supposed open and affirming character. Many companies will not fly an LGBT flag in a Muslim country, for example, because they supposedly do not want to offend the host nation. Seems these folks' convictions stop at the shore's edge. 

If we seek to preach the gospel and condemn what God condemns, we will be ostracized and called homophobes, transphobes, and all kinds of phobes. The purity of the gospel and the change, for the better, that it brings to a society is now seen as antiquated and even worse, dangerous. The new appellation is now to call Christians, especially those of the white skin persuasion, "Christian Nationalists." As it was with the "Moral Majority" of the 1980's, the left has appropriated the latest moniker in a pejorative way to label all Christians as extremists. It will not be long before those same people demand that Christians be marginalized or worse, the better to silence their irritating voices.

In case you think I'm exaggerating about what this pride month and all its trappings are all about, take a look at what former Episcopalian priest Gene Robison had to say about the celebration back in 2017:

"We march in June to remind ourselves and the world that being gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender is a good thing. Gay or lesbian parents march with their children to claim dignity and recognition for our families. We wear outrageous clothing to assert that we will determine our own definitions of sexual orientation and gender identity, not the dominant society’s. Some wear little clothing at all—this really freaks people out—to express our joy at being created beautiful, sexual creatures." (June: The Month When Pride is Not a Sin)

We cannot, however, be silent. Our Lord calls us to declare that men are sinners and that they must repent or perish. We may be tempted to feel discouraged at all the horrendous changes we see all around us. We must remember, however, that the Lord of the church will carry out His retribution when the time comes. Thus, we do not fret about such retributions, we carry on with the Master's commission and leave the rest to Him. In the end, He does not need us to defend Him, He commands us to proclaim Him!