If April showers bring May flowers then what does June bring? Unfortunately, it turns our focus to the sin of pride, amplified in many colorful and distorted ways by what is promoted as “Pride Month.”
The underlying efforts of those advocating for the June “celebration” are masked as acceptance of sexual choice. The LGBTQ+++ group have their own flag, identified by its many colors of the confiscated promise of the rainbow.
This flag has now come to find a new frenemy: Philz Coffee. This chain started with a single store in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2003. They now have 60 stores across California and even in Chicago.
Sometime after their arrival in the marketplace of caffeine lovers, Philz cafes notably displayed the pride flag. It was, of course, a cultural lecture showing support for those sexuality and gender patrons who want a cup of coffee or a pastry.
Now, a change of plans. In late April, the company announced that all Philz stores would remove pride and other flags and decor. Apparently, this was to create “a more consistent, inclusive experience.” Wow. A new way of understanding “inclusivity.” For the rest of us, so to speak.
In other recent pride flag news, in mid-April the Trump Administration announced it would resume flying the rainbow pride flag at the Stonewall National Monument in New York City. This decision reversed one that removed the banner from the first national monument commemorating LGBTQ+ history.
Some background here. The monument is located across the street from the Stonewall Inn. In 1969, police raided this “gay bar.” That sparked an uprising which, in turn, helped catalyze the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement.
So now, the park service will hang THREE flags on its flagpole at the monument. The pride flag will be positioned below the U.S. flag and above the park service flag. Each will measure 3 feet by 5 feet. Nothing better than equality, ya’ know.
In one of the more radical and unlikely Pride Month activities, the Israeli government announced in April that in Pride Month—also known as June—“the Dead Sea would become Pride Land, the biggest LGBTQ+ festival ever in the Middle East.”
The wording they chose garnered a few guffaws:
“Pride rises at the lowest place on earth.”
Truth speaks out!
For the biblical student, this Israeli celebration of forbidden lifestyle choices is set to take place at—hold on now—near what is believed to be the site of Sodom!
This was the community that God did not spare due to its brazen sexual corruption.
Genesis 19:24-26 records it this way,
“Then the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the Lord out of the heavens. Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, destroying all those living in the cities—and also the vegetation in the land.”
The “celebrants” at the Israeli festival can pull all-nighters as it runs 24 hours a day from June 1 to June 4. The Israeli embassy in Washington, DC, plugged the event, stating, pridefully,
“You won’t see this anywhere else in the region.”
Let’s hope not.
Of all the words available to advocate for aberrant sexual choices, “Pride” is a loser. For insight on the seriousness of this offensive word in God’s sight, I would encourage you to read Behind the Glittering Mask by Dr. Mark Rutland. This book “transports us to a high-powered confrontation between Lucifer, the lord of darkness, and Michael, the mighty warrior and archangel of heaven. Their battleground is the Seven Deadly Sins.”
In case you’ve forgotten the seven, they include pride, envy, wrath, sloth, greed, gluttony, and lust.
Of those, pride is seemingly the most dangerous of them all. It pits us firmly against our Creator.
Once again in 2026, Illinois will be a haven for the supporters of Pride Month. Our government agencies will back it. Businesses as well. Media will have a heyday televising the mostly “safe” scenes from the gathering of thousands on Sunday, June 28th. And sadly, children will also line the streets.
Weather permitting, the show of Pride will happen.
Unless of course, it rains sulphur.
