Pride and the Meaning of Love

The following was posted June 10, 2025 on “American Thinker” and I thought it would be beneficial for my followers to read and be able to use with any “Pride” event.

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Pride and the meaning of love

By John O. Long

One of the major spokes in our current culture’s rationale for the acceptance of the gay lifestyle is the pithy statement that “Love is love.” On the surface, who can argue with that? It’s as obvious as the statement “It is what it is.” From a logic standpoint, it’s the same entity on both sides of an equals sign. However, the Love Rationale (“Love is love”) means that, if someone loves another, then that’s love, and that’s all there is to it. You can’t help who you love. So, it must be okay. 

That’s where they are wrong. My primary objection is that the “love” spoken of in the Love Rationale is not really love. The behavior typically displayed by the LGBT community during Pride Month is not about love. It’s just lust and sex. 

We Christians know what love is because it’s spelled out for us in the Scriptures. The primary definition of love, repeated often in both Christian and non-Christian weddings, comes from 1 Corinthians 13:  

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  

Let’s unpack this a bit and compare it with what we see in Pride Month.   

Love is patient and kind. Pride participants knowingly flaunt their lewd behavior in the open, knowing there are many in the local community who object to that behavior. They’re not really trying to be kind. Instead, the LGBT community is driven by the desire to be in everyone’s faces.  

[Love] does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. Pride and exhibitionism are the primary way the LGBT community wants to engage with others during the month of June. It’s not gratefulness. It’s not modesty. It’s pride in the many ways they engage in sex, no matter how much debauchery is involved.  

It does not dishonor others. The so-called Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence have become the face of the LGBT community in San Francisco. This is far from honoring the sacrificial nuns of the Catholic Church.  

 

It is not self-seeking. Many aspects of LGBT indulgence involve degrading others and even putting others in risk of their health. Sado-masochism is on full display. Men treating other men as their sex slaves. It is also well-known that the gay lifestyle results in health dangers many times that of the heterosexual lifestyle. And many who have contracted HIV/AIDS knowingly engage in unprotected sex with their partners.  

It is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. The LGBT community is terribly angry. A recent example is the LGBT/Antifa attack on a Christian worship service in Seattle.   

Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. The whole transgender initiative has been anything but the promotion of truth. We were lied to about the frequency of trans suicides, the rigor of the science and treatment about transitioning services, and the rate of trans regret. Recent scientific studies have made it noticeably clear that transing fails in so many ways, yet the LGBT community continues to promote it. And when you cannot define the meaning of “man” and “woman,” you know you are dealing with pure obfuscation. 

I have to note that Christians are not exemplars of the love spoken of in 1 Corinthians. Because we are fallen humans, just like everyone else, we will often fail to live up to those standards. Nevertheless, we know the kind of love we should aspire to, and it’s quite different from the “love” found in the LGBT community.  

Christian love is something noble and something on which to build families and productive communities, but the type of “love” shown during Pride Month is not.

Examining a Gothard Book, Part 1

One of my blog followers sent me a box of publications by Bill Gothard’s IBLP and other personal teachings quite a while back. So much has gone on in my life that I totally forgot about that box. Recently I came across the box and began looking at the material; oh what a lot to examine and expose!!!

I decided to start with something “easy”: Gothard’s book, 7 Basic Needs of a Wife. It’s an 80-slick-paged paperback. There are so many problems with this book that it would take another book to cover them all! Therefore I will only discuss the most problematic issues. I will be doing this one chapter at a time, so this post is about Chapter 1, “To Depend on God Alone!”

Pg.6:

Love novels and romantic movies are to girls what pornography is to boys. They create an imaginary picture of marriage that is not only unrealistic but also is unattainable.

Um, NO, romance novels and movies are not equivalent to pornography. While some novels and movies can be true-to-life, most are just fantasy and are only emotionally harmful if one indulges too many of them. Porn, on the other hand, is not at all realistic and the people in them are being used and sinning to great degrees.

On page 9 Gothard discusses “Three Levels of Love” and says that God defines the three levels; eros, phileo and agape. These are Greek words and were defined by the Greeks, not by God. Other languages have different words for the same meanings.

Gothard’s example of eros was David’s son Amnon towards his half-sister Tamar, which is fine. But for phileo he says love stops if the person we feel that way towards stops giving to us. So, if you don’t give things to people then you can’t feel phileo towards them? 

But his worst explanation is what he says about agape: “Agape love is not possible as long as we have expectations of those whom we love. Agape love gives to the needs of others with no expectations of getting anything in return. God loved us when we were His enemies. (See Romans 5:10)” So a wife can’t have agape love towards her husband if she expects his love? What if she expects him to provide for her? Expectations don’t always have to be give and take,

Gothard then says the following:

 Ineffective Love: When a wife tries to love God and her husband, neither one gets agape love because her love is divided and it is phileo love, which expects to receive.

Correct Love: When a wife gives all her love and expectations to God, then He is able to love others through her with agape love, which expects nothing in return.

So a wife cannot love God and her husband? Find THAT in the Bible! So if she loves her husband along with loving God, then her love expects to receive something from God and her husband? So she has to give all her love to God and none to her husband? And unless she does so then God isn’t able to love others through her?!? Do people actually love God without expecting anything in return—not even salvation?

Gothard’s idea of love types is downright convoluted, especially when he think God is unable to do something.

Lust vs Love

Lust is in opposition to love. It means to set your heart and passions on something forbidden. And for a believer it’s the first step out of fellowship with the Lord and with others. That’s because every object of your lust—whether it’s a young coworker or a film actress, or coveting after a half-million dollar house or a sports car—represents the beginning of a lie. This person or thing that seems to promise sheer satisfaction is more like a bottomless pit of unmet longings. 

Lust always breeds more lust. “What is the source of the wars and the fights among you? Don’t they come from the cravings that are at war within you?” (James 4:1). Lust will make you dissatisfied with your husband or wife. It breeds anger, numbs hearts, and destroys marriages. Rather than fullness, it leads to emptiness.

Stephen & Alex Kendrick, The Love Dare, pg.117

God Is Spirit, Light, and Love

God is spirit as to His essence; He is not flesh and blood. To be sure, Jesus Christ now has a glorified body in heaven, and one day we shall have bodies like His body. But being by nature spirit, Go is not limited by time and space the way His creatures are.

God is light. This refers to His holy nature. In the Bible, light is a symbol of holiness and darkness is a symbol of sin (1 John 1:5-10; John 3:18-21)Go cannot sin because He is holy. Because we have been born into His family, we have received His holy nature (2 Peter 1:4; 1 Peter 1:14-16).

God is love. This does not mean that “love is God.” And the fact that two people “love each other” does not mean that their love is necessarily holy. It has accurately been said that “love does not define God, but God defines love.” God is love and God is light; therefore, His love is a holy love, and His holiness is expressed in love. All that God does expresses all that God is. Even His judgments are measured out in love and mercy (Lam. 3:22, 23).

Much that is called “love” in modern society bears no resemblance or relationship to the holy, spiritual love of God. Yet we see banners saying “God is love!” displayed at many festivals, particularly where young people are “doing their own thing”—as if one could dignify immorality by calling it “love.”

Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Real [commentary on 1 John], pg.138-139

Love and Hate

In more than one area of life, love and hate go hand in hand. A husband who loves his wife is certainly going to exercise a hatred for what would harm her.

Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Real [commentary on 1 John], pg.65

Be a Light Without Fear

My fellow brothers and sisters, we need to get over our fear of being called bigots, intolerant, or racists, and make it perfectly clear to both church and society that no Christian can truly follow Christ and endorse self-harm (as in gender reassignment surgery) and same-sex relationships. We cannot show a godly love for our neighbor if our silence is interpreted as submission to Satan's objective of destroying God's temple. Let me repeat, it is better to be accused of being harsh than it is to tell lies with hushed tons of compassion, love, care, and thoughtfulness.

Erwin W. Lutzer, The Church in Babylon: Heeding the Call to Be a Light in the Darkness, pg.213

The Dangers of Lust

Lust is in opposition to love. It means to set your heart and passions on something forbidden. And for a believer it’s the first step out of fellowship with the Lord and with others. That’s because every object of your lust—whether it’s a young co-worker or a film actress, or coveting after a half-million dollar house or a sports car—represents the beginnings of a lie.  This person or thing that seems to promise sheer satisfaction is more like a bottomless pit of unmet longings.  

Lust always breeds more lust. “What is the source of the wars and fights among you? Don’t they come from the cravings that are at war within you?” (James 4:1 HCSB). Lust will make you dissatisfied with your husband or wife. It breeds anger, numbs hearts, and destroys marriages. Rather than fullness, it leads to emptiness.

Stephen & Alex Kendrick, “The Love Dare,” pg.117

Biblical Love and Sin

Biblical love does not mean that I ignore things that people do that are wrong and injurious.  This is true both in the physical and spiritual realms.  For example, to love a murderer, in a biblical sense, does not mean that we ignore his crime.  It means that we put him to death for his horrible trespass against the image of God (Genesis 9:5-6).  Likewise, to love a false teacher does not mean that I turn a blind eye to his error and strive to have unity with him regardless of his doctrine.  It means that I obey the Bible and mark and avoid him (Romans 16:17), that I expose his error publicly to protect those who might be led astray by his teaching.

David W.  Cloud, Contemporary Christian Music Under the Spotlight, pg.168

Interesting Miscellany

A job description for the music minister.

Myths of what is loving vs unloving.  Now apply this understanding to the claims of Nicholas Wolterstorff.

What are some of the dangers of apologetics?  Good article.

Isaiah 29:11-12: Does it point to Mohammed or Joseph Smith?  Of course not.

Is it okay to celebrate extra-biblical Christian holidays, such as Christmas and Easter?  As I’ve said all along, YES it is.

What do you tell your children about Santa?  That he’s just a fun fairy tale!

I have this booklet on my shelf, and someone pointed to the internet version so I’m sharing it.  It demonstrates that abuse is a biblical reason for divorce.

What is included in sexual sin?

The bondage to sin from the entertainment industry.

Is It Sinful to Use Profanity?  I wrote a post addressing this issue four years ago.

Love Is Strong As Death

Love does not mean that we smile at everything and show ourselves indulgent, saying that nothing matters as long as we are all one.  Love is one of the most virile, strong, magnificent qualities in existence.  And love is so powerful that it is prepared to hurt its object in order to win it and to save it and to safeguard it from a dreadful fate.  “Love is strong as death.”

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “Christian Unity: An Exposition of Ephesians 4:1-16,” pg.253