Pride Month Word on the Week 17th June 2023.
Indicative of the long way the LGBT community have come in Ireland is the fact of June being designated as their month. It is interesting to see the name ‘pride’ has been adopted to give those involved a feeling of self-worth.
Perhaps it has been lacking in the past where members of the LGBT have tended to be looked down upon by Cisgender people. Cisgender is the term applied to those who have retained the gender assigned to them at birth.
There is no doubt that the sexual revolution of recent years has forced some rethinking of issues previously put on the long finger. The bizarre dress code of a Gay Parade is not so much a cry for help as a demand to be noticed and accepted – without trying to change them.
Previously acceptance was on traditional lines as LGBT people endured the difficulties of being part of our Christianised society but now with the fair wind of secularism at their backs those difficulties are disappearing as laws are changed to accommodate them.
The appearance of the rainbow flag of the community in many public and commercial places shows how much progress has been made in their ideology becoming accepted. Before the Covid closedown, four years ago, 60,000 were attending the Dublin Gay Parade. Next Saturday’s event in the city will probably exceed that number.
When the Apostle Paul was at Athens he was greatly distressed to see the city full of idols. His reaction was to preach in the market place the good news of Jesus and the resurrection (Acts 17 verse16 to 31). The good news was that Jesus the Son of God had shed his blood for sinner’s redemption (Romans 5 verse 8).
The resurrection means that no matter how broken we are, LGBT or Cisgender alike, one day we can stand complete in Christ. As the Apostle Peter puts it Jesus gives us new birth into a living hope, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (1 Peter 1 verse 3).
The gospel does not offer us a change of gender but a new birth. This is not tinkering with our humanity but recognising that it’s the heart it is the source of our troubles. Jesus said out of the heart come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, pride and folly (St Mark 7 verse 20). That’s why we need a new birth.
And it’s available on placing your trust in Jesus.