Monday Morning Music Ministry

6-27-26

As June draws to a close, so does Pride Month. It is worth noting the celebrations or festivities or whatever we are supposed to feel, or do, to honor homosexuals.

Many groups and nationalities and causes have parades these days, and even associated holidays, some to honor peoples’ heritage, and some to pander to voting blocs, or both, in the American spirit of multi-tasking. It strikes me that, among the flags and lapel-pins there is no White Month or WASP Parade, but some might respond that every day and month in America is an affirmation of White-Majority Christianity; but that statistic is rapidly losing validity.

I have attended, but not marched in, Steuben Day parades in New York City, being of German ancestry. The tradition began in Ridgewood, Queens, a few blocks from my parents’ home when I was a kinder pre-garten. It is now held in Manhattan, centered around the formerly German neighborhood of Yorkville on 86th Street.

But I love, and attend, ethnic festivals of all peoples, and do so frequently. I genuinely love seeing blacks attend St Patrick’s Day events; Poles at Columbus Day festivals; and other cross-cultural happenings. It confirms the basic goodwill of the American people, despite stereotypes of the nay-sayers.

There are still some people, however, who say Nay regarding aspects of some types of group-ID festivities. I suppose I share the bewilderment of Norm Macdonald, who pictured a Gay Pride parade where a father bragged about his son who was Number One in his class at Harvard and loved to fondle other men’s privates. What else, really, is Gay Pride?

I still resent “gay” being hijacked as a word, but my thoughts this month are centered on the “Pride” part of the phrase.

Of course there is a type of pride that is legitimate, like being proud of your child winning a race. That is a human emotion – a reflection of love – that cannot offend or presume. The Bible warns against other forms of pride… and this armchair theologian holds the view that pride can be regarded as the chief sin. To my way of thinking, pride is the underlying motive for other other sins enumerated by God in the Garden, prohibited in commandments, and warned against by Jesus.

• What I mean is this: When we rebel against God, we are presuming that we are exempt from His rules. Worse, we act as if He will give us a pass.
• When we break Commandments, our pride persuades us that His rules are for other people, but we are above His laws.
• God has carefully and fully shared His laws for living… but it is pride that says we know better than the Lord of Creation.
• When we fail to completely surrender to Jesus – to spread His message and opportunity for salvation – we pridefully act like we have a better plan (even if we continually postpone acting on it).
• If we doubt the Bible… or pick-and-choose portions of it… or are seduced by extra-Biblical philosophies… our pride says, in effect, that we know these things better than God and His revealed Word.
• Salvation? Eternity? Heaven? Concern for our loved ones’ souls, much less our own? Taking such vital questions lightly is a reflection of pride; we act like our wishes are stronger than God’s truths.

Back to Pride Month. In the contemporary world’s parlance, I understand that homosexual relationships are what’s being celebrated; and to quote one of the most legitimate of bumper-strip theological truths: I don’t hate the sinner, but I do hate the sin. And the Bible clearly preaches against the practice of homosexuality. A fuller exegesis is that I pray against the transgression, and for the transgressor. No false humility: in the sense that Paul referred to himself as chief among sinners, I frequently sin and I am aware that God despises all sin. Oh, I am conscious of it, and pray for – and accept – forgiveness all the time. I love, and pray for, fellow sinners. That’s what Jesus has us do.

But our sins are properly matters of regret, remorse, and repentance. God forbid that we ever turn them around and build holidays around them or organize parades to brag about them. Who would attend Shame Day parades?

… actually, in this life, there are virtual Shame Days, Shame Months, and Shame parades all the time. How many do we march in, unknowingly or intentionally?

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Click: Toby James – Speak Truth (Music Video)

5-25-26

Memorial Day is as close as America can come to a non-sectarian holy day. Veterans Day, for instance, is a large and proper “thank you” to military veterans; but Memorial Day has been set aside for honoring those who died in uniform. Protecting us; sacrificing; sustaining injuries; willingly enduring much for family, friends, even strangers back home; dying.

We honor them not so much for hating enemies but for loving their homeland.

By “honoring” we are asked much less than was asked of them. We should pause, pray (by tradition at 3 p.m. local times), and share lessons of history. The holiday was originally proposed by Gen. John Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic, an association of veterans after the Civil War; and was for some years called Decoration Day. Celebrants were asked to decorate graves of late servicemen as a basic token of respect. I remember mothers in Ridgewood, Queens, in New York City where I was born, decorating baby carriages with red, white, and blue bunting, and marching in parades. Such observances occurred in towns across America then; I wonder how many places host such memorial events today.

Through the years the “official” date for Memorial Day has changed. Sad, but somehow appropriate, as the society has changed. A “holy day” has become a holiday. It has been moved to a certain Monday instead of a fixed date, so, as with other adjustments to commemorations, used-car dealers and Walmarts can smother patriotic impulses with commercial overlays. Memorial Day now is confused with Veterans Day and perhaps the 4th of July, Presidents Day, and maybe even 4/20, the day celebrated by drug users.

God forbid – whoops, too late to employ that cliche – that people think soldiers sacrificed themselves to secure Americans’ freedom to smoke weed and take cocaine; or have the liberty to abort their babies and have the government pay for the murders; or save a country that eventually would chill the free exercise of religious worship and free speech, by calling Bible “hate speech” and impose transgenderism and sexual perversions on students; and so forth. Are these what the stars on our flag have come to represent?

America is not the only country that honors its war dead; other nations do in their own fashion. Germany, for instance, whence I recently returned, observes “Peoples’ Mourning Day” (Volkstrauertag) which is a sombre commemoration of all people around the world, military and civilian, who died in armed conflict or as a result of civil unrest and oppression. In this way it expands, so to speak, the flags of countries and honors the larger communities of martyrs.

This is eminently proper. In Lincoln’s words, “It is for us the living… to be dedicated to the unfinished work which they who fought have thus far so nobly advanced.” In other words, to me, what we can memorialize on this holiday transcends flags and borders. We honor that aspect of the human soul that consists of love, sacrifice, and dedication. We honor acts of bravery, which is an instinctive reaction to threats or danger.

Moreso do we honor courage – a far superior characteristic. Courage consists of a conscious commitment, intentionality, and a certain disregard of personal consequences. It is why military forces sometimes plan elaborate burials of hard enemies: recognizing that humans can achieve nobility by fighting, even dying, for a cause. A larger fraternity. In Americans’ case at one time the causes were just, and courage inspired acts of bravery.

Let us honor those principles, and honor those whose martyrdom ennobled them, as the rest of us mortals went about our business at home, and still do – by God’s grace and the courage of exceptional people.

I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do to us. – Luke 12:4

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Click: Traurermusik for our times?