Dangerous Faith
Dangerous Faith is a ministry that strives to light a fire inside of Everyday Christians to live radically for Christ so that we can glorify God by advancing His Kingdom.
Dangerous Faith
#83: Dangerous Faith– A Christian View on Pride Month
Nate Williams offers a basic Christian view on Pride Month. Let him know your thoughts on our Dangerous Faith social media accounts.
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Nate Williams here with the Dangerous Faith Podcast, and we are talking Pride Month. It is June and oftentimes Christians who seek to be faithful to the Bible they wonder okay, should I respond? What should I do? What should I say? Should I do anything? Should I ignore this month? Should I mention it? I don't know.
Speaker 1:We often wonder what do you do when a culture around you celebrates blatant and obvious sin, but, at the same time, you recognize people in the LGB community. Well, they're people. God loves them. Jesus died for them. They're made in the image of God and you want them to feel loved and welcomed. And we're all sinners and I want everyone to go to a local church and to worship and to come to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. So you have all these competing desires, thoughts, things that you think are true, and you're wondering okay, well, what do I do? How should I view this month when you are just bombarded with LGB? You know flag signals, advertisements. What do you do? And I have a few thoughts. I don't know how coherent, I don't know if I can wrap it all up in a pretty bow, but I'll share some thoughts with you on this.
Speaker 1:Yes, lgb lifestyles are sinful. I'm going to say that I'm not ashamed of it. They go against the natural order, the natural way God made the world order. The natural way God made the world. Marriage is between one man and one woman, so that children can be produced and civilization can continue Again, the natural order of things. So that's why, in general, men are attracted to women, women are attracted to men, and that's biblical, that's natural, the way God made things to go. So to affirm that, I'll start there. That is biblical. However, one thing I do want to say is that some or all of the base desires in the LGB community are good. Now hear me when I say this. I'm not saying the way that they fulfill those desires are healthy, holy, obedient to God, and the way God made the world. That's not what I'm saying. I'm talking about the desire themselves. I'm not talking about the way they are tried to be fulfilled. I don't think that was an English sentence, but you get what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:If you are a lesbian, a gay, bisexual, you desire companionship. That's a good thing, nothing's wrong with that. You want to love and to feel loved. That's a good thing, nothing's wrong with that. You want to love and to feel loved. That's a good thing, nothing's wrong with that. You want to have a family Again another good thing. Those desires are a good thing and we can affirm that. That, no matter who you are wanting those basic things is just fine.
Speaker 1:Now you have to be careful how you try to fulfill that, because here's what happens when you don't mention that. And you're a Christian, you talk about sinful lifestyles and that's true. But here's what people hear on the other side, the LGB community and I'm not including the T, I've gone over that before. I think the T, transgenderism destroys the L, the G, the B, so I don't include that. So I just say LGB, the LGB community. This is what they hear.
Speaker 1:When you only mention one side of the biblical Christian response, they think oh well, you hate me, you wish you know, you think I'm the scum of the earth, you think I'm the worst, you think I'm terrible and I should probably go off myself, or something like that. But if you are able to express a nuanced position, you'll call sin sin. I'm not going to waffle on that, I'm not ashamed of that. I think that's biblical. But at the same time you say no matter who you are, it's a good thing to desire community, no matter what you're struggling with. It's a good thing to desire companionship. We're not made to be alone. You think Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. It was not good that Adam was alone. He was lonely and so he was lonely, and so it's okay to desire those things. You're not a monster for desiring those things. You're not a monster for wanting to live in a community and to be affirmed and celebrated Just who you are as a human.
Speaker 1:I'm not talking your sexual lifestyle, but just. You're human, you're valuable, you're made in the image of God. No-transcript, all right. The way I think of it is compare it to other sins. Think about an alcoholic. An alcoholic is made in the image of God. He or she, you know the base desires are good desires. An alcoholic wants to not be alone, wants to be with people. Yeah, those are good things.
Speaker 1:However, you're saying to the alcoholic the lifestyle you are choosing to live, that is sinful, that is damaging to the body, just like the LGB lifestyle. If you look at it scientifically and medically, those lifestyles are damaging to the human body. You think STDs? You think well, let's just think man-on-man sexual activity is damaging to the body, and I won't go into great detail there. I trust that you know what I mean, and if you don't, that's okay, you're probably better for it. But anyways, those lifestyles are damaging to the human body. Lifespans are shorter in the LGB community because of those things, diseases and stuff like that. And so, like the alcoholic, you're saying diseases and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:And so, like the alcoholic, you're saying, oh, this is damaging, it is not part of the natural order of God, it's not the way God made the world, it's not biblical. But at the same time, I love you, I want to worship with you, so come to our local church. But it depends on if you view it as a sin struggle or something to be loud and proud about. Because I know there are a lot of LGB people out there who struggle with certain desires and how to fulfill them. But they're trying to live faithfully to the word, they're trying to be faithful to scripture, and so they live celibate lifestyles. They don't partake in that way of living. They try to avoid the fantasies, the lusting after members of the same sex. They try to avoid those things, but they do have those desires. They try to avoid those things, but they do have those desires.
Speaker 1:And there are many Christians like that who are trying to do the uphold the basic traditional beliefs of the faith. If we just blast the LGB community and we use certain terminology, you know a certain F word, and we insult and we are derogatory and we are harsh and we're critical, what will happen is, yes, people will hear what they want to hear. But there might be some who recognize the way they feel naturally is not right. The way they feel naturally goes against the word of God and they don't want to live that way. But I'm like shoot if you're just going to treat me like the scum of the earth. Shoot if you're just going to treat me like the scum of the earth. I'm not going to be interested in the faith, I'm not going to try to grow closer to God, to learn more about the Bible, because you already hate me anyways. So our messaging during this quote-unquote Pride Month LGB celebrations we do need to be well-rounded Again, I'm not ashamed to call sin sin, but also recognize that all humans are made in the image of God. No-transcript. Now, be careful how you fulfill those desires.
Speaker 1:Again, I'm repeating myself there, but there are just stories out there of people who I'm thinking Rosaria. Rosaria Butterfield, I think, is one of them. She has quite the story. I'm trying to find it. One moment, if I could, rosaria. Rosaria's story is incredible and I'll read it briefly. This is on her website. Just someone who was a part of this group was living the lifestyle, so to speak, but then came out of it through hospitality and friendship. So I'll just read it quickly. You could look deeper into her story for more details, but it was.
Speaker 1:Aria Butterfield, a former tenured professor of English and women's studies at Syracuse University, converted to Christ in what she describes as a train wreck. Her memoir, the Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert An English Professor's Journey into Christian Faith, chronicles her conversion. Rosaria is married to Kent, a Reformed Presbyterian pastor in North Carolina. She's a mother, grandmother, author and speaker. Raised and educated in liberal Roman Catholic settings, rosaria loved books and philosophy. In her late 20s, allured by feminist philosophy and LGBTQ plus politics, she adopted a lesbian identity. She earned her PhD from Ohio State, then served in the English department in women's studies for about 10 years. Her primary academic field was critical theory, specializing in queer theory. Her historical field was 19th century literature, informed by Freud, hegel, marx and Darwin, with a special interest in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. She advised LGBTQ plus groups, co-authored Syracuse University's domestic partnership policy for same-sex couples and actively lobbied for LGBTQ plus legal advancements, alongside her lesbian partner.
Speaker 1:In 1997, while Rosaria was researching the religious right and quote their politics of hatred against people like me, she wrote an article against the promise keepers. Local Reformed Presbyterian pastor, ken Smith, responded to that article and Rosaria regularly met with Ken and his wife Floyd over dinners in their home. Ken and Floyd became a resource on the religious right and the Bible they loved. Eventually they became her confidants. In 1999, after reading through the Bible multiple times under Ken and Floy's care, rosaria converted to Christianity.
Speaker 1:So I think that I've talked about this before. With issues like this, it's good to have doctrine, it's good to have theology. Oh, that's wonderful. Read your Bible, know your Bible. Also, be able to tell good stories. Tell the story of Rosaria Butterfield and others who have left the LGB lifestyle, left that community and found Christ, and I think that's powerful and it should be, in addition to being biblically faithful and biblically sound. Tell Rosaria's story, and so, anyways, I just read part of her biography. I know it's kind of brief and broad strokes, but I think that's very important, but anyways, putting this episode on a bow.
Speaker 1:We're in Pride Month, so should you boycott everything? I don't know, people have different thoughts on that. I think that if we boycott stuff, it should be concentrated to have some sort of actual effect. We've seen that with Target and one beer company I don't know if that was Bud Light or something else where we actually have an economic effect and they change their advertising strategy. So I think, whatever you do, do it together, as a group, as opposed to one-off stuff that does nothing in the big picture. But anyways, I'll leave that to other people to talk about more in depth than I will right here.
Speaker 1:But yes, love everyone. But love does not always mean affirm everyone. Sometimes love means speaking the truth with grace. You can call sin sin, while saying to those in the LGB community hey, god died for you, you are special, you have value, you're made in the image of God. You want companionship, you want community. Those are good things. However, the way we fulfill those things matters. I'd be interested to know your thoughts, as I you know head off. What do you think? Do you think my approach is balanced? Do you think I'm too soft and fluffy? Do you think I'm too harsh and I'd like to know. Leave me a comment, you can message me and yeah, I'll. I can respond to various things, but anyways, nate Williams, dangerous Faith. Until next time. Y'all be good and I'll talk with you later. Thank you, you.