NeuroDivine

Every June, as Pride Month arrives, social media fills with familiar debates. This year I came across a satirical article that listed a collection of Bible verses often used against LGBT people. The joke, of course, was that these were supposedly “heartwarming” passages to share during Pride Month.

The humour was not subtle.

Yet reading it left me reflecting on something deeper than another argument about a handful of biblical texts. It reminded me how often Christians speak past one another because we are using the same word to mean entirely different things.

The word is pride.

In Scripture, pride is generally understood as arrogance. It is the refusal to acknowledge our dependence upon God. It is the attitude that elevates self above neighbour and places human ambition above divine wisdom.

This is the pride condemned in Proverbs:

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

It is the pride of kings who believe themselves untouchable. The pride of religious leaders who imagine they possess all truth. The pride that refuses correction because it assumes it cannot be wrong.

The Bible has much to say about that kind of pride.

But that is not what most LGBT people mean when they speak about Pride.

For many LGBT people, Pride emerged as the opposite of shame.

It is the refusal to accept the message that you are broken, disgusting, dangerous, or unworthy of love. It is the rejection of secrecy and self-hatred. It is the simple declaration that one’s existence is not a source of embarrassment.

Those are not the same thing.

A person saying, “I am gay and I am not ashamed,” is not claiming superiority over anyone else. They are not placing themselves above God. They are not boasting in their own perfection.

They are simply rejecting shame.

That distinction matters.

Throughout Scripture, we encounter a God who repeatedly restores dignity to those whom society seeks to exclude. Again and again, God moves toward those who have been told they do not belong.

The psalmist declares:

“I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” (Psalm 139:14)

The prophet Isaiah speaks of those who thought they had no place among God’s people:

“To them I will give, in my house and within my walls, a monument and a name better than sons and daughters.” (Isaiah 56:5)

Jesus himself consistently crossed boundaries. He touched those who were considered unclean. He ate with those labelled sinners. He welcomed those whom respectable society preferred to keep at a distance.

Again and again, Christ moved toward people carrying shame.

That does not mean every moral question disappears. Christians will continue to disagree about many things. The Church has always wrestled with difficult questions of interpretation and discipleship.

But before any debate about ethics comes a more fundamental truth: every human being bears the image of God.

Before we are arguments, we are people.

Before we are categories, we are beloved.

Before we are labels, we are children of God.

Perhaps that is why one of the most important verses for Pride Month is not about pride at all:

“By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35)

Not agreement.

Not certainty.

Not victory in an argument.

Love.

In a world where many LGBT people still carry wounds inflicted in the name of faith, perhaps the Church’s first calling is not to win debates but to embody Christ’s welcome.

For those who have spent years hiding, fearing, or apologising for their existence, Pride can be a declaration of something profoundly human:

“I am here.”

“I am loved.”

“And I will no longer be ashamed.”

That is not the pride Scripture condemns.

It may, in fact, be a small glimpse of the dignity that God intended all along.

A Small Pride Month Collection of Scriptures

If this reflection has resonated with you, feel free to share the following. It is offered in a spirit of gentle humour, but also as a reminder that Scripture contains far more than the verses most often used in arguments about LGBT people.

Genesis 1:27

“So God created humankind in his image.”

Turns out nobody was accidentally left out of that sentence.

Psalm 139:14

“I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”

Even the parts of yourself that other people don’t understand.

Micah 6:8

“What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”

Notice that policing other people’s identities didn’t make the list.

Isaiah 56:4–5

“To them I will give… a name better than sons and daughters.”

An intriguing passage for anyone who thinks God’s welcome is limited by human categories.

Matthew 7:1

“Judge not, that you be not judged.”

One of the most ignored verses in the Bible.

Matthew 22:39

“You shall love your neighbour as yourself.”

No footnote excluding your gay neighbour.

John 13:35

“By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Not by your social media arguments.

Acts 10:15

“What God has made clean, you must not call profane.”

Peter discovered that God’s circle was larger than he imagined. The Church keeps having to learn that lesson.

Galatians 3:28

“There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”

The Gospel has a habit of breaking down walls.

1 John 4:7

“Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God.”

A surprisingly radical idea in every generation.

Truly heartwarming.

Be sure to tell LGBT people that they are loved, and remember that Christ spent far more time welcoming people than excluding them.