Pride and the 7 Deadly Sins
Our culture is currently in the middle of Pride Month, which is the celebration and promotion of the LGBTQ+ movement. Ironically, the term chosen to represent this celebration is “pride,” which happens to be one of the seven deadly sins. I realize it’s not meant to celebrate pride as a vice, but to celebrate a group of historically oppressed people who are collectively finding acceptance and security in their identity. Still, they chose the word “pride” for a reason, and that reason is because Pride Month is about being proud of one’s sexual identity. But taking pride in anything that goes against God’s clear commands is sinful pride, which is rebellion—the raising of the fist against God. This means that no matter how one tries to describe it, the celebration of Pride Month amounts to celebrating one of the seven deadly sins.
In the Bible, pride is sort of a big deal to God—and by “sort of,” I mean it’s a really big deal. Pride is what led to Lucifer’s fall, humanity’s fall into sin, and the ongoing fall of anyone who tries to base their acceptance and security upon an identity apart from God. As beings made in the image of God, we were created to center our identity and self-worth on one thing alone—God. All other substitutes are rooted in one of the deadliest sins. Pride in one’s appearance, status, career, wealth, family, and yes, even sexuality, as the source of one’s self-worth, is trying to find identity and value in things that only lead to misery and eternal, spiritual death. God, the author and giver of life, is the only possible source of life and happiness, and to look to any other source is akin to trying to find life in a morgue. This means that Pride Month is not merely about celebrating and supporting a marginalized people group; it’s ultimately the celebration of finding meaning and self-worth in a world without God, which doesn’t exist.
But what about Independence Day? After all, it’s the celebration of national pride, and that’s surely just as deadly, right? That depends. If it’s the godless celebration of our country rooted in the belief of national superiority, then yes, that’s quite terminal indeed. But if it’s the celebration of gratitude for freedom, liberties, and prosperity that God has blessed us with, then no, that’s not celebrating a deadly sin. The devil is in the details, and if the details of your celebration are rooted in self-worship instead of God worship, then your celebration is the spiritual equivalent to devilishly filling the party’s punchbowl with cyanide.
In Exodus chapter 20, we find the Ten Commandments, in which the first commandment states, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” And yet, as seen in Pride Month, this command is outrightly rejected in the celebration and worship of a sexual identity contrary to God’s created order and explicit commands (Genesis 2:24, Romans 1:18-32). But the first domino to fall wasn’t rejecting God’s plan for sexuality, it was rejecting God Himself. This is what led to the breaking of all other commandments, which is how it always works. Why do people murder? Because they are pursuing happiness and self-worth apart from God and they will murder to get it. Why do people commit adultery, lie, or steal? Because they are pursuing happiness and self-worth apart from God and they will do whatever they must to get it (James 4:1-3). This holds true with all sin, for all sin embraces the original lie from the serpent that says God doesn’t have our best interests at heart. We think God doesn’t want us to be happy, so if we’re going to find happiness, security, and self-worth, we’ll have to find it in an identity of our own making. However, this can’t and won’t lead to happiness. As C. S. Lewis once said: “What Satan put into the heads of our remote ancestors was the idea that they could ‘be like gods’—could set up on their own as if they had created themselves—be their own masters—invent some sort of happiness for themselves outside God, apart from God. And out of that hopeless attempt has come nearly all that we call human history—money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery—the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.”
And so, as a Christian, I reject the celebration of Pride Month, not because of bigotry or hatred, but because it’s a celebration of what cannot and will not lead to happiness. For true happiness can only be found at the foot of the cross, in celebrating the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ as the only sufficient payment for our sins.
