There was a news article today that led with the title Walmart promotes Pride merchandise as Target scales back following backlash. It seems that some retailers are not learning the lessons of the past.
What caught our eye was the second sentence in the first paragraph:
#PrideAlways is a reminder to lead with love.”
To the unbelieving world, it may seem like love to accept people for what they claim to be, and for some for who they are. But the unbelieving world, for the most part, does not follow an objective definition of the term love.
We can say the same for many believers as well as they ignore God’s definition of love and think they are capable of providing a better definition and application of the term. The unbelieving world’s attempt to discard the objective definitions of right and wrong, good and evil, and morality and immorality has not made the world a better place to live.
Nor do their efforts provide a great example of love or loving their neighbor. It is not love to keep people locked in their sins. Yes, the unbelieving world does not recognize the concept of sin. One reason may be that they do not want to deal with their own sins
If they accept the perversions of others, they may think they are better people and do not deserve to go to hell. Of course, the unbeliever does not recognize hell as they do not feel they are deserving of that punishment.
Yet, what they are doing with the LGBTQ community is not love nor is it loving one’s neighbor as themselves.
4 Love is patient, love is kind, it is not jealous; love does not brag, it is not arrogant. 5 It does not act disgracefully, it does not seek its own benefit; it is not provoked, does not keep an account of a wrong suffered, 6 it does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7 it [b]keeps every confidence, it believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
This definition does not describe what Walmart, other retailers, and the general unbelieving public are doing. Their idea of ‘love’ is to allow for perversion and sin to be celebrated while keeping the many members tied to suicidal thoughts and acts, rejection, and more negatives.
It is not the Christian who is the source of the negativity, it is those who take away any hope from the LTGBQ community and keep them tied to a lifestyle that will be rejected and is unacceptable.
It is the Christians, on many levels, who try to release the LGTBQ community members from that rejected lifestyle. We do not try to lock them into it and remove their hope. We provide hope through Jesus and his redemptive power.
When Christians do this, we see the general unbelieving public rise up to thwart those efforts and once again remove hope from the LGBTQ community members’ lives. Locking people in their sins and celebrating those sins is not love.
That action is treachery as one pretends to be the friend of the LGBTQ community all the while blocking their escape from this horrible lifestyle. It is not an act of friendship or love to force people to remain in a lifestyle that brings them to destruction.
Walmart had this to say at the end of the article:
We’re [a] retailer,” he added. “We want everybody to feel comfortable shopping with us…and we want everybody to feel comfortable and excited about working at Walmart.”
This is basically an impossible goal. The only way Walmart Executives can obtain this objective is by ruining the lives of those who reject the LGBTQ community’s lifestyles and are uncomfortable with selling those clothing items or working with those who live this abnormal lifestyle.
By ruining their lives we mean that some of the employees will lose their jobs and may not be able to find another one. Of course, the other people who will feel uncomfortable with Walmart highlighting LGBTQ preferences are its shoppers.
Under the article, many commentators have already said they would not shop at the store for the month of June. Lost revenue means someone has to go to cut costs and it is usually the low-end employees that suffer the most.
How is that showing love to those employees? Losing their jobs is not love nor is it equal treatment. It is favoring one people group over another for the sake of trying to make a profit. What is also an issue that some commentators have asked about under similar stories recently.
They are wondering why the LGBTQ community gets a whole month while those who serve, have served, or died in the service for their country only get one day? That is a very potent question to ponder.
Here men and women place their lives or have placed their lives on the line so that the people of their country can live freely, including the LGBT community, yet they are not worthy of one month of recognition.
Yet, those who practice unnatural lifestyles and contribute nothing positive to society in general, get a month as well as bullies trying to silence those who object to this lopsided benefit. If it was an act of love to honor and promote the LGBTQ lifestyle, one would not need bullies to silence the opposition.
One does not show love by promoting and honoring those who refuse to follow the rules of normal society. This month of celebrating those people is like cities celebrating and honoring murderers, pedophiles, rapists, and other criminals for a month.
It is a slap in the face and a deep insult to those who follow the rules and to those who serve their country, to create this celebration. When you insult others to honor those who do wrong, it is not love.
The church cannot support or participate in these celebrations for that would be an act of treachery as well. The church cannot say that the LGBT lifestyle is okay, normal, and good when the God they say they serve and represent says the exact opposite.
No unrepentant, unredeemed, practicing LGBTQ community member will see heaven or feel what paradise is like. Nothing that Walmart, other retailers, governments or disobedient churches do will change that fact.
Love tells the truth so that everybody knows where they stand. Then the listeners can use their free choice and make their own decisions. But we do not sugarcoat the news and mislead anyone. Walmart is wrong as are all retailers who follow their lead as are the members of the lGBTQ community.
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