Pride month is upon us, when the LGBTQ+ community participates in many activities and parades to raise awareness and encourage others to live out their LGBTQ+ identities in the open. With this season comes a full array of emotional reactions. Some are celebrating … they have survived, especially in the face of great rejection and abuse. Others are grieving every time a rainbow flag comes into view, reminded of an estranged family member. Some are coming out for the first time; walking down the street with others who are like them feels like a breath of fresh air. And others still can see nothing but a celebration of sin. There are of course many other feelings and experiences happening as well. How do you find yourself reacting?
What do we do in the face of such disparate perspectives?
When a way forward seems hopeless, all I know to do is pray. Regardless of where you find yourself in the spectrum of emotional reactions to Pride, I think we can all agree that there is division and pain surrounding these issues. Families and churches have been torn asunder. I do not believe this is God’s heart for the LGBTQ+ community. I do not believe this is God’s heart for their families either.
As I pray for the church and our response to the LGBTQ+ community, I am reminded of a book called Us versus Us by Andrew Marin. In an interview about his book, he observes of his time working in the gay community in Chicago, “(a) most LGBT people in Boystown regularly attended a faith community the majority of their youth; (b) most still believed in God and were interested in one day finding a faith community again; and (c) most were less concerned with a church’s theology of homosexuality than they were with how they were treated by individual Christians in those churches.”
Most who have left the church have not left their faith. This is good news!
This month, as you see a rainbow flag flying in your neighborhood or in a commercial on TV, I’d like to ask you to pause and pray. Pray for reconciliation in families. Pray for loved ones to be able to truly communicate what is in their hearts and their love for each other. Ask God to intervene in the church, that His purposes will be accomplished and that the enemy’s purposes will be thwarted.
Roger Jones
Executive Director
Roger began working with WGA in October of 1996 as the Assistant office Manager. Since that time, he has worn many hats and served in several different positions, including Assistant Program Director and Operations Director. In April of 2007, Roger assumed the position of Executive Director.
Roger attended West Texas A&M University, where he studied Music Business. Much of his training has been “on the job,” where he was mentored by the ministry’s Founder, Mary Heathman, and the Program Director, Scott Kingry. He holds a BA from West Texas A&M University.
Roger, his wife Jill, and their daughter Julia and son William, attend Celebration Community Church where Jill serves as Senior Pastor.
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