Beyond A Response to Pride: Returning To God's Design for Sexuality

Bruno Borges, PhD(c)

Each June, Christians across the world brace themselves for the cultural tide of Pride Month. Rainbow flags fly, parades fill the streets, and conversations about sexuality dominate newsfeeds and classrooms. For many believers, the natural reflex is to ask, “How should I respond to this?” Resources abound to help Christian parents talk to their children about LGBTQI+ issues, or to help churches navigate conversations with clarity and compassion. These responses are often necessary; however, if we limit our engagement to countering Pride Month, we risk missing a deeper invitation. God is not merely calling us to respond to the celebration of brokenness in the world, but to examine the brokenness within ourselves, and to return to the beauty of His design for sexuality.

Biblical sexuality begins not in opposition to Pride, but in the garden of Eden. Before there was sin, shame, or confusion, there was God’s intentional design. Genesis 2:24 reveals that God made humanity male and female, and that marriage between a man and a woman is the covenantal context for sexual union. This union reflects more than biology or compatibility; it reflects God’s nature, purpose, and the mystery of Christ’s love for His Church, as Paul explains in Ephesians 5:32. The Christian response to sexual brokenness must be rooted in this divine framework, not in reactionary moralism or cultural outrage.

Many Christians rightly grieve the distortion of sexuality in our culture, yet often fail to confront their own departures from God’s design. Pride Month becomes a convenient distraction from the pornography consumed in private, the emotional affairs quietly nurtured, or the bitterness and broken intimacy in Christian marriages. Jesus’s words in Matthew 7 remind us to address the log in our own eye before dealing with the speck in another’s. This is not to minimize the importance of truth-telling, but to insist that our witness must begin with repentance and personal integrity.

Dr. Christopher Yuan writes in Holy Sexuality and the Gospel, “Holy sexuality is not focused on heterosexuality or homosexuality; it is about whether we live faithfully as God’s image-bearers.” His point is crucial: God’s design does not stop at sexual orientation. It encompasses singleness, marriage, gender identity, and embodied holiness. This vision calls every believer—regardless of past or present desires—to submit their sexuality to Christ and walk in faithfulness. We cannot call others to transformation if we ourselves are not being continually conformed to His image.

Pride Month, at its core, is a celebration of identity. People are not only asserting rights but seeking to be known and affirmed. Christians must recognize the deep human longing beneath the rainbow banners—the longing to be loved, seen, and valued. Scripture affirms that every human being is made in the image of God, worthy of dignity and respect. This means our response must go beyond debate and toward compassionate discipleship. As Rosaria Butterfield, a former lesbian and now a leading voice on biblical sexuality, notes, “We in the Church often forget that people are not projects; they are people. They need more than our opinions; they need our lives.”

When Christians fixate solely on what is wrong “out there,” we lose sight of the person behind the ideology. Behind every social media profile, every parade float, and every protest chant is a soul—crafted by God, broken by sin, and in need of the same Savior who rescued us. Our response to Pride must be less about protesting sin and more about proclaiming the Gospel. This means engaging in relationships, listening well, and demonstrating the power of redemption through our own lives.

The Church must also recover its prophetic role in casting a better vision. Biblical sexuality is not merely a list of restrictions; it is a beautiful invitation to wholeness. The world offers temporary pleasure, autonomy, and affirmation, but God offers covenant, communion, and eternal identity. When we fail to teach this with clarity and joy, we leave a vacuum that culture is eager to fill. Churches must teach not only what the Bible says about sex but why it matters, and how it points us to a deeper union with Christ.

Furthermore, we must be honest about the cost of discipleship. Following Jesus in a sexually broken world is not easy. For those leaving same-sex relationships or battling deep-seated addictions, the road is long and often lonely. But it is also marked by grace. As Sam Allberry writes in Is God Anti-Gay?, “The gospel demands everything of us, yet it gives everything to us.” That tension is the heart of Christian discipleship—not comfort, but conformity to Christ. That is the message we proclaim, and the hope we extend to a weary world.

Our response to Pride Month should therefore be part of a much larger conversation. It is not only about defending biblical truth, but about embodying it. This includes practicing hospitality, discipling younger believers, and building church cultures that support sexual wholeness. We must be communities where grace and truth are not pitted against each other, but held together in redemptive tension.

Let us not settle for reactive Christianity. Let us respond not only to Pride but to the call of God’s design. Let us confess our own distortions, submit our desires to the Lord, and walk alongside others on the path of redemption. Pride Month may dominate the calendar for a season, but God’s invitation to wholeness is eternal. May we, the Church, be faithful stewards of that invitation.

___________________________________

Allberry, Sam. Is God Anti-Gay? And Other Questions about Homosexuality, the Bible, and Same-Sex Attraction.

Epsom, UK: The Good Book Company, 2013.

Butterfield, Rosaria. The Gospel Comes with a House Key: Practicing Radically Ordinary Hospitality in Our Post-

Christian World. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2018.

Yuan, Christopher. Holy Sexuality and the Gospel: Sex, Desire, and Relationships Shaped by God’s Grand Story.

Colorado Springs: Multnomah, 2018.