Christians at Pride

A straight white male attended our local pride event. It was me. I am not the only professing Christian that attended. There was no telling how many were there throughout the entire event. Another group of Christians were kept out of the event for reasons of safety. So, a large local police presence was there as well to keep order. The culture war is alive and well where I reside.

Pride and Shame

The Christians who were kept out were there to protest the event. They essentially yelled, “Shame!” Every protest is done to shame an injustice. But to cover the prejudice against LGBTQ people, there is another accusation involved. The state legislature passed an unconstitutional bill opposing drag performances with anyone under the age of 18 present. The federal court has ruled on this matter. It is not simply my opinion that it is unconstitutional. The legislature bought into the idea that LGBTQ people are “grooming” children. But they really mean recruiting.

The sad irony is that a local church and school has been caught grooming girls to be exploited by adult males. There are no protestors shouting shame to the people who continue to attend that church. When the girls complained, there was very little interest in investigating their claims by local authorities. Still, the church played the usual game of cover-up. Grooming is a process where an adult personally attends to a child to sexually exploit that child.

Fearful Masculinity and Femininity

The idea that drag queens are recruiting children to become homosexual or transgender comes from a fearful masculinity. Many men and women view transwomen as a threat. On the one hand, men being “girly” is upsetting to many men who feel sexually threatened. On the other hand, many women feel threatened by men “posing as women” in athletics, public restrooms, and in areas reserved for women. Are these rational concerns? Maybe. Women in our society are systematically mistreated. The struggle to overcome this continues.

Let’s face one important fact; our society is full of fears. Christians, rather, are to overcome fear with love. “Perfect love casts out fear,” the Apostle John says. But too many Christians traffic in fear. Fear turns to hate. Violence comes from hate. Fearful people terrorize those they hate.

Pride in Pride

Four local churches were celebrating their commitment to inclusion and openness to the LGBTQ community. I sat in for another United Methodist church while the workers grabbed a bit to eat. I spoke with many people who came by the table as well as the volunteers from the other churches. One person challenged me. “Do you preach openness from the pulpit?” Well, I do. I do not say, “This church is open to all and if you don’t like it you can leave.” I say to LGBTQ people, “You are free here to be who you know yourself to be  just like everyone else is.”

Love and Pride

Pride events celebrate identity and the freedom to love who you desire to love. Inclusion and openness are relative terms to the primary ideals. Some LGBTQ friends are very conservative politically and theologically. As a Christian love is an expanded virtue. It is easy to dismiss the protestors as bigoted and fearful. But children participated in the protest too. But they were merely doing what they have been taught. I do not like to call that grooming either. They are part of the 120 thousand Jonah forgets about in his hatefulness.

The protestors of pride regard people like me as being deceived, woke, or foolish. They dismiss me just as I am tempted to do them. But in the gospels, Jesus Christ loves people like them too. Judas leaves to betray him with clean feet. I do not hate the protestors for being wrong. What about those children? If they begin questioning their sexuality, who will they turn to for help? It needs to be me or someone like me. Will not their families need compassion?

Christians do not forget healing is part of our work.