Here in the US, June is LGBTQ Pride Month. I am reminded of this each year, all too rudely, when my faith community posts its rainbow-filled Pride content and faces incredible backlash. Online trolls, in the name of Christ, barge into our comment sections to yell about hell, heresy, false prophets, and much more. One of the classic tactics of these provocateurs, or “God’s Bible defenders” as Brandon Ambrosino calls them, is to claim that LGBTQ folks stole the rainbow symbol from God in Genesis. You can read Ambrosino’s full and feisty rebuttal to that claim below.
The timing rarely works out this way, but I am excited today to give you both a new article and a video of the week that corresponds to it in the same email. Tom Steagald wrote a poignant reflection on his dad’s complicated legacy in ministry, based on an exploration of his old Bible. Then I chatted with Tom about navigating the thoughts and emotions we have about deeply flawed loved ones.
“There are thousands of these social media posts, and they all seem to revolve around a similar idea: LGBTQ people—and anyone else celebrating Pride—have stolen the rainbow from God.”
“Most of my dad’s ethics were individual and prohibitive; not surprising, then, that his repentance was a matter of self-loathing: moralistic remorse for individual transgressions.”
