Why 'gay pride' is an oxymoron

I've written many times about how language alters perception. How we say words, and the frequency with which we say them, penetrates the brain and footholds are begun. From footholds, we get strongholds. Satan knows this and from the first to the last, he attempts to get us to change meaning. Hell isn't eternal torment... Wrath isn't really wrath... 'Did God really say'?

In 1969 there was "a series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations against a police raid that took place in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn, in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. They are frequently cited as the first instance in American history when people in the homosexual community fought back against a government-sponsored system that persecuted sexual minorities, and they have become the defining event that marked the start of the gay rights movement in the United States and around the world." (Wikipedia). The homosexual community itself marks Stonewall as their watershed moment when homosexual issue burst upon the cultural scene with force and violence. In other words, the gay agenda was launched.

One of those bullet listed items was to remove the word homosexual and to use the word gay instead. Though the term 'gay' had been in intermittent use, by the mid twentieth century it had come to be synonymous with homosexual and was considered less pejorative than 'queer.' By the end of the twentieth century various academic disciplines, medicine, journalism, the law, government, business, and industry were regularly including it as standard in their style guides. Once the word fell into common written use for standard disciplines, its verbal ubiquitousness was only a matter of time. The 1960s was the threshold for this word shift, and the Stonewall riots accompanied the bursting-in. Gay was in and homosexual was out.

Gay is so friendly sounding, Homosexual is so...clinical. Queer evokes oddness, but gay is so average, typical, and thus, is non-threatening.

We're all familiar with the rest of the gay agenda. Even the language around the definition of 'gay agenda' is under contention. Liberals say that the gays advocate for rights, while conservatives say that the homosexuals militantly force a minority point of view on the larger society. Add to this linguistic battle, the iteration from deviant homosexuality to gay pride.

Gay pride is an oxymoron. Homosexuality is a sin. To march in parades under the gay pride banner is an open display of rebellion against culture, against morality and most importantly, against God that is so deep that the people doing it have no clue of the eternal destiny that awaits. Trumpeting pride in your sin is egregious and horrifying. It would be the same as if people organized for a parade and marched under banners shouting "Adulterers Awake!" or "Greed is good!" There is no pride in sin, any sin. But to be so militant about one's homosexuality that you go through the streets unashamed, trumpeting carnal desires to one and all, is exactly the scene immediately prior to Sodom's judgment.

Let's take a look at that scene in Genesis 19:1-11:

Now the 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 he bowed himself with his face toward the ground. And he said, “Here now, my lords, please turn in to your servant’s house and spend the night, and wash your feet; then you may rise early and go on your way.”

And they said, “No, but we will spend the night in the open square.” But he insisted strongly; so they turned in to him and entered his house. Then he made them a feast, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.

Now before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both old and young, all the people from every quarter, surrounded the house.  And they called to Lot and said to him, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may know them carnally.”

Source

So Lot went out to them through the doorway, shut the door behind him, and said, “Please, my brethren, do not do so wickedly!  See now, I have two daughters who have not known a man; please, let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them as you wish; only do nothing to these men, since this is the reason they have come under the shadow of my roof.”

And they said, “Stand back!” Then they said, “This one came in to stay here, and he keeps acting as a judge; now we will deal worse with you than with them.” So they pressed hard against the man Lot, and came near to break down the door.  But the men reached out their hands and pulled Lot into the house with them, and shut the door.  And they struck the men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they became weary trying to find the door.

Illustration from Figures de la Bible (1728)

Did you get all that? The Sodomites were attacking Lot's house to get what was inside, to them, delectable new meat. This is no different than the animalistic rage a rabid dog goes into. They were predators, hunting prey. Then Lot tried to reason with them, and they would not listen. Not only would they not listen, they were further infuriated at Lot and hated worse that Lot was acting "as a judge". Their reprobate mind was so complete that the mere mention of reason enraged them further and violent promises were made.

Now this last part really overwhelms me. The angels struck the men with blindness. Being supernaturally struck with blindness did not stop them for one moment. They knew it had to have been an angel, for so many been were struck at one time and instantly. Despite the nearness of God in their presence, and despite being blind, they kept trying to get through the door. "They wearied of trying to find it." This means the perverted mob continued trying to find the handle to break in the door and got tired because of the futility of the endeavor and not because of the sinfulness of it! They did not stop because they realized they were being impolite. They did not stop because they realized it was wrong to attack a man and his property. They did not stop even when they were struck blind. (which of course is a spiritual metaphor for them being so deep in their sin that they could not find Jesus, the door). They stopped because they got tired.

So Gay pride. The definition of pride is "a feeling of self-respect and personal worth; satisfaction with your achievements." Thousands of homosexuals march openly shouting of their satisfaction and feeling of personal self-worth in their sin.

Isaiah 5:20 speaks of this: "Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!" Isaiah is telling us that at some points in culture, sin is so deeply embedded in the psyche they call sin good and sin-haters evil! It's all reversed. Like "gay pride."

Homosexuality is a sin. There is no pride in that, only shame. There is shame in all sin, and the glory of His grace is that He forgives it. But to dwell in sin so deeply that you are openly proud and actively recruiting for the culture around you to accept it , revel in it, and uplift is, in my opinion means we have come to that exact moment in Genesis. You all remember what happened the next morning God judged the city.

But there is hope! Jesus paid the debt for all sins, for all time!! He loves each and every person. Look at the verses here:

"Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites,  nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God." (1 Corinthians 6:9-11)

It is true that no sinner inherits heaven. It is also true that any sinner can be washed! Any sinner can be sanctified! Any sinner can be justified! Paul says that some of the very people he is writing to were once sinning in the ways he describes, including homosexuality. But Jesus is bigger than all that. He forgives because He loves. It doesn't mean a person never sins again after being forgiven, but a close walk with the Holy Spirit means that He helps and as you grow, it becomes less of a battle to resist the temptation.

There is no such thing as "gay pride." There is only sinner's shame, Jesus, grace, and forgiven sinner's gratitude. Be part of the gratitude, showing pride in HIS achievements!
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