No, Christian Organizations Should Not 'Recommit To Pride' This June

By all accounts, LGBT Pride Month 2025 will be conspicuously low-key. Appalled by Trump's electoral victory and alarmed by the signal voters (a.k.a. consumers) sent, major corporations that once supported Pride events have scrambled for the exits as quickly as if someone had pulled the fire alarm. 

These developments bring relief to normal Americans, who feel as if the playground bully astride their chests finally dismounted and fled. But, for a cadre of die-hard activists, such public retreat from progressivism's excesses represents an existential threat that must be thwarted.

Some of those activists identify with various religious communities. Sadly, some of them even wear the label, "Christian." On Tuesday, a coalition of left-wing activists published an open letter, declaring that, in response to waning support from government, business, and society, "this year, we, who are from diverse faith traditions and beliefs, are showing up and refusing to back down. ... Inspired by our beliefs and faith traditions, we Recommit to Pride."

This final, capitalized phrase ("Recommit to Pride") served as a chorus for the letter, reoccurring no less than five times in three paragraphs. In substance, this recommitment looks like "public prayers, bold statements, and visible acts of support for the LGBTQ+ community," such as "show[ing] up with love for our LGBTQ+ neighbors with signs of solidarity at Pride celebrations."

Most Americans would hardly notice when left-wing activists "recommit" themselves to left-wing activism. But the absence of newsworthy events has never prevented the mainstream media from spinning a tactical narrative before, and this letter provided a framing too delectable to ignore.

In the end, Axios plucked this propaganda plum, gleefully announcing the "exclusive" scoop that "a coalition of faith leaders is urging religious organizations to openly show their support for LGBTQ+ people ahead of this year's Pride Month."

Such framing ascribes undue significance to the letter by making it seem like "faith leaders" now support people who identify as "LGBTQ+." The conventional wisdom is that "religious" people -- especially evangelical Christians -- are more conservative, more likely to support Trump, and less open to gender and sexual confusion. The Axios report subverts this expectation -- notwithstanding its solid grounding in reality -- to bolster a counter-narrative about the political inclinations of "religious" Americans.

Alas, the transparent trick would be silly if it weren't so sinister. Humor subverts expectations for laughs; the mainstream media subverts expectations to advance a political agenda. The agenda is to sow doubt and division among the substantial majority of orthodox Christians who support conservative policies and -- to the extent he will implement policies that accord with nature and promote human flourishing -- President Donald Trump. The point is to trip up those who don't know their Bibles well by regurgitating the serpent's famous question, "Did God actually say?" (Genesis 3:1).

But the façade begins to crumble as soon as one examines the structure holding it up. Out of 17 signatory organizations, two (GLSEN and Christopher Street Project) are simply trans activist groups, with no religious orientation. Five are non-Christian organizations (three Jewish, one Muslim, one Hindu), while two are "interfaith" cooperatives.

This leaves only a minority of organizations that are, in any sense of the word, Christian. Two mainline denominations made the list: the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the United Church of Christ (UCC). So did two networks within mainline denominations: the Reconciling Ministries Network (within United Methodism) and the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists (with the American Baptist Churches USA).

The list also included the Kairos Center for Religions, Rights, and Social Justice at Union Theological Seminary, which in 2019 had students confess their sins to plants; Sojourners, a progressive evangelical organization that published a defense of the plant confession chapel; and Pride in the Pews, which organizes LGBT-identifying people in predominantly black churches.

Last but not least, the letter was signed by Faithful America, an allegedly Christian group funded by Jewish billionaire George Soros. Most of its public activities involve attacking conservative evangelicals and Catholics like Hobby Lobby, Family Research Council, and Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett. Faithful America's latest stunt involved staging a gigantic golden calf, made to look like Trump, outside FRC Action's Pray Vote Stand Summit -- another item sympathetically covered by Axios. (Ironically, the Trump golden calf jab failed to land, coming only months after FRC Action Chairman Tony Perkins publicly broke with Trump's team over the watered-down language rammed through in the 2024 GOP platform.)

In summary, Axios's celebrated "faith leaders" consist of transgender activists, non-Christians, a few mainline denominations, and some unrepresentative, progressive fringe groups. It is neither surprising nor newsworthy that this amalgamation of interests continues to support the LGBT agenda.

In fact, the letter itself tried to have it both ways. On one hand, it claimed that "the majority of religious people in America support full LGBTQ equality." This claims too much. Some surveys might show majority religious support for acceptance of same-sex couples. But "full LGBTQ equality" -- as expressed in the "Equality Act" and elsewhere -- has expanded to overriding conscience rights, indoctrinating children, and endangering women -- overreaches that the majority of Americans detest.

On the other hand, the letter acknowledged the LGBT agenda's weakening cultural position. "Corporations are backing out of Pride. And polls show that all of these attacks are working. For the first time in years, public support for LGBTQ equality is declining," it complained. This would suggest that the LGBT movement -- and the signatories of this letter -- hold far less cultural clout than they let on. If their agenda really enjoyed the support of a majority of "religious people in America," then it would not be in such a state of decline.

It should come as no surprise that a pledge to "recommit to Pride" will find little support among Christians. The first obvious problem with this notion is the word "pride." Scripture clearly warns that "pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall" (Proverbs 16:18). This is because "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble" (James 4:6, 1 Peter 5:5). This is more than a superficial coincidence. Advocates of "LGBT Pride" really do endorse pride in the biblical sense, exalting their own will and desires above all criticism, in pursuit of a society where "everyone could do what was right in his own eyes" (Judges 21:25).

This raises a second obvious problem, that the recommitment to LGBT Pride contradicts the clear teaching of Scripture. God created mankind in his image as male and female (Genesis 1:26), ordaining marriage as a union of one man and one woman (Genesis 2:24). Jesus himself applied these texts as an ongoing foundation for sexual norms (Matthew 19:4-6). The Interfaith letter complained, "We lament every form of backsliding on public support for the full dignity and equality of LGBTQ+ people." Bible-believing Christians, by contrast, should lament every form of backsliding of public support for God's created order and the teachings of Jesus.

A third obvious problem is related to the second: in setting themselves against the Creator, LGBT activists also set themselves against the biological reality he created. The letter lamented that "many in the LGBTQ+ community view religion as hostile to their well-being." But the LGBT activist's problem is not so much with "religion" as it is the pesky reality that "religion" -- and specifically Christianity -- affirms. Therefore "God gave them up to dishonorable passions," and they "receiv[ed] in themselves the due penalty for their error" (Romans 1:26-27).

In other words, it is their own rejection of reality that is most hostile to the well-being of people who identify as LGBT. Christians understand that obedience to God's commands is the only true path to human flourishing. And love requires that Christians faithfully point this out to those who have strayed.

Originally published at The Washington Stand