Pride Month

of Year 2024 is when I started participating in United Methodist activities on a regular basis. 

According to Encyclopædia Britannica, Pride Month commemorates years of struggle for civil rights and the ongoing pursuit of equal justice under the law for the LGBTQ community. 

Someone else explained Pride Month this way: Pride isn't about turning straight kids into queer kids. Pride is about not turning queer kids into dead kids.

Although I am not a member of the LGBTQ community, I do what I can to support that community. However, I have not always done so. 

For way too many years, I was under the influence of churches that condemn anyone who is LGBTQ. I was repeatedly told that being LGBTQ is a choice.

Then, one day in Year 2022, I had an epiphany, which the Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines as “an illuminating discovery, realization, or disclosure.” If I had been a cartoon character, then a light bulb would have lit up above my head.

It was then that I began asking these questions: If being LGBTQ is a choice, then why would anyone choose to be a member of a group that has historically been subjected to all sorts of verbal and physical abuse? Also, when did I ever choose my own sexual orientation?

I came to a conclusion that is expressed by a dog in a 1951 Looney Tunes cartoon:

It just don't add up. So, I began learning what scientists have to say about sexual behavior. For example, Nature magazine reports that same-gender sexual behavior has been witnessed in more that 1,500 animal species.

Tell me this: How can one claim that same-gender sexual behavior is un-natural when more than 1,500 animal species engage in such behavior?

What about Human sexuality? Well, biologist Dr. Jacques Balthazart reports that sexual orientation is largely influenced by biological factors. The last time that I checked, people are born with their biological factors. I find no biblical evidence that God punishes people for the way that they are born.

I grew uncomfortable as I continued to worship with people who condemn the LGBTQ community. So, in May of  2024, I decided to visit LGBTQ-affirming churches during Pride Month. 

On the first Sunday of June, I visited Meadowcreek United Methodist Church in Collinsville, OK. On the second Sunday, I visited First Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tulsa, OK. On the third Sunday, I visited First Presbyterian Church of Owasso, OK. The pastor of First Presbyterian told me that a new United Methodist congregation was meeting in the Owasso Sixth-Grade Center. 

Thus, on Sunday, June Twenty-third, 2024, I drove into the parking lot of Owasso's Sixth-Grade Center. That is when the United Methodist Church became stuck with me.

What prompted me to stay was the declaration that the Owasso congregation makes at the beginning of each Sunday morning service. That declaration is printed in every one of the church's bulletins. That declaration says, “We believe in the sacred worth of all God's people - you are affirmed, accepted and most certainly loved in this place!”

That statement tells me that the United Methodist Church affirms the Gospel as it is presented in the New Testament. As it turns out, the New Testament's Gospel is not necessarily the gospel presented by people who condemn the LGBTQ community. 

What I have witnessed is this: People who condemn the LGBTQ community are adding their own requirements to what is necessary for salvation. They are adding their own requirements to what is necessary for eternal life.  By doing so, these adders are trying to deny the spiritual salvation of LGBTQ members who have made a public profession of faith in Messiah Jesus.

These adders are quick to claim that a person cannot be a Christian and be a member of the LGBTQ community at the same time. Yet, that is not what the Gospel in the New Testament says. 

John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” 

John 3:18 says, “Whoever believes in him is not condemned.” That word “whoever” is inclusive.  That word “whoever” leaves nobody out.

1 John 4:15 states, “If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God.” That word “anyone” is also inclusive. The author of 1 John goes on to say, “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.”

Critics of the LGBTQ community will cite Bible verses without realizing that they are citing the verses out of cultural context. Yes, people can read the Bible from cover to cover and still be naïve about the cultural context of what they are reading. Even seminary professors can do that.

I would like for the critics of the LGBTQ community to answer this question: How are we to explain LGBTQ believers in Jesus who display the fruit of the Holy Spirit and heterosexual believers who do not? Is that not what it means to know people by their spiritual fruit? 

We cannot stop critics of the LGBTQ community from being naïve. What we can do is to ask the Holy Spirit to soften their hearts and to enlighten their minds. After all, I used to be one of those naïve critics, and yet, here am I presenting an LGBTQ-affirming sermon.

Those of us who affirm the LGBTQ community may be in the minority of Christendom, but that does not mean that we are in the wrong.

The United Methodist Church has been promoting a campaign titled What If Love. Well, what if love prompts us to stick to a position that does not have majority support? What if love prompts us to do the correct thing even if the correct thing isn't popular?

The United Methodist Church affirms the place that LGBTQ Christians have within the family of God. So do I. That is why I joined the United Methodist Church.