Sin is Nothing to Be Proud Of

by Fr. Ioannes Apiarius –
Sin is nothing to be proud of. Sin is nothing to celebrate. Honoring sin is from the devil. Self-identifying with sin destroys the image of God in man and makes a mockery of the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Orthodox Church.

Brainwashing innocent children, teens, and young adults into embracing perversions and practicing sin is sinful, it is wrong. It’s an abomination before the Lord. Yet, these are precisely the themes and goals of all “Pride Month” events and activities during June, across America, Canada, and most Western countries.

A Christian, especially an Orthodox Christian, can never identify as “homosexual, gay, transsexual, queer, bisexual” or self-identify with any other sin, sexual distortion, delusion, or depravity included in the LGBTQIAWXYZ growing list of non-Christian and anti-human categories.

If you are an Orthodox Christian you cannot celebrate, support, or promote “Pride Month,” “Homosexual Pride,” “Gay Pride,” “Queer Pride,” “LGBTQ+ Pride,” or “Trans Pride.” Such declarations promote a false ideology that is alien to Christianity. Such activities are contrary to the Orthodox Christian faith and moral tradition. Such proclamations are wrong.

“Gay Pride” celebrations are also blasphemous. They make a mockery of the Orthodox Christian teachings on sin, righteousness, and holiness as they relate to human nature and God’s relationship with man. They advance a distorted, worldly, corrupt, and false perception of the human condition. “LGBTQ Pride” messages present sin and the passions as essential to human existence. They permanently unite sin to human nature. They define humanity by sin, in direct contradiction to the Scriptures, God’s commandments, the teaching of Christ, the Saints, the Holy Fathers, and the theology and dogmas of the Holy Orthodox Church.

Orthodox Christian theology reaffirms the unchanging truth that sin entered creation due to man’s disobedience and rebellion against God. God never intended for sin to corrupt and destroy human nature, let alone become permanently united with man. The Lord has said that sin is alien to human existence, a deadly threat that separates man from God. Those that teach differently are impostors and false teachers – dangerous wolves in sheep’s clothing – who have shown themselves to be enemies of Christ and His Holy Orthodox Church.

Sin does not and cannot characterize men. Passions and sexual distortions do not define human beings. Christians cannot self-identify with any sin or passion. Orthodox Christians who believe that Jesus Christ is Lord, the Son and Word of the living God, True God of True God, the Redeemer and Saviour of all mankind, must reject and abandon the “gay” or “homosexual” or “queer” or “transsexual” any other LGBTQ+ label. “You are not your own; you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).

Sin is nothing to be proud of. Sin must never be self-identified with. Sin must never be honored and celebrated.

“Flee from sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?” (1 Corinth. 6:18).

Turn away from sin. Repent of sin. Flee from sin. Struggle and fight against sin. Reject sin. Help others turn away from sin. Help them to fight against sin. Teach others to avoid sin and reject sin.

“Repentance is the abandoning of all false paths that have been trodden by men’s feet, and men’s thoughts and desires, and a return to the new path: Christ’s path,” taught St. Nikolai Velimirovic.

Embrace holiness. Seek righteousness. Follow the real Christ and His wisdom. Pick up your cross and walk the narrow road that leads to true joy, salvation, and everlasting life in God’s kingdom.

– Fr. Ioannes Apiarius