Business Principles Abandoned With Gay Pride

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I was recently in Charlotte NC, went for an afternoon walk and stumbled into an area where a gay pride rally was being held.

It was a multi-layered experience.

City streets were blocked and police were on hand to help manage the mostly young crowd. There was a lively, earthy and good-natured feel to the event. People were enjoying themselves.

At every turn there were people whose dress, chosen companion and behaviour revealed their sexual orientation. I’ve seen this before on a smaller scale and don’t find it especially disturbing.

There were booths from some churches proclaiming endorsement of the GLBT community. These were not just the Metropolitan Community church, but also an Episcopalian and a Presbyterian Church. Other Christians were there with a Cross and proclaimed repentance, faith and forgiveness. I admire their faithfulness and courage but wonder at the effectiveness. Yet other ‘Christians’ stood in front of this group with banners proclaiming GLBT support and citing the text ‘nothing shall separate us from the love of God’, presumably as an endorsement of the gay community. I take it that the church booths reflect knowing intentionality in their apostasy. I guess that that some of the other ‘Christian’ voices were naïve, deluded and ignorant.

For me, the most disturbing memory from the day was the booths set up by businesses. Companies such as the Bank of America and Norton software indicated their support for gay pride. These are not marginal businesses, but corporate America.

Whoa ... what is going on here?

To me it was a sign that the gay community is now mainstream. American business sees profits to be made and perhaps stands intimidated by the gay community. The key business principle seems to be that business is business.

The expected corollary is that Biblical Christianity may be increasingly marginalised and then persecuted through legal action for refusing the gay agenda. On the same day, I read a report that a court in New Mexico ordered a Christian photography business to pay a penalty for refusing to photograph a gay commitment ceremony. I guess that we can expect more of the same.

Earlier on the same day I visited the Billy Graham Museum. The welcome was warm and the exhibits well presented with the latest available multimedia. The crowd was much older and subdued. There was an air of artificiality about The Barn, starting with the fake talking cow and ending with the Graham Brothers Dairy Bar selling the Billy Frank hot dog. I know this is America, but I found the whole scene hard to stomach!

To me there is a huge disconnect between the two scenes that day. The gay pride rally exalts in sin, but seems to represents the future and is on the streets. The Graham Museum exalts in righteousness, reflects the past and in housed in a fake barn amidst manicured surrounds.

For me as a Christian the day leaves many questions.

* How to position a protective perimeter against the expected wave of litigation?

* How to witness effectively at such events?

* How to maintain the rounded balance of 1 Cor 6:9-11:

 ⁹ Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practise homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. ¹¹ And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

That’s a text applicable to every human being and certainly starting with me. However, it also applies to the gay community and to the corporations at the gay pride event.