Why do anti-LGBT Christians have this misconception about pro-LGBT Christians?

[Figueira]

This is something I see a lot from Christians on the Internet (including on this forum): the belief that if you're a pro-LGBT Christian, you're only pro-LGBT because that's what's currently trendy. I've only seen this with Christians (maybe once with Jews) but I'm sure it exists in other religions as well. Do they actually believe this, or what?

[Dr. MB]

Lots of pro LGBT people now are only pro LGBT cause it’s “trendy”, not just Christians.  It’s a pretty obvious development since the tide shifted to social acceptance of LGBT people. Corporations can risk advertising for pride month and churches can risk hanging up a rainbow flag.

[Figueira]

Lots of pro LGBT people now are only pro LGBT cause it’s “trendy”, not just Christians.  It’s a pretty obvious development since the tide shifted to social acceptance of LGBT people. Corporations can risk advertising for pride month and churches can risk hanging up a rainbow flag.

Doing something only because it's trendy is very different from doing something because you're increasingly allowed to do it. Generally if someone is flying a rainbow flag on their church, they aren't secretly homophobic.

You do get some hypocrisy from corporations, like Disney flying rainbow flags on Twitter while downplaying LGBT story arcs in their movies and shows for the sake of the Chinese market. However, I don't think that's the case for very many private citizens or small church leaders.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Lots of pro LGBT people now are only pro LGBT cause it’s “trendy”, not just Christians.  It’s a pretty obvious development since the tide shifted to social acceptance of LGBT people. Corporations can risk advertising for pride month and churches can risk hanging up a rainbow flag.

Doing something only because it's trendy is very different from doing something because you're increasingly allowed to do it. Generally if someone is flying a rainbow flag on their church, they aren't secretly homophobic.

You do get some hypocrisy from corporations, like Disney flying rainbow flags on Twitter while downplaying LGBT story arcs in their movies and shows for the sake of the Chinese market. However, I don't think that's the case for very many private citizens or small church leaders.

[posted this in the wrong thread initially]

There's nevertheless a demonstrated tendency on the right to project the phenomenon of corporate pinkwashing onto individuals' and small institutions' changing attitudes in order to make sense of them. I don't think the nature of the cope and seethe going on here is that mysterious.

[Kingpoleon]

While a secularist may be able to write off bad ideas as just the choice of others which need not be directed to any real idea of goodness, this is impossible for religious people, as choice in religion is not an ends in itself but a choice towards a real thing which is goodness itself, namely God.

Thus, the easiest thing for liberal and conservative Christians to do is to dismiss the opposing ideas, often not entirely unfairly, as giving in to modernity or being held back by tradition.

[THG]

Lots of pro LGBT people now are only pro LGBT cause it’s “trendy”, not just Christians.  It’s a pretty obvious development since the tide shifted to social acceptance of LGBT people. Corporations can risk advertising for pride month and churches can risk hanging up a rainbow flag.

Exactly this.

I do not fester irrational hatred for LGBT people, but there simply is nothing even remotely Christian about hanging a pride flag or virtue signaling in general.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I am sure that pro-LGBT Christians are quite sincere in their beliefs, and so it is not "trendy" in that sense, but as MB says it is quite clear that this has become a thing in recent years as support for LGBT causes has gained traction in society. So in that sense I might characterize it as "trendy".

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I think churches putting up Pride flags is different from some rando doing it on their Facebook avatar because that signals to LGBT people that the church is accepting and affirming and safe for them to attend. It's just another form of marketing and isn't just pure virtue signaling.

[Figueira]

To be clear, when I say "pro-LGBT Christians" I mean any Christians who happen to support LGBT rights even when they go against some traditional Christian views. Not just Christians who constantly wave pride flags (although personally I think those people are also great as long as they're sincere about it).

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I think churches putting up Pride flags is different from some rando doing it on their Facebook avatar because that signals to LGBT people that the church is accepting and affirming and safe for them to attend. It's just another form of marketing and isn't just pure virtue signaling.

It would be virtue signaling maybe if a church were like a grocery store or a movie theater where there's no reason (in most places) to seriously consider the possibility of them being unsafe places for LGBT people anyway. But that's unfortunately not actually the case with churches.

[Del Tachi]

Lots of pro LGBT people now are only pro LGBT cause it’s “trendy”, not just Christians.  It’s a pretty obvious development since the tide shifted to social acceptance of LGBT people. Corporations can risk advertising for pride month and churches can risk hanging up a rainbow flag.

Doing something only because it's trendy is very different from doing something because you're increasingly allowed to do it. Generally if someone is flying a rainbow flag on their church, they aren't secretly homophobic.

This implies that the churches in question were actually pro-LGBT this whole time and it is only changing social tides in the secular world that have allowed them to become openly affirming.

Of course, this belief is not congruent with the fact that practically every Main Line denomination had written in black-and-white that homosexual relations are incompatible with Christian teaching as recently as the 1980s...and most still do, FWIW

[Big Abraham]

Lots of pro LGBT people now are only pro LGBT cause it’s “trendy”, not just Christians.  It’s a pretty obvious development since the tide shifted to social acceptance of LGBT people. Corporations can risk advertising for pride month and churches can risk hanging up a rainbow flag.

Doing something only because it's trendy is very different from doing something because you're increasingly allowed to do it. Generally if someone is flying a rainbow flag on their church, they aren't secretly homophobic.

This implies that the churches in question were actually pro-LGBT this whole time and it is only changing social tides in the secular world that have allowed them to become openly affirming.

Of course, this belief is not congruent with the fact that practically every Main Line denomination had written in black-and-white that homosexual relations are incompatible with Christian teaching as recently as the 1980s...and most still do, FWIW

I believe the Methodist Church is splitting along this issue

[Ferguson97]

Lots of pro LGBT people now are only pro LGBT cause it’s “trendy”, not just Christians.  It’s a pretty obvious development since the tide shifted to social acceptance of LGBT people. Corporations can risk advertising for pride month and churches can risk hanging up a rainbow flag.

there simply is nothing even remotely Christian about hanging a pride flag

Couldn't agree more, it's why I dislike Christianity so much.

[All Along The Watchtower]

Lots of pro LGBT people now are only pro LGBT cause it’s “trendy”, not just Christians.  It’s a pretty obvious development since the tide shifted to social acceptance of LGBT people. Corporations can risk advertising for pride month and churches can risk hanging up a rainbow flag.

Exactly this.

I do not fester irrational hatred for LGBT people, but there simply is nothing even remotely Christian about hanging a pride flag or virtue signaling in general.

Blue Avatar.

[Kingpoleon]

This implies that the churches in question were actually pro-LGBT this whole time and it is only changing social tides in the secular world that have allowed them to become openly affirming.

Of course, this belief is not congruent with the fact that practically every Main Line denomination had written in black-and-white that homosexual relations are incompatible with Christian teaching as recently as the 1980s...and most still do, FWIW

The UMC, at its founding convention, had a vote on homosexuality in which a significant minority held to a liberal stance on the issue.