Turning Pride Month on Its Head: Fidelity Month

“Only in the mystery of Christ’s Redemption do we discover the ‘concrete’ possibilities of man. It would be a very serious error to conclude . . . that the Church’s teaching is essentially only an ‘ideal.’ . . . Christ has redeemed us! This means that he has given us the possibility of realizing the entire truth of our being; he has set our freedom free from the domination of concupiscence.”

― Pope St. John Paul II, Veritatis splendor, no 103

It’s June. Unfortunately, that means that many of our public spaces, workplaces, and schools are now being taken over by rainbow flags, “Pride” propaganda, and often-grotesque demonstrations of public sexuality.

It is sometimes difficult to understand how we, as a culture, got here. No period in history has ever been perfect. Christian or not, most cultures for millennia understood that there were certain fundamental values that were of unquestionable importance, and that there were certain behaviors that were beyond-the-pale unacceptable.

For instance, every culture understood that individual marriages might be difficult. But they also understood that marriage itself, as an institution, is one of the greatest goods and that any healthy society depends on it.

After all, where would we be if we didn’t have strong, stable families, in which children might be educated to become responsible, hard-working citizens? Where would we be if men and women did not understand that one of the best uses of their lives would be to unite themselves, indissolubly, to another person in an exclusive union that trained them in the difficult work of learning to love, and that in turn begot the next generation of children?

Or take the question of how adults would broach the topic of sexuality with children. While there may be some legitimate debates when or to what extent schools might be called upon to assist parents (with their permission) in educating their children about certain aspects of sexuality, everyone understood a few basic principles. At a minimum, the matter was a delicate one, parents should have the final say, and children should only be taught what they needed to live healthy lives.

Now, however, we live in a culture where a staggering number of people think that it is normal for strangers to go into classrooms and to introduce children, in graphic detail, to various sexual behaviors that even many adults would never have even heard of until recently. “Drag Time Story Hour” is treated like a cultural icon. Parents willingly take their children to “Pride” parades, in which nude or semi-nude participants cavort around, openly celebrating a purely hedonistic idea of sexuality without the slightest nod towards the importance of self-restraint, responsibility, or procreation.

Recently, Dr. Jordan Peterson made some insightful remarks, drawing into focus the absurdity of “Pride” month.

“Pride’s a cardinal sin,” he noted. “Well, you might say, they don’t mean pride. It’s a group of oppressed people and now they’re just finding their identity and now they’re getting some security. And so, what they mean by pride is security.”

However, Dr. Peterson wasn’t having any of this. “The word is pride!” he retorted.

That’s the word that was chosen. And it’s pride in relation, so far as I can tell, to nothing but self-gratification. It’s like, your identity is going to be your sexual desire? That’s your identity, your sexual desire? So that means you’ve reduced your identity to the most immature and hedonistic part of you. The part that would exploit someone else for your self-gratification. … And now that’s your identity. That’s what we celebrate. Yeah. No. That’s a very bad idea.

Fidelity Month as a Response to Pride Month

Dr. Peterson’s right.

And I think it is important that we do not allow the normalization of “Pride” celebrations. We must voice our appall and be united in our efforts to transform our culture—protecting our children from this assault and rejecting the massive, publicly funded celebrations of hedonism that are widely celebrated as one of the greatest innovations of our age. Where previous ages valued and celebrated such things as responsibility, fidelity, modesty, chastity, and maturity, our culture has elevated self-indulgence and sexual experimentation as a core ideal.

However, sometimes even more confusing than the question of how we got here, is the question of what we are supposed to do about this situation.

Unfortunately, it certainly seems as if those who value traditional values are a minority. Even worse, it often seems as if we are a minority that lacks much of the power needed to shift the cultural pendulum. All the major institutions, from the media to government, to commerce, to education, all seem to be marching in lockstep. This is so much the case, that many Christians who work in these spheres have found that the only way to keep their jobs is to stay quiet.

There are no easy answers to these conundrums. Nevertheless, clearly things cannot remain the way they are. No culture can long survive while unmooring itself so completely from the foundational moral principles on which any functioning group depends, i.e. self-sacrifice, responsibility, etc.

Fortunately, there are groups of courageous people who are creatively seeking different ways forward. One such group has launched a marvelous project called Fidelity Month.

The central figure of the group is Dr. Robert George, a world-famous legal scholar who teaches at Princeton University. Despite the fact that Dr. George is working at one of the pre-eminent bastions of progressive ideology, this has not prevented him from speaking out against the new cultural orthodoxy and promoting the Catholic beliefs and traditional moral values in which he passionately depends.

“Fidelity Month,” which is celebrated throughout June, is an explicit response to the cultural behemoth of “Pride Month.”

In a recent letter explaining the purpose of “Fidelity Month,” Dr. George pointed to “the rather disturbing recent Wall Street Journal poll indicating a precipitous decline in our fellow Americans’ belief in the importance of such values as patriotism, religion, family, and community—the values that used to unite Americans despite our many differences.”

“Fidelity Month,” explained Dr. George, is a month “dedicated to the importance of fidelity to God, spouses and families, and our country and communities.”

Unfortunately, so many people have become so accustomed to June being “Pride Month” that they have lost sight of the possibility that, as a culture, we can celebrate any other values. “Fidelity Month” is a clever, well-thought-through counter-initiative, reminding people that there are values and principles with a far greater intellectual and spiritual pedigree, and of which we stand in desperate need.

Dr. George urged his readers to do whatever possible to advocate “Fidelity Month.” If they are legislators, work to recognize “Fidelity Month” in their local legislation. If they are pastors, celebrate “Fidelity Month” in their churches and parishes. And if they are ordinary people, take a moment to write a letter to the editor or share the “Fidelity Month” images on social media.

Encouragingly, recently the Speaker of the U.S. House, Mike Johnson, promoted the idea of “Fidelity Month.” As one of the most powerful legislators in the country, Speaker Johnson has a lot of clout. It’s good to see the idea catching on!

Pope St. John Paul II Points Us to Our Responsibility

Clearly, what we cannot do when we see our culture so lost, is do nothing.

Pope St. John Paul II was clear about this in remarks in his Apostolic Exhortation Ecclesia in Europa. “The Church in Europe at every level must faithfully proclaim anew the truth about marriage and the family,” he wrote there.

She sees this as burning need, for she knows that this task is integral to the mission of evangelization entrusted to her by her Bridegroom and Lord, and imposes itself today with unusual force. Many cultural, social, and political factors are in fact conspiring to create an increasingly evident crisis of the family. In varying ways, they jeopardize the truth and dignity of the human person, and call into question, often misrepresenting it, the notion of the family itself. The value of marital indissolubility is increasingly denied; demands are made for the legal recognition of de facto relationships as if they were comparable to legitimate marriages; and attempts are made to accept a definition of the couple in which difference of sex is not considered essential. In this context the Church is called to proclaim with renewed vigor what the Gospel teaches about marriage and the family, in order to grasp their meaning and value in God’s saving plan.

After leadership training, Sister Adeline got rid of her school’s LGBT club and started a pro-life club in its place!

In other words, let us not pretend that the stakes are not high. When a culture shifts its core values so radically that up is down and down is up, we should not expect that there will not be dire consequences. In such a time, the Church is tasked with the grave responsibility to fight error and promote truth—the truth about the human person, marriage, and human sexuality. The Church is tasked with providing a path, in cooperation with grace, to overcome lifestyles and behaviors rooted in sin, ignorance, and error.

And we, as faithful Christians called to bear witness and to transmit the Gospel to all, have our own part to play. For most of my readers, the core responsibility is to raise their own families well: firstly, by modelling for their children what a faithful, loving marriage looks like; and secondly, by passing on to them the rich, beautiful, life-giving teachings of the Church.

There may also be other meaningful ways that we can start taking the culture back. Go visit the website for “Fidelity Month,” and ask yourself is there some way that you can promote this worthy cause in your particular sphere of influence. Bit by bit, and with the help of God’s grace, may we begin to restore sanity to our culture.

And with love for our neighbor, always seeking their genuine well-being, let us pray for those who experience and struggle with same-sex attractions, for those involved in the homosexual lifestyle, and for those dealing with gender identify confusion (transgenderism). Let us make a conscious effort in Mass and Eucharistic Adoration, during the recitation of the Rosary, and in our daily prayers to bring our brothers and sisters to the Lord through our intercession.