My promises to blog on Sunday, as you may have observed, came to naught. I woke up too late and then pushed relentlessly through the day. Then I thought maybe I could wrangle Matt into a little podcasting, but he is worn out after all our travels. So I thought a little leaven in the lump might be appropriate—a little cheerful gander at Dr. Kevin M Young. As you may, perhaps, have observed, the worldwide annual month-long celebration of Pride has come and gone, but that is no reason to draw a sigh of relief. He tweeted this yesterday:
A Christianity that spends June denouncing PRIDE MONTH over the word “pride” and the prevalence of the Rainbow Flag, but then spends July shouting “I’m Proud to be an American” from sanctuaries covered in Red, White, & Blue has made itself a tool of Empire rather than Jesus.
I thought this was a pretty great tweet—almost the platonic ideal of the form. I love, for example, that “pride month” is in all caps and that then pride is put in scare quotes. I also love how pithily he expresses himself. “A Christianity” is much punchier than “Christians.” And then I completely adore the expression “tool of Empire” and hope I will be able to work it into every single post henceforth.
Best of all, the tweet is like a fertile seed falling into the ground, bringing forth many thoughts in various directions. Let me take them in order.
First is the question of Pride, whether bellowed in all caps or nestled inside scare quotes. It is a true thing, worthy of all of us to be received, that it is completely fatuous to say that all pride, as such, is bad and anyone who feels any pride for any reason should be cast out of the Kingdom of God.
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