Navigating Pride Month As A Christian

In a culture that increasingly challenges historic Christian convictions, navigating Pride Month can be a difficult path for many believers.

I want to begin by being honest: I am a non-gay-affirming Christian. I hold to a historic understanding of marriage and sexuality as I believe it’s taught in Scripture.

For many non-believers, this position makes me appear narrow-minded, intolerant, bigoted, even phobic – the very opposite of what they believe Jesus stood for and the love he came to demonstrate.

Adding to the complexity is the fact that Christianity itself is no longer united on this issue. Many professing believers align with their secular counterparts, affirming same-sex relationships and accusing traditional Christians of misrepresenting Christ’s love. They would no doubt view my position as harsh, unloving, or even harmful – a stumbling block to the very people Jesus came to welcome.

Pride Month = acceptance, inclusivity & justice

For many, Pride Month is seen as a time to promote inclusivity, visibility, and acceptance.

Many progressive Christian streams have embraced this cultural shift, affirming same-sex relationships and celebrating Pride as an expression of love and justice.

I obviously can’t speak to all the underlying motivations, but I believe many professing believers who take an affirming position do so from a well-meaning desire to show compassion and solidarity. They see the real injustices of the past (and the LGBTQ+ movement is often likened to the anti-slavery movement or the civil rights struggle) and the, at times, inhumane treatment that has been shown toward LGBTQ+ individuals – and they are rightly grieved by it. 

That impulse, at its core, reflects something good – a desire to treat all humans with compassion, dignity, and care. We should be grieved by injustice, by inhuman treatment of others, or by an attitude of withholding kindness or care, simply because we disagree with someone’s choices or identity.

But is disagreeing with someone’s choices or identity claims the same as denying their worth or rights as a human being? Does fully loving someone require affirming everything they believe or desire?

Can LGBTQ+ Be Biblically Affirmed?

To answer that, we need to clarify what we’re even talking about. While the LGBTQ+ label suggests unity, it actually includes a wide spectrum of beliefs, priorities, and experiences. People who identify under this label don’t necessarily agree with one another on various issues.

For example, not all lesbian, gay, or bisexual people agree with the idea of gender fluidity or the issues that surround these conversations. Some people identify both as LGBTQ+ and religious while others reject any religious framework as having relevance to their identity.

This makes it important to approach these conversations with nuance. How we say something often matters just as much as what we say. Accusing people who identify under this label of things they are not is not helpful to the conversation. 

Broadly speaking, however, the LGBTQ+ movement speaks to two main areas – that of sexual attraction and gender identity.

Scripture responds compellingly to both these issues.

Scripture teaches two genders

Genesis (1:27) tells us that humanity was made in the image of God, intentionally designed with two distinct genders. This differentiation is more than skin-deep. We are sexed creatures – uniquely male or female – not just in appearance, but at a DNA level. This biological reality influences our physical, mental, and emotional development throughout our lives. It is not incidental; it is integral to how God designed us.

Jesus himself affirms the creation account of male and female as the foundation for marriage and human relationships (Matthew 19: -6). He doesn’t redefine gender or expand it, rather he reaffirms what was written “in the beginning.”

And the New Testament consistently affirms this reality. The language of ‘male’ and ‘female’ shows these categories to be God-given realities, created with purpose and dignity, not merely social constructs that change from moment to moment. 

There is no category in Scripture for a gender apart from male or female, nor is there any sense that our bodies can be separated from who we truly are.

While we can and should have great compassion for those genuinely struggling with gender dysphoria and the distress of feeling like a stranger in their own body, true love doesn’t support a view of the self that denies the reality of God’s design.

I’ve written about the sex // gender debate elsewhere on my blog – you can read more about that here. 

scripture teaches marriage is between a man and a woman

This biblical language of ‘male’ and ‘female’ also shapes our understanding of human relationships, particularly marriage.

Marriage was God’s idea (Genesis 2:24) – a union defined by Him as being between a man and a woman, a “leaving and cleaving” from one’s family of origin to form a new, covenant bond (Matthew 19:4-6, Hebrews 13:4). This joining together is not merely emotional or legal, but physical and spiritual, and symbolic of something far greater: the love between Christ and his Church (Ephesians 5:31–32).

In fact, the Bible opens and closes with the images of marriage –  from the first union of Adam and Eve in Eden to the final wedding of Christ and His Church, bookmarking the entire narrative with a picture of covenantal love, God’s own love. This design of marriage is therefore not merely arbitrary but is profoundly theological.

Scripture teaches that sex is a sacred gift, intended to be enjoyed within the commitment of marriage. Outside of this covenant, sex is consistently described in Scripture as falling short of God’s design, no matter how consensual or culturally accepted it may be.

To redefine marriage is not just to alter the reality of the unique, intimate bond between a man and a woman; it also unravels a theological thread that runs through the entire gospel narrative.

Whether we like it or not, the Bible is clear on both of these matters, both male and female identity, and sex and marriage. As uncomfortable as it may be – and no matter how intolerant we may appear to others – these realities are rooted in the unchanging character of God and the clear witness of Scripture.

To redefine them as something other than what Scripture reveals is not simply to hold a different opinion. It is to compromise the authority of God’s Word and to undermine the integrity of the gospel itself.

love is speaking the truth, but..

To be fair, the Church has not always done well in “speaking the truth in love” or welcoming in those who don’t fit the stereotypical mould of a ‘Christian’.

At times, we unwittingly shape Christianity to fit our own image – often a white, Western, middle-class version of faith that can feel foreign or exclusive to others. We can easily develop a ‘western’-minded approach to mission work, particularly missions undertaken in indigenous communities, where the gospel is often packaged within Western culture. Customs, dress codes, language, and ways of operating that are foreign to the communities being engaged in often become entangled within the gospel message, making it harder for people to see the beauty of Christ without the burden of cultural conformity.

But the gospel is not bound by culture or colour. It is the power of God for all who believe (Romans 1:16). The kingdom of God is a beautifully diverse family, made up of every tribe, language, people, and nation (Revelation 7:9).  When faithfully preached, the gospel takes root and finds expression in every culture without needing to erase it. But if we’re not careful, we can mistake our cultural preferences for biblical truth.

At times, we have misunderstood our calling – forgetting that we are not to be judge and jury, but rather ambassadors for Christ. Our mandate is to preach Christ crucified, with humble conviction and a deep longing for all people to come to repentance and be saved (2 Corinthians 5:20, 1 Timothy 2:4).

And we sometimes forget that Jesus didn’t come for the healthy but for the sick, not for those who are righteous but for sinners. As the Apostle Paul wrote, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners – of whom I am the worst” (1 Timothy 1:15). Preaching the gospel is messy work in a broken world – but this broken world is exactly the place it needs to be preached. 

We can – and should – do better in all these areas.

But just because the truth has, at times, been poorly represented in practice does not make it any less true. The failures in our Christian past to embody Christ’s love do not nullify the authority of His Word today.

Why The Gospel Still Matters

All of this leads to a bigger question: why does the gospel still matter in the midst of all this tension?

The gospel is the good news that God, in Jesus, is making all things new. The world, broken by sin, is being restored, and the relationship between God and humanity, once disrupted by disobedience, has been repaired through the cross. God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son, so that we might be forgiven, made new, and become who He truly created us to be.

This cross-shaped hermeneutic changes everything – it changes the way we live the gospel as believers, it changes the way we preach the gospel to unbelievers, it changes the way we see God at work in the world. Everything changes when we view life through the lens of the cross.

At the cross, justice and mercy meet. Sin isn’t ignored, God’s holiness is vindicated, and yet we see a God who loved us enough to die for us while also gifting us, through grace, the means to be forgiven and made new. 

It’s no surprise that Jesus called people to take up their cross when considering what it means to follow Him (Luke 9:23). The cross is the great intersecting point between the dominion of darkness and the kingdom of light, a doorway through which hope, freedom and forgiveness can be fully received.

It is no small thing to see the cross for what it truly represents, and then to choose to surrender our lives to the cruciform way of Christ – dying to self, that we might live in him.

So how does this cross-shaped perspective shift the way that we interact with those who affirm an LGBGT+ narrative, either personally or on behalf of others? 

First and foremost, every person is someone for whom Christ died. They are human – just like us – and made in the image of God. We must resist the temptation to label others as ‘evil,’ ‘wicked,’ or ‘unworthy of salvation’ simply because they hold different views or are living in ways that do not align with God’s design. We are all sinners, who have fallen short of God’s ideals.

Kindness, patience, and a willingness to listen with understanding go a long way in fostering genuine, open conversation. This does not mean compromising truth, but it does mean carrying that truth with humility, remembering that we ourselves have been shown undeserved grace.

We must be careful not to be outraged by some sins while being dismissive of others. All expressions of sin – whether visible or hidden, socially accepted or not – are simply leaves on the same tree. A tree with rotten roots. They flow from a heart not reconciled to God, from a life that is only a shadow of what it was created to be.

We need to remember, too, that the cross speaks not just of God’s mercy but also His holiness. Jesus never compromised truth for acceptance and neither should we. We owe it to all people to preach the truth of the gospel.

The call of Jesus was never simply, “Come as you are, stay as you are” but always, “Come, follow me” – a call that leads to new life and transformation (Luke 9:23, John 8:11). 

At the cross, sin was not overlooked, excused, or affirmed. It was exposed and dealt with.

The gospel message contains both realities: the mercy of God and also the judgment of God upon sin. A cross-shaped lens helps us hold these two together in beautiful tension.

Would Jesus Be At Pride?

I’m seeing a growing number of social media posts in the lead-up to Pride Month claiming that “Jesus would be at Pride.” These statements rely on a false dichotomy – suggesting that because Jesus ate with sinners and associated with prostitutes (as we read in the New Testament), he must therefore affirm and endorse all their choices. The implication is that Jesus’ presence among sinners equated to agreement with their lifestyles. By that logic, we should expect him to be at Pride today, celebrating and affirming behaviours that, from a biblical perspective, are not aligned with Christian teaching.

But this logic is flawed. Yes, Jesus came for all people, that’s true. In the New Testament, we see him interacting with all kinds of people: the religious and the irreligious, the law-abiding and the outcasts, those seen as righteous and those labelled sinners or unworthy by society.

But he didn’t come to affirm people – he came to give life, to offer forgiveness, and to call people back to a full and reconciled relationship with God. His message wasn’t “come and see”, but “come and die”. Die to self-interest. Die to self-will. Die to sin. And in doing so, come alive in him.

He met people where they were – and then gently but firmly called them to repentance, healing, and a new life.

I think of all the many ways and in all the different circumstances that God finds all of us, of the challenges we all face in laying down our agendas and purposes to take up the ones that God has for us, which, in Jesus, are far superior. We lose ourselves only to discover our true identity and in dying with Christ we find life, and life more abundantly.

So would Jesus be at Pride? He would be with people – as he always was. But he never affirmed or celebrated sin. He would be calling all of us, no matter our identity or background, to take up our cross and follow him, not our sinful desires, our culture, or our pride.

Pride Month & The Cross

As we approach Pride Month, this article is an appeal to Christians of all persuasions: the gospel still matters. We do not win hearts for Jesus or lead souls into the kingdom of God by remaining silent on the things of significance, by reshaping church values to mirror secular culture, or by affirming what Scripture calls us to repent of.

It’s not about singling out individuals or becoming hyper-focused on particular sins, something Christians have unfortunately been known to do. It’s about pointing to a better way and a greater purpose.

It’s the Holy Spirit who convicts hearts, and as Scripture reminds us, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13).

But Paul the Apostle continues his letter with a pressing and urgent question: “How can they call on Him to save them unless they believe in Him? And how can they believe in Him if they have never heard about Him? And how can they hear unless someone tells them?” (Romans 10:14).

We are those “someones.” Pride month is an opportunity not to shrink back in silence or fear, but to speak up with courage, truth, humility, and love, trusting that the gospel of Jesus still has the power to save.

If you or someone you know is struggling with or confused by LGBTQ+ and gender issues, you might find this article helpful. And, as always, feel free to drop me a comment below or get in touch via email or socials.