Another June, More “Pride”

Another month of June has come, and out come the rainbow flags. It used to be called “gay pride month” but this year, the rainbow flag has a transgender flag integrated into it, and this year, it’s now known as just “pride month.”

I’ll be honest, when June rolls around, I get one hefty dose of agita. For those of you that are unaware of what agita (pronounced AH-jit-ah), is slang for indigestion or stomach upset.

As a pastor, I can’t sit around and take this lightly. Now, I can go two ways with this. I can go all hellfire and brimstone, or I can go the route of compassion and try to win a person over to the Lord.

Many of you know how I personally feel on the topic of homosexuality and transgenderism, however I’d like to come from the side of love – not hellfire and brimstone.

My own son “came out” years ago. This caused a conundrum for me. I loved my son and would do anything for him, but on the other hand, I could not compromise my faith.

Matthew 10 talks of division in the family. Verses 34-39, Jesus says to the disciples:

Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’ He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.

This was a tough passage to deal with. Do I just toss my son aside? Absolutely not. What I told him was “that I love you – you are my son, and I’ll always be for you, but I will not compromise my faith to give legitimacy to your lifestyle choice.”

Bad choice of two words: “Lifestyle choice.”

How many of you heard the “I was born this way” issue. Many, if not most homosexuals believe that they were born with these tendencies. Well, that’s what I was hit with – that he was born that way.

It took everything I had to say, “your mother wasn’t born that way, and neither was I, and you’re not the mailman’s or the milkman’s kid, so just knock that off!” – but just held my tongue and repeated what I just said, sans those two words.

A man’s enemies will be of his own household.

He who loves his son daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.

Whew!

We haven’t spoken in over a decade, but not for a lack of trying. There are family members who call themselves Christians, but who also celebrate this behavior. One of them is an ordained minister! If there’s anyone who should know better and should be trying to lead this man to the Lord, it’s him.

As the Lord does in Romans 1, I’ve turned this entire thing over to the Lord. I’m here if he needs me, but until then, I want to be worthy of Jesus – that means that I love Jesus more than my son, my daughter or anyone else.

As it should be.

I’m here, looking at the television, and I see a major network and owner of a number of popular channels who celebrate all of this madness.

Discovery Networks owns and operates The Food Network, Cooking Channel, WeTV, Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), TLC, and a host of others, as well they are the new owners of CNN and Turner television (TNT and others), it seems you can’t go anywhere in the cable spectrum and not run into a Discovery channel – and this month, they’re all pride, all the time.

Then, the movement has its own translation of the Bible – the “Queen James” version, where every reference to homosexuality has been removed or modified.

Instead of Leviticus 18:21 reading “Thou shall not lie with mankind as with womankind: it is abomination,” it now reads, “Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind in the temple of Molech: it is an abomination.” That change insinuates that homosexuality began as a pagan practice, and is only prohibited when sexual acts are performed while practicing paganism.

They also went after Romans 1 stating that refers to men and women having same-sex relations is part of pagan idol worship, and changes it so it reads, “Their women did change their natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, left of the natural use of the woman, burned in ritual lust, one toward another, men with men working that which is pagan and unseemly. For this cause God gave the idolaters up unto vile affections, receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet.”

These are but just two passages of scripture that the publishers added to and modified. What did God say about fooling around with scripture?

God made abundantly clear in Deuteronomy chapter 12 and Revelation 22, that were not to add to, or take away from scripture. The Queen James does both – and I’d hate to be in the publisher’s shoes on judgment day.

This has been a difficult piece to write. It seems that everything has a special month allocated to it. What’s really sad, is that every faith has some secular time given to it except Christ followers.

This year, gay pride month has now also embraced transgenderism. The colors pink, baby blue and gray have now been included on the flag. This whole thing makes me so sad, but angers me at the same time.

How can so-called intelligent people not know the science of basic DNA?

I’m sorry, but I need to end this here. This entire thing, this issue is just tearing me apart. One thing I can say for sure – there will never be a pride flag on my flagpole.