Jumping the Shark

It has been said that nowhere in the Scriptures is homosexuality placed in a positive light - actually, the contrary is true, such as we find in this passage from 1st Timothy 1:
8 But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully,
9 knowing this: that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,
10 for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine,
11 according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust.

The word "Sodomite" is a reference to homosexuality, which was commonplace in the ancient cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.  Again, this practice is not endorsed by Scripture - it is actually described as sinful, repeatedly.  But, there are those that want to twist the Bible into saying something else, and to try to replace its narrative with a more accepting one regarding LGBTQ matters.  Don't fall for it - Jesus died to save sinners and to free us from sin; He calls us to holiness, meaning we can overcome sinful desires and practices.

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The book of Jude in the Bible describes a particularly evil age and traces the progression of evil even into the Church; it could have been written yesterday. It says:
3 Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.
4 For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.
5 But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.
6 And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day;
7 as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.

If you are a fan of the classic television show, Happy Days, you may be familiar with an event that was depicted on-screen that was perhaps a foreboding moment for the future of the show.  That moment was described on the Mental Floss website:

For most viewers of Happy Days, the wildly popular ABC sitcom of the 1970s and early 1980s, the sight of Arthur “Fonzie” Fonzarelli jumping over a shark on water skis during the September 20, 1977 episode was not a momentous event. It was simply agreeably silly—a result of the Fonz taking up the challenge of a local beach bully to endanger his life with an ocean predator. Yet the Fonz’s machismo would come to define a moment in pop culture when a once-beloved creation takes a noticeable dip in quality.

That television moment gave rise to a phrase: "jumping the shark."  The article explains:

It wasn’t until 1987, when University of Michigan college student Sean Connolly coined the phrase “jumping the shark” to describe a particularly outlandish turn of events that Fonzie’s beach exploits started to take on a new meaning. Their circle of friends used the expression for years. In 1997, Connolly’s college roommate Jon Hein started the website JumptheShark.com, which chronicled the moments when beloved television shows took a sudden and alarming dip in quality.

The brilliant commentator Jay Richards, director of the DeVos Center for Life, Religion, and Family at The Heritage Foundation, has used a variant of that phrase in an article at The Daily Signal called, "Pride Month Jumps the Shark." He makes this contention: "This year, however, the pushback seems stronger and more diverse than in previous years. What accounts for that?"

His conclusions: 1) "For one thing, the sexualization of young kids seems to have moved from the fringe to the mainstream. It’s not just in random gay bars and schools in San Francisco. It now seems to be official policy." 2) "...Pride now seems less about gay and lesbian inclusion and more about abolishing the difference between males and females, and between adults and children."

He notes:

Somewhere between the “B” and the plus sign, Pride Month jumped the shark.

This targeting of children gives the sea of rainbows a much more sinister hue. The pride-signaling on corporate logos, map and exercise apps, public school hallways, TV networks and streaming services, Google doodles, even on Major League Baseball fields and jerseys, feels ever more oppressive.

He notes: "even some who identify as gay and lesbian have had enough." An example?

On Twitter, Storm Robinson observed: “As a gay man, I can’t understand why a parent would take their child to a drag queen story hour. Why does this even exist? … Drag is not for kids. The end.”

The corporate world is taking notice, as an article at The Washington Stand website notes, referring to the gay advocacy organization, the Human Rights Campaign:

Some CEOs have given up the thankless work of being HRC’s proxies, recognizing (finally) that the mob will never be satisfied. Exxon banned the pride flag. Netflix told employees who didn’t like free speech to find the nearest exits. EA Sports’ parent company, Electronic Arts, asked to review all June posts, insisting that they “may not be political in nature.” Slowly, companies are coming around to the fact that pride really is a presumption. Why step out on a limb to make an absurd point that there is zero market demand for?

The writer, Suzanne Bowdey, notes that companies are tired of being strong-armed by the HRC:

As a thank you to companies who’ve spent the last 20 years turning themselves inside out for their extremist causes, the country’s biggest LGBT advocate is demanding more. Much more. It’s no longer enough to sell rainbow merch, offer benefits to same-sex spouses, pay for transgender treatments, open your bathrooms to both sexes, and hire diversity officers. It’s time, HRC’s interim president says, to go “beyond HR plans and benefits.” From now on, if companies want a high score on HRC’s “Best Places to Work” index, then it’s time that they “do even more,” Joni Madison argues. It’s time they take a stand in the public square.

To get into the LGBT movement’s good graces, CEOs will have to politically kamikaze, speaking publicly “against elected officials harming LGBTQ+ youth.” Like Lucy with the football, HRC is ripping the rug out from under Fortune 500 companies that have spent two decades ingratiating themselves to their cultural hostage-takers. Now, after more than proving their loyalty, the Left is raising the ransom.

Bawdey closes out by saying: "In almost every poll (including Family Research Council’s latest), large swaths of Americans want companies to stay out of politics...Add that to the economic crunch some of these outspoken brands are feeling (Target’s chest-binders aren't exactly boosting shares), and the strongarm tactics of the Left are in for a real challenge. When HRC puts on the squeeze, companies will have to choose. Will they profit or pander?

And, keep in mind the words from Twitter that Richards included in his article from an attorney, Candice Jackson; he wrote: "In one representative tweet, she says that “‘LGBTQ Pride’ is a spiritual cult that’s anti-reality, anti-civil liberties, targeting children for fantasy-based rites of body sacrifice to liberate ‘gender souls’ & ‘queer’ sexualization.”

One of the things that came to mind from the words of FRC's Suzanne Bowdey has to do with the nature of evil.  The enemy of our souls has an insatiable desire to thwart the work of God, and in his harassment of believers, he continues to move the goalposts and trick us into thinking that we can never be satisfied, never do enough good works, never be clean enough, in order to satisfy a demanding deity.  While God wants us to rest in Him, the enemy wants to make us restless.  Seems these companies are on that same trajectory - they can never do enough to satisfy the LGBTQ overlords.

While it seems that even some of those who have made the unfortunate choice to practice homosexuality just want to be left alone.  The "loud and proud" transgender people might be more suited to suffer in silence.  I respect their right to privacy and don't believe they should be trying to force those who don't embrace that philosophy to endorse their behavior.  And, perhaps through non-explosive relationships and interactions, they can discover a Savior who promises them a life that is grounded in His true, authentic, and unconditional love.   

We also have to guard against being conditioned to the culture. While LGBTQ people and symbols are all around us, we don't have to buy in or try to accommodate the gay agenda into our churches and affirm those who identify as gay in their behavior.  God calls us to a higher standard and makes it possible for all of us to reject sin and walk in holiness.