I’ve been a user of Microsoft computers and apps for over three decades (although I’m a Mac guy at heart). So I was recently disappointed, but not surprised, when I received one of the emails I regularly get from the tech giant. The email, which is displayed below, had nothing to do with technology, or computers, or the Microsoft products I use. Rather, it was a “prideful” endorsement and promotion of the lifestyle choices of LGBTQI+.

Let’s be clear. This grouping of letters stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and “plus” (which represent other sexual identities including pansexual, asexual, and omnisexual). So it’s literally a collection of every alternate and unnatural sexual lifestyle. Noticeably absent is the one sexual union that accounts for the very existence of each person who embraces the rainbow-colored flag that they “pridefully” display. Yes, heterosexuality is the sole sexual relationship that God designed, and pronounced His blessings upon, within the confines of marital fidelity.

Coercion

You would have to be living in an alternate universe to not know that our nation and much of the Western world have aggressively endorsed, promoted, and demanded acceptance of these aberrant sexual choices in recent years. In addition to our government at all levels pushing the full LGBTQI+ agenda, there is a barrage of big and medium-sized businesses doing the same. Microsoft’s email was just one example of a literal tidal wave of LGBTQI+ promotion and coercion. While flying Delta this week, I was also confronted multiple times with the world’s largest airline’s overt promotion of homosexual relationships via posters and video commercials. (See below.)

The coercive message from all those on the side of “Pride” is this: “You must and you will embrace our agenda or you are hateful and a bigot. If you choose to resist, we will not only humiliate you with our words, we will break you economically if you’re a business owner. We not only demand lockstep, but we insist that you reject God in the process.”

Of course, these folks would never openly admit that their coercion seeks to force the rejection of God. But if one spends any time in God’s Word, there is no disputing our Creator’s view of sexuality. God is abundantly clear that sexual activity outside of marriage, both heterosexual as well as LGBTQI+, is condemned and will be judged.

It’s clear that God is angered when mankind perverts the blessing of sex, particularly when an entire culture or nation begin to embrace and promote same-sex relationships. As if to emphasize the priority of this issue, God dedicated numerous passages and examples in the Bible that address the repercussions to a culture or nation that does what Microsoft, Delta, and America are doing.

The Apostle Paul, inspired by God, penned a poignant warning in Romans 1 about the repercussions to a society that embarks on the path our nation has taken. Note these tragic words, which describe precisely what we are seeing at this moment in America’s history:

But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness. They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them… Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools… So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies. They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen. That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved. Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too. —Romans 1:18-19, 21-22, 24-32

The Warning

As the LGBTQI+ movement appears to have gained a stronghold in America’s psyche, permeating every aspect of our culture, there is a dangerous warning that is prominent in the passage above:

“God abandoned them…”

There is likely a no more hopeless phrase than this one. When God, the Author of Life and the Rewarder of those who diligently seek Him, chooses to abandon a person, a people, or a nation, there can only be one of two options at that point.

The hopeful first option would be a humble repentance and returning to God by those who shook their fist at their Creator. But the second, and more likely, option is utter chaos as a people or nation reject the standards and order that God designed. On the heels of that chaos is certain destruction of the individual and nation that refuse to acknowledge and return to God’s good and perfect standard.

Hate & Bigotry?

No doubt some that read this will feel their own anger growing toward the one who penned these words. And they will immediately respond, either internally or openly, with labels of hate, or bigotry, or some other derogatory terms. But such accusations couldn’t be further from the truth based on my knowledge of what resides in my heart. Consider this.

I disagree with my wife, children, and business partner from time to time. But no one has ever accused me of hating any of these individuals. Why? Because disagreement is not synonymous with hatred, or bigotry, or some other outrageous and irrelevant explanation. In reality, I love my wife, children, and business partner.

Similarly, I disagree with the sexual choices of those engaged in LGBTQI+ behavior, but my disagreement is not rooted in hatred, or bigotry, or in a demand that they agree with me. Rather, my disagreement is simply based on what God has to say about such behavior. And my expression of this disagreement is based on my belief that I will be held accountable by God someday as to whether I shared His Truth or kept it hidden and remained silent.

Loving While Disagreeing

My Chief Mentor commanded me 2,000 years ago to “love my neighbor as myself.” This Mentor, Jesus Christ, has instructed me that He will someday judge me and all of mankind for our individual choices and behavior, including whether I displayed love to others while not running from His truth. When we speak truth that is offensive, that does not equate to hate. Rather, love compels us to speak truth, even though it is sometimes hard to hear.

Jesus did not shy away from speaking truth, including when addressing sexual matters. One day He was speaking with a woman who had been married five times and the man she was living with then was not her husband. He confronted this woman’s aberrant behavior head on, and she understood from His words that her behavior did not conform to God’s perfect standard. But rather than rebuke Jesus for daring to speak truth into her life, she responded in humility and repented of her lifestyle. She then, in her excitement, shared God’s truth with her neighbors. There is no doubt that today Jesus would also be called a hater or bigot, given his unpopular message.

But it’s in the same spirit that Jesus shared truth with this woman that I seek to share this truth. I do not wish to condemn anyone but to simply speak truth in love. The real truth is that we all have struggles in our lives, so my words are not hurled as condemning stones, but rather as somber warnings.

Pride Goes Before Destruction

In closing, it’s ironic that the LGBTQI+ proponents have adopted as the rallying cry the word “Pride,” suggesting that there there should be no shame or guilt surrounding an identification with such sexual choices. But as I was writing this article, a verse in the Bible came to mind:

“Pride goes before destruction, and haughtiness before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18).

Clearly, the connotation of “Pride” in this verse is related to conceit and haughtiness. But there’s a parallel application, which while not intended from Scripture is nonetheless relevant.

God judges all sin, and He has clearly characterized all sexual activity outside of a heterosexual marital relationship as sin. Additionally, God’s pattern of judgment, throughout the many Biblical examples, is that He destroys cultures, civilizations, and nations that embrace and celebrate their sins. So as America has embraced “Pride” as the buzzword for the LGBTQI+ movement, in a sense it has predicted its own ultimate outcome: Destruction.

There is risk these days in writing an article like this that is so out of line with the tidal wave of sexual “freedom,” which allows for anything and judges nothing, except those who would share God’s truth. But should one with truth remain silent when being coerced to embrace a lie? Or does truth demand we stand firmly when others buckle?

History is replete with examples of both, yet the ones we remember the most are those who stood for truth, even if it meant standing alone.

So I hope as you consider these meager thoughts that you will discover God’s words of truth, and that He will give you the courage to also follow and stand for His truth.

Stand firm. Speak truth. In Love.

If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at the moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rates, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved. And to be steady on all the battle fields besides is merely flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point. —Martin Luther