DiscussMormonism.com

“DCP article” wrote: On June 1, businesses, government, and even churches will erect rainbow flags and publish proclamations about the importance of “Pride Month,” a celebration of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender identities. (Of course, the little plus sign means the list goes on and on, including queer, questioning, intersex, two-spirit, and more. One version even includes “friends and family.”)

This rush to celebrate LGBTQ+ lifestyles is both exclusionary and offensive to conservative Jews and Christians who follow the Bible’s teaching that God created humans male and female, that marriage is between one man and one woman, and that pride is a cardinal sin, not a virtue.

Rather than merely complaining, Princeton professor Robert P. George decided to do something about it. He launched an effort to flip “Pride Month” on its head—dedicating the month not to a specific interest group, but to a moral virtue, fidelity. (George is a member of The Heritage Foundation’s board of directors and The Daily Signal is Heritage’s news outlet.)

“Fidelity” derives from the Latin word “fides,” meaning “faith” or “trust.” The word implies “strict and continuing faithfulness to an obligation, trust, or duty,” according to Merriam–Webster.

Now, I feel that I need to explain — although, even as I do so, I do it without any hope that my explanation will be credited in certain predictable quarters — that I am not calling for the mistreatment of transsexuals or of people suffering from gender dysphoria. In all such cases, as everywhere else, civility, kindness, and charity are and should be the rule. So, too, though, is the truth. And it is far from evident that recent orthodoxy on this matter is actually kind to those that it purports to want to help and support.

As regards “Pride Month,” specifically, I see no reason either to be proud of what — as the gay man quoted by Megyn Kendall observes — is, after all, “an attribute” and not “an achievement” or to be ashamed of it. I’m not proud of being male or blue-eyed or fairly tall, let alone of being near-sighted. Nor am I ashamed of such traits. They just are, and I’m obliged to cope with them. Moreover, there is no reason to persecute anybody for being male, blue-eyed, tall, near-sighted, or the sheer fact of being gay. In any case, though, “pride” is always a two-edged sword:

Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall. Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud. (Proverbs 16:18-19)

Bret Ripley wrote: ↑

Sat Jun 03, 2023 3:43 pm

Yeah. As someone put it: "Gay pride was not born of a need to celebrate being gay, but our right to exist without persecution. So instead of wondering why there isn’t a straight pride parade, be thankful you don’t need one."

Physics Guy wrote: ↑

Sat Jun 03, 2023 4:38 pm

It's true that being gay is not an achievement. Coming out as gay is, though, unfortunately. It has to be done—you can't live your whole life hiding something so basic about yourself—but it's a hard thing to do. Accomplishing that really is ground for pride.

Being gay is also no reason for shame. And it's so important to assert that, with how much shame there has been, that pushing back past the neutral line, and calling for pride, is at least a legitimate move.

Christian tradition has called Pride a sin. It's an older and much more important Christian tradition, though, to reconsider the meanings of words in the light of what God really wants. Jesus asked what perfection really meant, when God makes rain and sun for good and evil people indiscriminately; what keeping the Sabbath meant, if there were a chance to do good on the Sabbath; what being a neighbour meant, if you passed someone in need.

And by the time there were Christian lists of sins and virtues, Christians weren't all illiterate. There were Christian philosophers who could distinguish nuances in concepts. Not everything that someone calls Pride is arrogance or self-centredness. Pride can also just mean recognising one's own worth. If Pride in that sense weren't right, the command to love one's neighbour as one's self would be meaningless; but on it hangs all the Law and the Prophets.

Bret Ripley wrote: ↑

Sat Jun 03, 2023 3:43 pm

Yeah. As someone put it: "Gay pride was not born of a need to celebrate being gay, but our right to exist without persecution. So instead of wondering why there isn’t a straight pride parade, be thankful you don’t need one."

The movement denies the goodness of America, preaching that the United States is an oppressive place for people whose very notion of individual worth comes from a Declaration of Independence.

“Pride” is all about infidelity, breaking vows and duties to spouses, to children, and to God. Sexual liberation rests on the idea that marriage only lasts as long as feelings of love do, and family courts will decide who takes care of the children.