LGBTQ+: the Pride and the Punishment

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Do not defile yourselves by any of these practices, for the nations I am driving out before you have defiled themselves by all these things. The land has become defiled, so I am punishing it for its sin, and the land will vomit out its inhabitants. (Leviticus 18:24)

The Pride

ABC News Celebrates Pride Month 2022 / June 2, 2022

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Throughout June, ABC News will celebrate and honor LGBTQ+ Pride Month with a primetime special, docu-series and dedicated coverage across programs and platforms. ABC News’ “Soul of a Nation” will present a one-hour primetime special, “PRIDE | To Be Seen,” documenting the LGBTQ+ experience and examining what it means to be seen in the current moment as a member of the community, airing in June on ABC. “Mormon No More,” an ABC News Studios docu-series, follows two married Mormon moms who fall in love and leave the faith.

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Pride Month 2022: List of events celebrating LGBTQ+ community in DC, Maryland and Virginia / FOX 5, June 6, 2022

LGBTQ+ community in DC

President Joe Biden declared June 2022 as “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex (LGBTQI+) Pride Month” at the beginning of June. However, it was President Bill Clinton that was the first to declare the month of June as Pride Month in 1999.

The first Pride march took place June 28, 1970, a year after the 1969 uprisings at the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York, which were led by trans women of color. More than 50 years later, there’s scarcely a patch on Earth that doesn’t host some type of Pride event.

Pride Month is currently in full swing and those looking to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community in the DMV can find multiple parades, festivals and concerts throughout the region during the month of June.

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Christian Book Publisher Eerdmans Endorses Pride Month with LGBT Reading List / ChristianHeadlines.com Contributor | Tuesday, June 7, 2022

Eerdmans Endorses Pride Month

A historic and well-known Christian publisher is facing pushback for its embrace of LGBT Pride Month and its promotion of a reading list on the subject.

Eerdmans Publishing Company, founded in 1911, has been a leading publisher of academic and faith titles over the last century, including ones by William Lane Craig, Mark Noll, Richard Muow and N.T. Wright. Its commentaries are found on pastoral bookshelves across the world.

But the publisher this month endorsed Pride Month.

“June is Pride Month, and you’ve probably seen countless businesses touting their rainbow flags, multi-colored logos or raising their support in different ways,” the company’s website says. “Yet, there is still such disunity and unrest on this topic, among people of faith especially.

“We find ourselves at a time again where we should be willing to listen and seek to understand those in the LGBTQ+ community who are simply fighting to be seen and heard, cared for and loved. This month, as an Eerdmans reading community, we hope you’ll take time to listen.”

The Eerdmans reading list includes “stories of life, love, rocky relationships, and what the Bible has to say about it all,” the website says.

In the Margins A Transgender Man’s Journey with Scripture

Among the titles on the list is In the Margins: A Transgender Man’s Journey with Scripture (August 2022) which, according to Eerdmans, is for “those willing to listen with an open mind.” Another title is Family of Origin, Family of Choice: Stories of Queer Christians (2021).

Eeedmans’ website says the company is “deeply rooted in the historic Christian tradition,” “ecumenical in spirit,” and “open to emerging dialogue between denominations and with other faiths.”

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Parents March on Disneyland to Protest Studio’s Woke LGBTQ+ Agenda for Children / Breitbart News, April 13, 2022

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Hundreds of concerned parents and activists converged on Disneyland in Anaheim, California, Wednesday evening to protest the Walt Disney Co.’s woke agenda that includes targeting children with radical gay and transgender ideology.

Their demands included a consumer boycott of Disney and an end to the left’s sexual indoctrination of young children.

The peaceful protest was organized by Hold the Line, the Christian activist group that spearheaded last week’s demonstration at Disney corporate headquarters in Burbank. On Wednesday, they were joined by members of Turning Point USA, the conservative non-profit headed by Charlie Kirk.

Hold the Line leader Sean Feucht said the group has gathered 50,000 signature for a petition demanding Disney stop trying to indoctrinate children.

Disney cast members also spoke out against the company’s political lurch to the left.

Last week, the group rallied hundreds of protestors in front of Disney corporate headquarters in Burbank.

Some of the demonstrators chanted “Boycott Disney” while a woman who identified herself as a conservative Disneyland worker spoke about the difficulty of working for the company as someone who holds conservative values.

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Methodist Church allows same-sex marriage in ‘momentous’ vote / BBC News, June 30, 2021

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The Methodist Church has become the largest religious denomination in Britain to permit same-sex marriages.

A vote to change the definition of marriage at the Methodist Conference on Wednesday overwhelmingly passed by 254 in favour with 46 against.

Freedom of conscience clauses mean ministers will not be forced to conduct such weddings if they oppose the move.

Same-sex marriage is not allowed in the Church of England or the Roman Catholic Church.

However it is welcomed in the Scottish Episcopal Church, the United Reformed Church and the Quakers in Britain.

The Methodist Church is Britain’s fourth largest Christian denomination with about 164,000 members across more than 4,000 churches.

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pride parade

 For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth, since what can be known about God is evident among them, because God has shown it to them. For His invisible attributes, that is, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what He has made. As a result, people are without excuse. For though they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became nonsense, and their senseless minds were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools…

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Therefore God delivered them over in the cravings of their hearts to sexual impurity, so that their bodies were degraded among themselves. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served something created instead of the Creator, who is praised forever. Amen. (Romans 1:18-25)

LGBTQ+

LGBTQ+ stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (or questioning), and the + includes all non-heterosexual or non-gender-conforming people. Sodom has been used historically as a metaphor for homosexuality, and is the origin of the English words, sodomite, a pejorative term for male homosexuals, and sodomy, which is used in a legal context to describe sexual “crimes against nature.”

LGBTQ+ social movements advocate for LGBTQ+ people in society. Social movements may focus on equal rights, such as the 2000s movement for marriage equality, or they may focus on liberation, as in the gay liberation movement of the 1960s and 1970s.

What does the standard for Christianity – the Holy Bible – say about gay pride and gay marriage?

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 Then the Lord said, “Should I hide what I am about to do from Abraham? Abraham is to become a great and powerful nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed through him. For I have chosen him so that he will command his children and his house after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just. This is how the Lord will fulfill to Abraham what He promised him.” Then the Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is immense, and their sin is extremely serious. I will go down to see if what they have done justifies the cry that has come up to Me. If not, I will find out.” (Genesis 18:17-21)

What merited the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah was not just the sin of homosexuality, but the widespread culture and promotion of the homosexual lifestyle. It reached the point were the Lord had to intervene, just like He did in the time of Noah. The citizens had degenerated to the level of total depravity. They held a gay pride march directly to Lot’s house:

The two angels entered Sodom in the evening as Lot was sitting at Sodom’s gate. When Lot saw them, he got up to meet them. He bowed with his face to the ground and said, “My lords, turn aside to your servant’s house, wash your feet, and spend the night. Then you can get up early and go on your way.”

“No,” they said. “We would rather spend the night in the square.” But he urged them so strongly that they followed him and went into his house. He prepared a feast and baked unleavened bread for them, and they ate.

Before they went to bed, the men of the city of Sodom, both young and old, the whole population, surrounded the house. They called out to Lot and said, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Send them out to us so we can have sex with them!” (Genesis 19:1-5)

The two angels and Sodom

The Lord was never vague on His law concerning sexual perversions and the homosexual lifestyle. Judgement is coming:

You are not to sleep with a man as with a woman; it is detestable. You are not to have sexual intercourse with any animal, defiling yourself with it; a woman is not to present herself to an animal to mate with it; it is a perversion.

Leviticus 18

“Do not defile yourselves by any of these practices, for the nations I am driving out before you have defiled themselves by all these things. The land has become defiled, so I am punishing it for its sin, and the land will vomit out its inhabitants. But you are to keep My statutes and ordinances. You must not commit any of these detestable things—not the native or the foreigner who lives among you. For the men who were in the land prior to you have committed all these detestable things, and the land has become defiled. If you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it has vomited out the nations that were before you. Any person who does any of these detestable practices must be cut off from his people. You must keep My instruction to not do any of the detestable customs that were practiced before you, so that you do not defile yourselves by them; I am Yahweh your God.” (Leviticus 18:22-30)

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Then He said to the disciples, “The days will come when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. And they will say to you, ‘Look here!’ or ‘Look there!’ Do not go after them or follow them. For as the lightning that flashes out of one part under heaven shines to the other part under heaven, so also the Son of Man will be in His day. But first He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed.

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“In that day, he who is on the housetop, and his goods are in the house, let him not come down to take them away. And likewise the one who is in the field, let him not turn back. Remember Lot’s wife. Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it. I tell you, in that night there will be two men in one bed: the one will be taken and the other will be left. Two women will be grinding together: the one will be taken and the other left. Two men will be in the field: the one will be taken and the other left.”

And they answered and said to Him, “Where, Lord?”

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So He said to them, “Wherever the body is, there the eagles will be gathered together.” (Luke 17:22-37)

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The Judgement of Nineveh

The people of Nineveh were also wicked and violent and yet they were spared because they repented of their evil ways and called on God for forgiveness.

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Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: “Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach the message that I tell you.” So Jonah got up and went to Nineveh according to the Lord’s command.

Now Nineveh was an extremely large city, a three-day walk. Jonah set out on the first day of his walk in the city and proclaimed, “In 40 days Nineveh will be demolished!” The men of Nineveh believed in God. They proclaimed a fast and dressed in sackcloth—from the greatest of them to the least.

When word reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, put on sackcloth, and sat in ashes. Then he issued a decree in Nineveh:

By order of the king and his nobles: No man or beast, herd or flock, is to taste anything at all. They must not eat or drink water. Furthermore, both man and beast must be covered with sackcloth, and everyone must call out earnestly to God. Each must turn from his evil ways and from the violence he is doing. Who knows? God may turn and relent; He may turn from His burning anger so that we will not perish.

Then God saw their actions—that they had turned from their evil ways—so God relented from the disaster He had threatened to do to them. And He did not do it. (Jonah 3:1-10)

The men and women of Sodom had known and been physically rescued by Abram (Abraham) in Genesis 14:14-16. They had seen him worship God with Melchizedek (Genesis 14:17-20) and refuse to financially benefit from Sodom’s riches (Genesis 14:21-24). And they also had Lot living among them, who though weak was described as a righteous man by the Apostle Peter.

The people of Sodom ignored all of these things, and rather than be forewarned by them and repent, they continued sinning. While their sexual sins again were highlighted in Genesis 19, the real object of their sin is revealed in the pre-destruction polemic against them several chapters earlier: “But the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinful against the LORD” (Genesis 13:13; cf. Psalm 51:4).

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We need to keep in mind that it was God, the righteous judge (2 Timothy 4:8) who condemned Sodom, Gomorrah, and the other cities on the plain. Although their sins of pride, sexual immorality, inhospitality, and cruelty were committed against other people—ultimately, they were a direct offense against God. All sin is an offense to God and demonstrates mankind’s rebellion against him. But there is hope for all mankind because God has provided a way of salvation and is patient with us “not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9).

Sodom was a paradise on earth – green and fertile with a healthy climate. Its opulence and comfort are what attracted Lot to live there rather than remaining with his holy uncle Abraham in Hebron. There was plenty of money in Sodom, and the more money they had the more corrupt and miserly they became. The area influenced the populace so much that God could not even find one worthy person in all of the city or the four other surrounding towns that were destroyed with it.

Nineveh was very similar to Sodom. It was the main metropolis of the ancient Assyrian empire, located where the city of Mosul, Iraq is today. In the Fertile Crescent located between the Tigris River where Nineveh was situated and the Euphrates River, Nineveh too was a thriving city. But, like Sodom, their money and comforts went to their heads and they too became socially and morally corrupt. God, in His love for all His creations – even the evil – gives them a chance to change their ways. Instead of sending natural disasters to Nineveh, God sent them the Prophet Jonah to warn them that their destruction is imminent and that they now face the same verdict that Sodom and Gomorrah faced.

King of Nineveh

The King of Nineveh immediately took action. He took off his regal gold-embroidered cloak, got off his throne, donned sackcloth and sat on the floor in complete penitence. The entire populace followed suit. Not only did the people fast, but even the livestock refrained from eating. Nineveh’s spiritual revolution for the good made such an impression in the Heavenly Court that all stern decrees were rendered null and void.

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Cadbury under fire for same-sex kiss in new Creme Egg commercial / New York Post, February 19, 2021

commercial for Cadbury

Cadbury is getting creamed by critics on social media, who say the British candy company is “selling sex to children.”

A new commercial to celebrate the iconic Cadbury Creme Egg’s 50th anniversary — happy birthday, you delectable confection! — and promote the chocolatier’s annual Easter lineup has scandalized fans with its cheeky message.

“It’s the Creme Egg Golden Goobilee,” a voiceover proclaims, kicking off a montage of whimsical scenes depicting the many unique ways one can eat a Cadbury Creme Egg.

“Calling all eggshibitionists: Let the eatertainment begin!” the ad’s voiceover annouonces. “Lickers, let loose … Discreaters, come out of your shell,” the voice continues.

But it’s the money shot at the end of the video that has viewers clutching their pearls, depicting two men passing the sweet treat to one another in their lips before bursting the egg and its creamy contents.

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America’s Reversal on Gay “Marriage” / BreakPoint, February 18, 2018

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The fight over same-sex “marriage” already seems like a distant memory. But the way it was fought is the mother of all worldview lessons.

According to recent surveys, Americans—especially younger generations—are more supportive of gay “marriage” than ever before. One Gallup poll revealed that a strong majority—64 percent—approve of the rights invented and bestowed on same-sex couples by the Supreme Court in the Obergefell decision.

And the Barna Group recently reported that teenagers today are at least twice as likely as American adults to identify as LGBT.

All of this, despite the fact that in 2011, a vast majority of U.S. states had defined marriage as the union of one man and one woman. How could it be that, in just the next four years, state after state would strike down those marriage amendments, public opinion would shift by ten points and finally, in 2015, the Obergefell decision would make everything official?

At least part of the answer is found in how entertainment reshaped our collective imaginations. From “Will and Grace,” to “Glee,” to “Modern Family,” Hollywood spent years, and millions, portraying homosexuality as funny, normal, natural, and even wholesome.

Around the same time, in another sphere of culture, politicians like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton “evolved” on the issue, and their base—which was already largely pro-gay—responded with a fast and radical leftward swing.

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The Punishment

Being drawn toward a morally forbidden relationship is not an active sin; it is a temptation. Sin occurs when we dwell upon the wrong thoughts, the temptation spawns, or when we yield to the temptation. Feeling a same-sex attraction is not an active, willful sin, but yielding to that proclivity and engaging in homosexual relations is.

Our culture assures homosexuals that they were born gay and that confused sexuality is to be celebrated, not overcome. Thus we have an entire generation of children and teens who never knew a time when homosexuality was rightly considered abnormal. In elementary and middle schools, it is now fashionable to call oneself “gay” or “bi” or use any number of other faddish sexual labels without any real understanding of their meaning—or of the moral and eternal implications.

We are all sinners, born with a nature that wants only to please itself. The sinful desires within us vary from person to person, but the root is the same (Romans 3:11). When we realize how broken we are and that we cannot have fellowship with a holy God in such a deplorable condition, we gratefully accept the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross for us (2 Corinthians 5:21). He paid the price that we owed to God for our treason against our Creator. He also paid the penalty for the sin of homosexuality, just as He did for pride, rape, adultery, and theft. Those sins, and a thousand more, are what keep us from God and sentence us to an eternity without Him.

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We cannot continue to define ourselves by the very sins that crucified Jesus, while also assuming that we are right with God. First Corinthians 6:9–10 lists many of the sins that the Corinthians once practiced (homosexuality is on the list). But verse 11 reminds them, “That is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” In other words, some of the Corinthians, before they were saved, lived gay lifestyles; but no sin is too great for the cleansing power of Jesus. Once cleansed, we are no longer defined by sin.

Homosexual behavior won’t damn a person any more quickly than pride or greed or adultery. Without Christ, we are lost, whether gay, straight, or asexual. But, when we surrender our lives to the lordship of Jesus, He gives us a new nature (2 Corinthians 5:17). He destroys the power that sin once held over us (Romans 6:1–7). The old nature that once dictated our actions has been conquered in a born-again child of God (John 3:3). Temptation still rages. Weaknesses still torment. But the power of the Holy Spirit helps us to resist Satan and overcome the sins that once held us captive (Colossians 2:14; James 4:7). We can choose new life in Jesus or the old life of sin. But we cannot have both (Matthew 6:24).

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Losing our Hedge of Protection

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In the time of the Old Testament, a hedge of thorn bushes could be induced to grow around a living compound. Thorn bushes would be too dense to crawl through, too sharp to chew through, and too deep for all but the most determined leopard to jump over. A hedge would also be a deterrent to sheep and goats seeking to escape their pen. As Satan is compared to a “lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8), a thorn hedge is an appropriate metaphor for the protection God gives His followers.

But, when a nation or the world turns sin into law, the Lord’s hedge of protection is removed. After that, nature takes it’s course:

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And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed. (Luke 17:26-30)

We must pray for forgiveness and for our land to be healed! It is time to wake up and get spiritually ready.

The Lord tells us:

If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. (2 Chronicles 7:14)

Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance. (Psalm 33:12)

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Join us in praying for this country, and for a great harvest of souls.

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If you are not sure that you are saved, you can accept Christ into your life right now, by praying:

“Lord Jesus, I believe you are the Son of God. Thank you for dying on the cross for my sins.  Please forgive my sins and give me the gift of eternal life.  I ask you in to my life and heart to be my Lord and Savior.”

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Reader Comments:

Dishonesty and sexual perversion are in the same boat.

• Rev 21:8 . .The sexually immoral, and all liars– their place will be in the
fiery lake of burning sulfur.

That probably doesn’t mean much to the woke/progressive crowd seeing as
how in their mind’s eye, gays are not immoral; but then, they’ve probably all
been dishonest a time or two.

Webers_Home, June 20, 2022

Why this, why now, what purpose has God in all this?

This is the sign of the rainbow God has placed in the sky as a promise that “the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.” Which is a reminder that He has also promised that He comes as a consuming fire.

But we who are His are as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego and unharmed:
Shadrach = “royal” or “the great scribe”
Meshach = “guest of the king”
Abed-nego = “servant of Nebo” (Nebo = “prophet”)

ScottA, June 20, 2022


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