A Pride Day celebration will soon be hosted near my hometown. I hope our response reflects that of our Savior—who always loved others and called them to repent of their sins. Today’s dominant culture warns that if you don’t actively support the LGBTQIA+ lifestyle, you will be deemed unloving or hateful. But love without truth is not love at all. True love wills the other’s good. What greater good is there than to help someone get to heaven?
The Bible clearly explains where God stands regarding same-sex attraction (see Gn 19:1-29, Lv 18:22, 20:13, Rom 1:26-27, 1 Cor 6:9; 1 Tm 1:9-10, and Jude 1:7), as does the Catechism of the Catholic Church (2357-2359). The Bible says active, unrepentant homosexuality is a grave mortal sin that can prevent one from going to heaven. The Catechism says, “homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered . . . [and] under no circumstances can they be approved.”
Compassion for our family and friends experiencing same-sex attraction may tempt us to downplay, dismiss, or even deny these challenging truths of Christianity. We may be tempted to reinterpret the Bible in a way that appears “more tolerant,” or to reduce Jesus to a loving figure who never preached repentance or warned of hell. However, we must make a choice between believing that the whole Bible is the infallible Word of God or simply picking what we like and dismissing what we don’t. As St. Augustine stated, “If you believe what you like in the Gospels and reject what you don’t like, it is not the Gospel you believe but yourself.”
Our culture has declared the Christian position on homosexuality to be a hateful, judgmental, self-righteous rejection of a marginalized group of people. Those are lies. In fact, it is love that motivates faithful Christians to share the truth, because we want fellow sinners to spend eternal life in heaven. Judgment is the role of Jesus alone; our role is not to judge but rather to live and share God’s truth. We must not be self-righteous, for we are all sinners. We all rely on Jesus’ saving forgiveness, as long as we repent and ask for it.
Our society’s biggest lie is that sexual inclination determines one’s core identity. Therefore, society incorrectly views a rejection of homosexuality as a rejection of the person. That is false. Our core identity lies in being “a child of God”—that is what makes us worthy of love despite our sins. Thus, the rejection of a sin is not the cruel rejection of the person, but the best way to love the person. Imagine an addict saying, “You must accept and celebrate my addiction.” You would say, “No, you are not your addiction. You are a child of God, and I love you despite your addiction.” Who is loving: the one who celebrates the addiction or the one who shares the truth and helps them overcome the addiction? We must “hate the sin but love the sinner.”
Yes, all are loved and welcome here, but not every act is accepted and supported. We must always love and welcome those with same-sex attraction, but we must never celebrate the sin itself. Pride Day celebrations are not the right way to welcome people struggling with same-sex attraction, because such celebrations glorify the sin itself. The right way to love people struggling with same-sex attraction is by encouraging them to choose chastity and a deeper fulfillment with God. (See www.couragerc.org.) When we publicly celebrate Pride Day, we lead others astray—especially our children—to believe that sin is not sin, which brings destruction upon others and ourselves. As Jesus says, “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened round his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea” (Mt 18:5-6).
A faithful Christian should not attend Pride Day celebrations. If you’ve been infected by the lies of our culture, you might view this Christian message as unloving, mean, or cruel—when what is actually unloving, mean, and cruel is to celebrate sin and lead a child of God to distance themselves from his truth. As Christians, we must lovingly welcome our neighbors with same-sex attraction, recognize that homosexuality is a sin, and prudently share that truth with our neighbors out of our abundant love for them.
Finally, let us pray for those struggling with same-sex attraction and for those who mistakenly celebrate it, that we may all experience the transformational love and truth of our savior, Jesus Christ.
This article originally appeared in Renewal Ministries’ June 2024 newsletter.
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Jesse
Thank you for the straight foreword article. We are suppose to love everyone and pray for conversion of heart, Just like Abortion but are sins and one will need to answer for his actions , we are not to judge the sinner that is left to Jesus. We need to pray for the Sinner and for a change of heart.
going to an provide event is basically providing a mislead message of endorsement. we need to instead use this time to pray.
Jesse, thank you for these loving, truth-filled words regarding this issue, a most difficult sin to conquer.
We cannot heal ourselves! It is true that the healing of our brokenness only comes through a deep relationship with Christ. That relationship is what heals our hurt, transforms our minds, and affirms the truth of who He created us to be.
We are often afraid to take our brokenness and sin to God. But, He is our Heavenly Father, He loves us more than we can possibly understand, and He knows it all anyway, so why not!
Peace, brother!✌️
The statement homosexuality is a sin (among many others) causes a hugely disproportionate adverse reaction. The sin of pride has consolidated the spiritual darkness. Satan knows just how successful and far reaching this evil that’s now good extends. Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands far away, for truth has stumbled in the public square…(Isaiah 59:14).”