By Susan Thistlethwaite
Harrison Butker, the kicker for the Kansas City Chiefs, has stirred up a lot of controversy, not only for telling women to, in effect, go “back to the kitchen” like the good ole 1950s, but also for condemning Pride Month as an example of “deadly sins” according to Christianity.
Butker (who made his controversial remarks earlier this month addressing the graduates of Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas) is wrong on a lot of issues, including what Pride Month means as a religious value.
The infinite dignity and worth of all human beings is a core value across religions. Having pride in one’s very being is not a “sin,” it is a way to honor the creation and the creator.
But uplifting the sacred value of pride in one’s being as LGBTQIA is still a struggle as Butker’s comments certainly show.
The first Pride March was organized to commemorate the nights in June of 1969 when LGBTQIA people pushed back against the frequent police harassment of their community at the Stonewall Inn in New York. Centuries of abuse and criminalization were rejected in favor of pride in being “homosexual.” That was not the first time the LGBTQIA community had resisted such treatment, but those actions in 1969 gave rise to a liberation consciousness as had also been building for African Americans and women in the 1960s. Thousands marched in New York in the first Pride March in 1970.
The term “Pride,” chosen by activists, is crucial. It is an explicit rejection of pride as one of the “seven deadly sins.” The term pride goes right to the heart of how Christianity, for example, has enabled the condemnation of LGBTQIA persons as “sinners” and hence their persecution and criminalization.
Many Christian denominations and groups not only in the U.S. but around the world have rejected the idea that being LGBTQIA is a sin in favor of being either neutral, accepting or positive advocates. My own United Church of Christ has an “Open and Affirming” policy as adopted by many UCC churches including Santa Cruz Peace United Church that welcomes and advocates for equal justice for LGBTQIA persons.
This is far from universal in religion, however. As Pride events have grown in this country and around the world, so has persecution up to and including jail time and even execution in some countries.
Butker’s comments illustrate how religion is used to condemn Pride instead of celebrate it.
It is therefore so important that the Santa Cruz Pride March on June 2 has an Interfaith Service that begins at 9:30 a.m. that day in Plaza Lane (near the Hidden Peak Tea House). Organized by Out In Our Faith, local religious leaders and congregations who advocate for the dignity and full inclusion of LGBTQIA persons will join together for this brief and joyous gathering before the parade starts. The event will include Jews, Muslims, Christians, Buddhists and other spiritual traditions celebrating Pride as a sacred value.
Advocating for LGBTQIA equality both within religions and in the larger society is absolutely essential.
Susan Thistlethwaite has been published in the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, and the Huffington Post. She is the retired president of Chicago Theological Seminary as well as a retired tenured professor. These days she writes mystery novels. She and her husband live in Santa Cruz.