Talking with Your Kids about Pride Month

June 4, 2024

Rob Pacienza

June 4, 2024
5 Minute Read

For the last month, many Americans have been gearing up for the next big thing: Pride Month. Stores have been stocking their shelves with tee shirts that say, “Love is Love” and coffee mugs that say, “Everyone is Welcome.” Neighborhood lawns are decorated with rainbow flags and gay pride signs. Businesses and corporations jostle with one another to prove who is the most excited about homosexuality.

In other words, June presents Christians with daily opportunities to help their children understand the biblical worldview and its application to sexual ethics. The problem is, we often find it difficult to do so, preferring to take a “There’s nothing to see here, folks” approach to the whole thing. But if we ignore the gay publicity campaign being foisted on our entire society, we do so to our children’s detriment.

Pride Month offers parents the opportunity to clearly articulate the Bible’s design for human flourishing. If we don’t address the challenge clearly and graciously, they’ll be confused, and they may lose confidence in the Christian faith. So instead of being tongue-tied, let’s take advantage of a golden opportunity by addressing at least these five truths:

Pride Month offers parents the opportunity to clearly articulate the Bible’s design for human flourishing.

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As Christians, we are called to celebrate humility rather than pride. Christian have long recognized pride as the primal sin, the root of all other sins. When I am proud or centered on myself, I become the “god” of my own life, giving myself permission to speak and act as I please. The preferred holidays for Christians—Christmas, Easter, Mother’s Day, and more—are gratitude-based, humble recognitions of the blessings God has given us. We are not called to spend time praising ourselves; instead, we praise the One who made us.
As Christians, we must recognize God’s design for marriage between one man and one woman. God created the world so that when we follow his design, we flourish individually and as a society. His design is for marriage to be an enduring covenant between one man and one woman who “multiply and fill the earth.” As a result, these families exist as the foundational sphere of culture.
As Christians, we must resist the sinful impulses that arise within us and the sinful trends in society around us. Sadly, American society has increasingly placed sexual gratification and gender-related issues at the front and center of human life, ousting God from his rightful place and disdaining his Word as authoritatively true. Think about it: abortion, same-sex marriage, transgenderism. All of these issues represent the American obsession with “following our hearts” regarding matters of sexuality: “I want to do what I want to do, and I demand that you not only approve of sexual choices but celebrate them as heroic.” With your children, consider emphasizing that as Christians, we respect the boundaries God has in place for our good and for his glory.
As Christians, we must confront the myth that “Love is Love.” During Pride Month, this statement is used to mean that any expression of romantic or sexual love is equal; it’s the amorous feeling that makes it good. But this view of love is diametrically opposed to the Bible’s view. If I am attracted to my neighbor’s wife and engage in an affair with her, that is a false form of love, even if it is based on a genuine feeling. Similarly, if a man feels a romantic attraction to his male friend, that is a false form of love, even if it is based on a genuine feeling. We can remind our children that our feelings do not define love—God does.
As Christians, we must redefine “Everyone Welcome.” In 2022, LGBTQ+ activists employed this new slogan as a way of saying that any type of sexual expression—BDSM, polyamory, polygamy, and more—is welcome to march under the rainbow flag. That’s true; the activists welcome anybody who resents the traditional and Christian view. In response, we as Christians must renew our commitment to hospitality, welcoming people of every type—LGBTQ+ and others—into our homes and churches, where we can embrace them as individuals, welcoming them to embrace Christ and the Christian path to human flourishing. Our children need to see us showing God’s love and light, even to those who may resent us.

God doesn't call us to child-proof the world. He calls us to world-proof our children. We can't take our children out of the world, but we can equip them to live faithfully within it.

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Pride Month can feel daunting. LGBTQ+ activists have been aggressively promoting their agenda from the boardrooms, shopping centers, pulpits, airwaves, and more for nearly seventy-five years. More than anything, it isn’t fair that children who aren’t even teenagers are now being exposed to sexuality prematurely and, in many instances, graphically.

But we must take heart. God doesn’t call us to child-proof the world. He calls us to world-proof the child. The early church understood that, as their children lived in a world where Christians were publicly tortured and executed. They couldn’t take their children out of that world but could equip them to live faithfully within it. The same goes for us.

Thus, we must take the opportunity to address Pride Month with the same biblical framework we employ for anything else. Our children will be stronger for having faced this with us, within a biblical framework. Their lives will be fuller from watching their parents accepting LGBTQ+ people without affirming their lifestyle choices. What better place is there than the Christian home for children to learn that loving God and his Word and loving the lost go hand-in-hand?

Resources for you

Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Who Stands Fast?

Institute for Faith & Culture

Biblical Sexuality | Hillary Morgan Ferrer

Institute for Faith & Culture

Honoring God with Healthy and Efficient Routines

Heather Jordon Clark

Habits of the Household | Justin Whitmel Earley

Institute for Faith & Culture

Young People Should Hate Marxism

Sam Kastensmidt

Rob Pacienza

Dr. Robert J. Pacienza is the Senior Pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church (Fort Lauderdale, FL), the CEO/President of Coral Ridge Ministries, and the Founder of the Institute for Faith and Culture. He serves on the General Council of the Gospel Reformation Network and is a contributor to WORLD Opinions. Rob is a graduate of Samford University (B.A. ’03), Knox Theological Seminary (M.Div. ’12), and Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia (D.Min. ’23). His doctorate project was entitled, This Is My Father’s World: A Vision for Equipping Culture-Shaping Christians. Rob is married to Jennifer and they have three children – Preston, Lydia, and Lilianne.

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