What is the spiritual significance of pride?
June is Pride Month for millions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people across the country. During this time each year, we commemorate the weekend of June 27-29, 1969, when the patrons of the Stonewall Inn bar in Greenwich Village, fed up with police brutality and harassment towards the LGBT community, resolved to fight back. This turning point represented the birth of the modern LGBT-rights movement.
Many LGBT-affirming churches and other religious communities hold special events during the month of June, including LGBT-themed prayer services and liturgical celebrations. In fact, many of these congregations send contingents to walk in the various pride marches that occur across the country in June. Pride Month is a time for spiritual communities to give thanks for a loving God who has created LGBT people in God's image and likeness and for the intrinsic goodness of our bodies and sexualities.
Pride Month is also a time to honor our LGBT saints and ancestors, including the drag queens at the Stonewall Inn who courageously liberated us by starting the Stonewall riots, as well as all those known and unknown people before us who died of HIV/AIDS or were felled by anti-LGBT violence. Indeed, Pride Month is a sacred time for many of my fellow lay and ordained ministers in the Metropolitan Community Churches, a denomination that was founded by and for LGBT people but that is open to all.
Unfortunately, many anti-LGBT Christians have condemned Pride Month as a sinful celebration of debauchery and perversion. They have pointed to the scantily-clad and outrageously-dressed individuals in pride marches as evidence of our nation's moral decay. Fundamentalist Christian protesters have lined the streets holding signs with biblical warnings of how LGBT people will burn in hell for all eternity.
Even those mainline Christians who are not overtly hostile to LGBT people often fail to understand the spiritual significance of Pride Month. "Why do they need to wear their sexualities on their sleeves?" many of them ask. Many churches that line the routes of pride marches keep their doors conspicuously shut and their parishioners far away, as if somehow all the joyous celebration outside would contaminate the holy spaces inside.
This resistance to Pride Month is not surprising from a theological perspective. Traditionally, pride has been understood by Christians as the first, and thus most serious, of the seven deadly sins. Indeed, pride -- defined as the inordinate love of oneself -- was the sin that brought down Satan and the other rebellious angels. Pride was also responsible for the fall of humanity, which resulted from Adam and Eve's wanting to be like God and thus eating from the forbidden tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden.
Given the long-standing historical condemnation of pride as the root of all sin in the Christian tradition, how can we understand LGBT pride to be a blessing and not a sin? As an openly-gay theologian, teacher of theology, and ordained minister, I believe that sin is not just limited to pride or inordinate self-love. Rather, sin -- defined as the way in which, despite our best intentions, we inevitably turn our backs on who God has created us to be -- can also take the opposite form of inordinate self-hate or shame, something that many LGBT people experience from a very early age.
In other words, sin is not just a matter of lifting oneself up too high (as in the case of Satan, the rebellious angels, or Adam and Eve), but it is also a matter of failing to lift oneself up high enough. Many LGBT people have been taught to hide in the shadows as a result of being taunted and tormented by our peers from an early age. We are constantly told that what we do is unnatural and that God hates us. Is it any wonder, then, that so many LGBT people suffer from a toxic degree of self-hate and shame?
Even those of us who have been out for decades and who deal with LGBT issues on a daily basis in our jobs ("professional gays," as one of my friends put it) are not immune to shame. For example,even though my partner and I have been together for nearly 19 years we still feel self-conscious when we hold hands or kiss each other in certain public situations. We have been programmed (wrongly) to believe that these acts are somehow less meaningful in the eyes of God than the exact same acts performed by an opposite-sex couple.
Indeed, feminist Christian theologians going back to Valerie Saiving in the early 1960s have characterized self-hate and shame -- as opposed to pride -- as the kind of sin that is most often experienced by women and LGBT people. According to such theologians, elevated self-hate and shame is sinful because we fail to recognize how God has lifted up all of humanity through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and we therefore fail to live our lives in accordance with this good news.
Thus, it is not surprising that pride is an important positive spiritual value for LGBT people. Because of the ways in which many LGBT people have been taught to hate ourselves from an early age, pride is an important act of spiritual healing and witness that allows us to develop a healthy sense of ourselves, our communities, and those who we love. The problem is often not that we are too proud, but rather that we are not proud enough.
This is not to say, however, that the notion of pride as sin has no place in the spiritual lives of LGBT people. One of the things that I find particularly compelling about the doctrine of original sin is its radical equality. That is, no human being -- not even the Pope, the Archbishop of Canterbury, or the Ecumenical Patriarch -- is intrinsically less sinful than anyone else. Thus, the LGBT community, like all other communities, must always be vigilant against hurting others through the abuse of power or through various structural sins such as racism, ageism, sexism, transphobia, classism, and ableism.
Quite frankly, Pride Month celebrations can often seem like advertisements for alcohol, porn, dance parties, and exotic travel destinations. There is often a great premium placed on external beauty and material wealth -- particularly in the white gay male community -- that results in many people of color feeling left out and inferior. Also, people in the LGBT community often fail to treat others, particularly in sexual situations, with the compassion and respect that we would have others do unto us. These are all reminders that no community, including an oppressed one, is free from the human condition of sin.
In the end, however, I believe that LGBT Pride Month is more than just a celebration of secular values of equality, justice, human rights, and freedom. Pride Month is also a profoundly spiritual celebration of seeing ourselves as beloved children of God. Sometimes we may fall short of the mark, but who doesn't? In the end, we are made in the image and likeness of a God who loves us for who we are. Period. And that is truly a cause for celebration!
Follow Rev. Patrick S. Cheng, Ph.D. on Twitter: www.twitter.com/patrickscheng
Rob Thomas: The Big Gay Chip on My Shoulder
Firstly, there is no mention of any gender-bias or sexual-orientation that exempts or disqualifies anyone from holding these values. Secondly, and more importantly, "pride" is not one of these values he mentions. Also of note is that sexual orientation does not appear in the list of sinful acts that follow.
For critics that would point out that it was Paul who specifically mentions homosexuality as a sin, it would be useful to note that many of these acts, including the eating of certain foods, was closely associated with the pagan religions of his time, and hence the strong denunciation of these practices.
If I loved someone enough to lay down my life for the other (man or woman) , it has transcended physical love. Jesus himself said there is no such thing as marriage after the resurrection in the Gospels. (Matt 22:29)
It is interesting that Jesus also mentions in Matthew 19, that for some, it would be impossible for them to be in the married (one man, one woman) state, and some would be disqualified from serving (under the law, i.e. Leviticus 21) because of such defects.
Disclaimer: I am a happily married heterosexual male with 2 kids
Not in my dictionary. One definition is "inordinate self-esteem." That's not quite the same as inordinate self-love. Right after that definition comes "self-respect." Not inordinate, just self-respect.
Pride means self-respect. Pride is good. Gay self-respect is good. Gay Pride is good.
You should, "clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because 'God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble'. Humble youselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that God may lift you up in due time"....1 Peter 5:5,6
Be aware, "when pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom."...Proverbs 11:2
Spiritual "wisdom teaches the reverance of God, and humility comes before honor."...Proverbs 15:33
There have been many a Christians words and actions that have "hurt" others, in a spiritual sense,
there is a "job" of "the oppressor", and people can apply for it anytime, its a choice, or shal I say, a job.
The oppressor acts like Cain, gonna beat on you if you get out of line.
"Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. Better to be lowly in spirit and among the oppressed than to share the nature of the proud."....Proverbs 16:18, 19
"Before their downfall a person's heart is proud, but humility comes before honor." ...Proverbs 18:12
Since God is on the side of the humble oppressed folks and against the proud oppressors, over time, you can see the justice of God. Things like Divorce/no fault becoming common, as well as people living together (not married), birth control availability, abortion on demand, sex education, gay marriage, civil rights.
Acknowledge God's curse is on the religious way, become 'spiritually significant'.
It's time to get rid of this nonsense once and for all:
"The New Atheism" states that atheism, backed by recent scientific advancement, has reached the point where it is time to take a far less accommodating attitude toward religion, superstition, and religion-based fanaticism than had been extended by moderate atheists, secularists, and some secular scientists. According to CNN, "What the New Atheists share is a belief that religion should not simply be tolerated but should be countered, criticized and exposed by rational argument wherever its influence arises."
Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Atheism
Is there some sort of happy medium between the two? Not shame does not equal pride. No one should really feel shamed without a reason. Fatsos should feel shame. Ignorant people should feel shame. It does not work in the converse though. Should thin people feel pride? Probably not.
There is really no pride to be felt in a characteristic that one has no choice over. A person can obtain and renounce a nationality. That does not work so well in the case of pride.
If people want to be "proud" they can be. But there is no spiritual significance to it. Self-loathing is not great, but unnecessary pride does not help anyone. Even if they are a fan of the Jesus.
But, whatever, it does not really matter to me in the least. People can use whatever rationale they want to show how they are "good" people.
Pride can be a noble characteristic in the face of adversity.
Real adversity which means certain people have a lot of nerve criticizing LGBT people over a choice of words.
Who is "us" and how did "we" decide to appoint those to speak upon "our" behalf?
I really do not care if people are into "gay pride." Whatever. I just think it is a terribly stupid thing to be "proud" of assuming that sexuality is a biologically fixed condition (that is not a "choice.") It is akin to being proud of having brown eyes or being born without legs. Where is the halfman pride?
It gets even worse because "gay" is not a true association nor a defining characteristic. Most people do not go around describing ourselves as being homosexual ("gay"--which is a gender and not a sexuality) or bisexual or heterosexual. Other people might. I know people who think sexuality is important enough to bring it up as a major description of a person at introductions: "this is my gay friend [me]" (which is only partly true, but I am more upset about reduction to a sexuality).
"Gay" "pride" is an attempt to associate solely based on reductions to sexuality (like those creepy older men who think that you have something in common because both you and they enjoy penis.) It does not make sense.
It would make more sense to see a "fatty lover pride" as the group is more homogeneous. "Gay" is no a homogeneous group and associations based upon it are meaningless.
I am not calling for self-loathing, but the opposite should not be "pride."
— Jean Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract, 1762
Perhaps their time would be better spent protesting at Mardi Gras!
Not only are scantily-clad individuals immoral ... they cause hurricanes and earthquakes!
"Gay" "Pride" is also about debauchery, but it is really not about anything. There is no backing to the event(s). Instead there is this fake attribution of the events being based around pride in a supposedly shared quality. As if the debauchery is wrong and has to be based upon something (it does not; it can be based upon something, but it does not need to be). So people decide to use the false association of gayness as a way to get together and have a party. It does not make any sense. How can one be proud of a shared quality in that way? Especially when this shared quality is supposedly unchangeable and determined by birth? How can someone be proud of someone they do not choose? I hate these stupid excuses for behaviors.
I am a bit of a hypocrite as I have and do use gay bars for easy sex, but I am a hedonist, so I can do it.
We look at Anita Bryant, Jerry Falwell, and Sarah Palin as people who claim endlessly that they are Christians, but most of us know their intolerance as anything BUT Christian, and the one thing they share in all that is their blatant homophobia...Any of them could have been polite and preached "Love the sinner, hate the sin," but most who exhaust something as blatantly arrogant as that often promote these de-gayifying camps...pushing youngsters further into self-loathing and guilt, sometimes with fatal results. I have not heard of one incident in which they stated that motto. Even if hate is "not" the primary emotion behind the anti-gay, it's condescending. They may be "tolerant," as in, use manners, but deep down there's a stigma that they would prefer to eradicate wholeheartedly as a means to reach their sadly unrealistic utopia.
When a Christian, or anyone else, regardless of religious affiliation or none, exhibits their own pride in something, it's just too obscure to me. All parents are proud when their child walks into preschool for his very first day as a student. These feelings are not built on hatred, arrogance, or preference for a particular group to be treated as first class citizens above others, based on a book they read.
Leviticus-However every cereal offering that you present to the lord shall be unleavened bread, for you shall not burn any leaven or honey as oblation to the Lord. unleaven bread is bread is without yeast, put to the fire, will not puff up. Like Leaven bread when the leaven bread with yeast gets heated up, it puffs up, same when we have been heated up, our pride puffs up, they boast in the flesh, and the flesh is hostility toward God, for the flesh does not submit to the law of God nor can it. No offer honey, when honey is put in the heat, it bubbles up and the bubbles burst, meaning ones pride also. Being kind sweet and not judging righteously or in true justice, is not good either, nor helps the other, to correct them.
How ever every cereal offering that you present to the Lord shall be seasoned with salt. do not let the salt of the covenant of you God be lacking from your cereal offering. On every offering you shall offer salt. Preserves, everlasting.
the bible uses symbols thus did all the chosen men apostles of God did. the bible explains itself. Smybols were used because man in the flesh, would never understand spiritual matters. Nor could they, they would only be able to under what they saw, used, experienced, did in their own lives in the flesh. St Peter I cannot talk to you about spiritual matters for you are still sipping milk. Mortal wisdom is less then spiritual wisdom. We only had mortal wisdom given, common sense was all that was needed to live in the flesh to exist on earth. Why the smybol used the Good Shepherd, sheep etc.
For all were Shepherds, what they did for a living, worked in the fields. All know what was needed to be a good shepherd, to care provide for their sheep, their sheep that provided their lively hood. Not a good shepherd, sheep were neglected got deceased, lost eaten by wolfs and then no means to provide for themselves, all suffered, both were destroyed, the shepherd and his flock did not prosper.
Our Pride Celebration is a very important thing, please don't coopt it to have religious meaning. If anything we celebrate our freedom from many hundreds of years of persecution from religion.
Trying to add the word "God" into everything unseemly.
The behavior of a homophobe is all so very easy to psychologically analyze. The ones who cry the loudest are always the most guilty. Anyone who throws the F-bomb at a homosexual is more than likely ATTRACTED to that homosexual. It's a deep, insecure tangle of fear that they have knotted up inside themselves, and they will do what they can to hurt anyone that remotely exhibits the behavior they feel too ashamed to exhibit on their own. It's a coverup, a sham, and as putrid as the rhetoric can become, I try my best to pity them and hope they come to accept their sexualities. I can sadly admit that I used these terrible words years and years before it dawned on me that I REALLY like other women. Such a sickening, immature thought process, but I am a textbook example.
If homophobes are gay, well then, we can just blame homophobia on gay people! Where have I heard that one before? Ah. Blaming the victim. I see.
Are there some homophobes who are gay? Of this I have no doubt (you once behaved that way), but the majority are definitely not. Hatred of gay men and women has very much to do with the workings of the patriarchy...and how gay relationships/sex 'threaten' masculinity.
Jesus debunked the trap and the uncorroborated accusation by requiring pure witnesses, none of whom remained. Thus when he got up, no one remained to prosecute the defendent. So he said: go and sin no more.
That did not meaning adultery and illegal sexual conduct was a minor offense. It did not mean do not uphold moral law in social relations in society. It did not mean sexual hedonism is fine.
Feeding our flesh, is easy, Pride, egos, vanity are easy, being humble takes great strength. People are mocked and persecuted when they are humble, called cowards, Jesus whole life was humility and was greatly persecuted by others for it. By those he was out to save.
Written. Those who think themselves wise to judge others, then if they were truly wise, they would know first, the evilness they are themselves first. The is great knowledge, spiritual wisdom.
Not even Jesus, son of God, nor anyone who severed was chosen by God, to serve him, since the beginning of time, ever boasted, of their own pride ever. All God's chosen people who served him, all were greatly persecuted, suffered greatly, falsely accused, died the most horrible deaths, by their very own citizens, whom they were all trying to safe, from slavery, being slaves also to their own flesh.