I've spent the last few days walking the streets and alleys of one of my favorite small rural villages in the northwest. The coffee, the flowers, the food, the scenery, everything is so beautifully crafted by the hearts and hands of local artists.
Perhaps the only thing more universal than a thoughtful touch of creativity is the LGBTQ+ pride flag and signs proclaiming things like “Everyone is loved here” and “This is a safe place.”
Really? Is everyone loved? Is everyone safer?
Amidst all this beauty, I find these messages oddly dissonant. why? Because these signs are not loving for everyone, safe for some and unsafe for others. But behind these well-intentioned messages is hidden. Therefore, we need to focus on those who are excluded and often harmed by the ideology these messages promote. It is important to point out this point. The reason store owners and churches so boldly fly these flags is to demonstrate the fact that they don't know or care about the cruelty their “kindness” inflicts on others.
Here are five people you hurt by flying your pride flag.
children
Celebrating LGBTQ+ pride means acting with compassion towards some children and being cruel to others.
Children are harmed more than any other party by a culture that champions individual identity over family identity.
Flying these flags signals that a movement that claims your sexuality is where your deepest identity is formed is deeply anti-family. America has now surpassed Sweden as a country.
There are more single-parent households in any country around the world. Another thing that the United States and Sweden (along with other top countries where family ties are most frequently dissolved) is that these are places where hyperindividualism is most actively embraced. That is to say.
Let's stop disrespecting the gift of life given to us by our ancestors and celebrate the continuation of our lineage rather than its ending.
Children who grow up without both a mother and a father are at a huge disadvantage. But even the researchers who have best documented this fact argue that between hyperindividualism and a refusal to create a culture that encourages children to look beyond their sexuality and find their own identity within the family. refuses to draw any obvious relationship.
A culture that champions hedonistic sexuality and the superiority of sexual identity may temporarily seem safe for those who wish to explore alternative sexual identities. But it is clearly neither safe nor loving for the countless children who are affected by the weakening of their families, which is the inevitable result.
your ancestors
Every person you meet is part of a very resilient, resourceful, and very strong lineage that stretches back to the beginning of humanity.
Thousands of your ancestors, in this day and age when their descendants enjoy peace and security beyond their wildest dreams, chose to cut off their line forever. Did you endure?
This alone is a reason not to
I'm proud LGBTQ+ identities.
Challenges such as same-sex attraction can lead to the tragic disruption of resilient families, and this is not something to be happy about. Let's stop disrespecting the gift of life given to us by our ancestors and celebrate the continuation of our lineage rather than its ending.
your descendants
Much of our suffering is caused by our short-sighted ancestors, and we repay the favor by ignoring how our decisions affect our descendants. Let's break this cycle in your generation.
I once read that if a Jewish child dies before giving birth, the family not only grieves the loss of that child, but also the 10,000 descendants of that child who will never be born.
Of course, this applies to the death of any child. But today, rather than mourning the loss of descendants, we celebrate an identity that makes cutting off a person's future descendants a kind of accomplishment.
marriage vows
“It’s just a piece of paper…” No, a wedding is an act of signing a contract before God. This is a great idea that will bring stability to the entire civilization. We dilute its importance at our peril.
The reason for the narrow-minded sexual ethics in the Bible is to create a culture that promotes multigenerational families. Having one man and one woman for life is the only sexual ethic worth celebrating.
When we throw a party when a couple remains faithfully married for 50 years, it's because something great has truly been accomplished, not just for the couple and their family, but for society as a whole. This is a flag worth flying.
The next time you see a company or church proclaiming mercy, understand the real trade-off of the cruelty they are celebrating.
Instead, today we celebrate the courage of those who publicly defend their desires at the expense of others. Face up to the fact that every time our culture loosens Biblical sexual ethics, we undermine the marriage covenant at the heart of our families for future generations, and our grandchildren will pay the price. is refusing.
The marriage contract is weaker than ever, starting with no-fault divorce and culminating in the redefinition of marriage to include alternative arrangements. We don't see cultural atrocities unleashed by our supposed compassion. This is because it causes a slowly progressive disease that is most fully experienced by those who are not yet born.
God
“As followers of Jesus, our allegiance is to the King and His Kingdom is our priority. Submission to Christ as King is an act of worship.” —Bailey Gillespie
Last but not least, all followers of Jesus believe that this world was designed for a purpose by an all-knowing and all-powerful God.
These flags have grown up as symbols of conquest. They represent different kingdoms. They say, “We have dethroned Jesus and now we worship our own idols.”
God would never make someone LGBTQ+. This is a false identity category created by a culture determined to free itself from the purpose behind its design. Sure, some people struggle more than others to live within the Creator's plan, but we don't celebrate the decision to succumb to the wrong side of that struggle. We should have true compassion for these challenges without encouraging a lifestyle of sin and its inevitable consequences.
So the next time you see a company or church proclaiming “mercy,” also understand the real trade-offs to the cruelty they are extolling.
We become what we celebrate. Today, it takes wisdom and courage to confront the collective blindness to injury and corruption caused by this ideology.
This essay was adapted from the article first published At Jeremy Pryor's house substack.
