"Pride Month" ?

This past week I have seen two members of the Church praising "Pride Week" or what it represents.  What these misguided members don't understand is multifaceted.  Let me explain.

First of all, these misguided people think they are being loving and accepting of their fellow man by praising the LGBT agenda.  When in reality they are condoning sin and demeaning their fellow man.  It is easy to love your fellow man and accept them as human beings and fellow brothers and sisters without condoning sinful behavior.  And yes, homosexuality is a sin.  Same-sex attraction is not, but breaking the law of chastity in any respect is a sin.  I didn't make the rules.  God did.  I'm just explaining them.

Now, before you think I am just a naïve member of the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints who has no clue, let me assure you that I know what I am talking about.

I went to medical school in San Francisco.  That should explain a lot.  I not only had many of my clinicians/professors who were openly homosexual or even obvious closet homosexuals, but many of my patients also.  I did not treat them any different than I would anybody else.  In fact, I grew to have compassion for them in their trial.  Most were very nice people.  In fact I remember one patient who I was going to do a bloody nail avulsion on.  He was obviously homosexual.  But he warned me profusely that he was HIV-positive and told me to be very careful.  That's just one example. By the way, I was still a student at the time and did not have much experience, which might explain why the patient was a little concerned for me.

So I've had plenty of experience interacting with homosexuals.  You don't need to condone their lifestyle to treat them kindly.  We are all children of God who sin differently.  But we should never condone or praise a sinful lifestyle.

Satan has pushed the LGBT agenda so much recently, but many people are confused.  It's almost as if society is teaching us that that lifestyle is superior in some way.  Which is completely and utterly false. Society teaches that if we don't condone and praise homosexuality that we are intolerant and unloving.  This is what Satan would have us believe.  But God teaches us that marriage can only be between a man and a woman.  Anything else is counterfeit.  It doesn't matter what the laws of the land are.  God's laws trump everything.

Another disturbing thing about "Pride Week", or pride month whatever it is, is the use of the word pride itself. Scripturally, pride is a vice.  It is not something you want attached to your name.  There is a difference between being proud of someone for an accomplishment and being prideful. President Ezra Taft Benson gave an iconic talk on pride back in 1989.  Here is an excerpt.

"Pride is a very misunderstood sin, and many are sinning in ignorance. (See Mosiah 3:11; 3 Ne. 6:18.) ...

"Most of us think of pride as self-centeredness, conceit, boastfulness, arrogance, or haughtiness. All of these are elements of the sin, but the heart, or core, is still missing.

"The central feature of pride is enmity—enmity toward God and enmity toward our fellowmen. Enmity means “hatred toward, hostility to, or a state of opposition.” It is the power by which Satan wishes to reign over us.

"Pride is essentially competitive in nature. We pit our will against God’s. When we direct our pride toward God, it is in the spirit of “my will and not thine be done.” As Paul said, they “seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ’s.” (Philip. 2:21.)"

"Our will in competition to God’s will allows desires, appetites, and passions to go unbridled. (See Alma 38:12; 3 Ne. 12:30.)

"The proud cannot accept the authority of God giving direction to their lives. (See Hel. 12:6.) They pit their perceptions of truth against God’s great knowledge, their abilities versus God’s priesthood power, their accomplishments against His mighty works.

"Our enmity toward God takes on many labels, such as rebellion, hard-heartedness, stiff-neckedness, unrepentant, puffed up, easily offended, and sign seekers. The proud wish God would agree with them. They aren’t interested in changing their opinions to agree with God’s." -- Ezra Taft Benson, "Beware of Pride", April 1989

Doesn't that exactly describe the LGBT agenda and mindset?  Hatred, hostility, opposition.  My will, not thine.  Unbridled appetites and desires. Combative in nature. They want everyone to agree with them, they are not interested in changing their opinions to agree with God's, or anybody's.

Yes, "Pride Month" is named properly.  It fits the LGBT agenda to a tee.  Yet, ironically they don't understand that it is a very derogatory term.  Yet that is what they are self labeling themselves as.

So, praising "Pride Month" is disturbing on many levels.  First of all you are condoning sin by praising a homosexual lifestyle.  By telling people to "be who you are or be proud of who you are" in terms of LGBT lifestyle and pride is actually promoting hatred, hostility, and opposition.  It is not promoting love and acceptance.

And to place a label of LGBT on someone as "who they are" is actually degrading.  Their lifestyle or struggles with same-sex attraction or body dysmorphia should not be what define them. What should define everybody and should be the first thing you associate yourself with is being a child of God.  That is what defines us.  We are all children of God.

Satan wants us to label and define others and ourselves in derogatory terms.  And then promote it as something good.  We should all be smarter than that.  Don't let Satan buffalo you.

To promote "LGBT Pride Month" as anything but derogatory and demeaning is misguided and wrong.

That's my two cents.