Ecology and the Lie of Pride Flags

A look at the intentions of the designer of the 'Pride Flag'. ''We needed something to express our joy, our beauty, our power. And the rainbow did that."

From Catholic460

By Matthew A. Tsakanikas, PhD

“The importance of ecology is no longer disputed. We must listen to the language of nature and we must answer accordingly. Yet I would like to underline a point that seems to me to be neglected, today as in the past: there is also an ecology of man. Man too has a nature that he must respect and that he cannot manipulate at will. Man is not merely self-creating freedom. Man does not create himself. He is intellect and will, but he is also nature, and his will is rightly ordered if he respects his nature, listens to it and accepts himself for who he is, as one who did not create himself. In this way, and in no other, is true human freedom fulfilled.”  Benedict XVI, Bundestag, “The Listening Heart: Reflections on the Foundations of Law,” 2011

Section I: False flags and seeking wholeness for all sexual sinners

To those familiar with signs, symbols and sacramentals, the LGBTQ+ “Pride” flag is no more a peaceful sign of diversity and tolerance than the Confederate or “Rebel” flag is. The Pride flag inseparably signifies the specific value of accepting the “gay” lifestyle and the sexual acts which are intrinsic to defining one as homosexual. To the point, does anyone honestly believe that someone who hoists the Playboy bunny flag can separate it from support of fornication and adultery? Feel free to pretend you just like the cute sign of bunnies, but any culturally attuned adult knows the flag’s intrinsic sympathy and meaning.

CNN reported what the original designer had to say about the Pride flag: “He assigned a meaning to each of the colors: hot pink for [gay] sex, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, turquoise for magic, blue for harmony and violet for spirit.” So, gay “sex” and “magic.” Admittedly, pink was later removed for simplification of manufacturing per the article. The designer summarized, “We needed something to express our joy, our beauty, our power. And the rainbow did that." Today’s activists and parades make clear that it was always first and foremost about “hot... [gay] sex”.

No amount of good intentions by some supporters of the LGBTQ+ movement can conceal the values to which the Pride flag is intrinsically tied. It is a flag of defiance, rebellion, and the culture wars: surrender or be destroyed. Corporate CEOs and bakers who have lost their jobs for not surrendering to the flag can testify it is not peaceful or innocent any more than a pirate ship hoisting its colors.

Rebel Flag: Its True Meaning

The Pride flag is ultimately a symbol of defiance and hate of Christian morals (which condemns sodomy along with fornication and adultery by heterosexuals). The flag symbolizes the desire to enforce normalization of the acts intrinsic to the LGBTQ+ lifestyles. It is anti-union with the only eternal and transcendent God. It is a rebel flag. The rainbow, God’s symbol of peace towards mankind, has been turned against God in an act of defiance and preference for deceit. Its founders took a symbol for God’s love and turned it upside down.

The Confederate or “Rebel” flag may have stood for States’ rights and a weaker federal government, but its primary origins inseparably stood for the status quo of bigotry, hatred, and maintenance of chattel slavery.  Confederate activists were clear that the war was more about slavery than States’ rights. Like the Pride flag, it likewise stood for dehumanizing ideologies, choices, and activities. The symbolic value of chattel slavery can never be removed from the Confederate flag’s founding symbolism and sign-value because chattel slavery is indissolubly linked to opposition to the Union; two values are inseparably linked in the flag. While people may try to hoist the “Rebel” flag today in defiance of today’s corrupt media, federal government, and supporting agencies, they cannot pretend the flag is all of the sudden empty of the sign-value it originally gave slavery. Otherwise, they deceive themselves.

Due to its opposition of God’s love for mankind – by its support of lying and dishonesty in support of “hot... [gay/sodomy] sex” – defiance of God can never be removed from the sign-value of the Pride flag. Firstly, because sexual love between intelligent beings (as opposed to some lower animals) is offered by Mother Nature for expressing union and faithful love with another. No real union takes place in sodomy…only distorted forms of mimicry which equate to mutual masturbation (so using the term “sex” is a bit of a misnomer). Fidelity is practically scorned by the LGBTQ+ activists. Secondly, since fornication and adultery are intrinsically forms of lying amongst heterosexuals, and universally condemned by all Wisdom traditions, then sodomy can never be seen as anything but a worse form of lying and perversion than fornication and adultery. It is not even “hot... [gay] sex,” it’s simply mutual use and lying within distorted bodily expressions. Empty of intelligence and perverse, it is neither intercourse nor honest.

Though housing many hypocrites - like every institution involving men - Catholic prelates are aware that symbols propagate a spectrum of ideas and meanings within the cultures that use them. Trained in signs and symbols and sacramental theology, even if they are currently silent, surely they are aware that the US Embassy at the Vatican (actually in Rome proper) is signaling the passive-aggressive hatred which activists have for Catholic foundational values of covenant, marriage and temperance when that embassy hoists the Pride flag. Except for the abuse of executive power in the Biden administration, it borders on comical that ambassadors pretend to separate the Pride flag from its intrinsic sign-value of sodomy (per the designer’s own words). The new power politics demonstrated by some American institutions reveals that Marxism - in its Engels form – has settled-in.

The well-intentioned Pride flag supporters who fight bigotry

Unwilling to admit the fuller sign-value of the flag, and ignoring how invading pirates hoist it, many people who support the Pride flag are kind-hearted and have relatives involved in the LGBT+ world. They do not want those relatives to feel unloved or abandoned. They are people who value inclusivity and recognize they too have sins and weaknesses; especially sexual sins. They do not wish to appear intolerant to the struggles of relatives who mistakenly identify with the LGBT+ community. They understand the struggles of their fellow man and do not wish to isolate them or increase their burdens. For most of these kind-hearted relatives and friends, that’s as far as the symbolism of the flag goes for them. They are like people who assume that hanging the Confederate flag only has the sign-value of States’ rights. Their natural affection for family is to be lauded even though their sign choices lack some discernment.

Other good-willed supporters of the Pride flag are often-times victims of some form of unjust persecution, present or historical. They simply identify with anyone unjustly persecuted, whoever they are and without judgment on their personal lives. It is commendable. However, they fail to see that defending some lifestyle choices are as much a defense of lies as defending the lies of adultery or cheating on one’s spouse (which they do not support). They fail to discern that one can reject sinful activities while loving and wanting the salvation of the persons immersed in unhealthy and dishonest behavior. Nevertheless, such good-willed supporters of the Pride flag are rightly standing against the bigots who scapegoat those who experience homosexual attractions. They are right to stand against the bigots who attack innocent persons and those who the bigots perceive as “queer” or LGBTQ+.

Such bigots deserve correction as many “queers” have never pushed their politics on anyone, never hoisted the Pride flag, and never sued a bakery just to punish Christians for not supporting the sexual activity of gay “marriage” and “hot... [gay/sodomy] sex.” Many innocent “queers” have only silently suffered disordered emotion or desires (as do “straight” people), but never tried to justify acting upon them. Such “queers” are innocent of any sin and God has destined them in Christ to share in his Sonship and Resurrection.

Many humans have engaged in “queer” activity but repented of the lies. Somehow fantasy, desire, and anxiety got intertwined inside their psyche, not by a choice, but by the human condition itself. It led to powerful temptations. They are ashamed and repentant of bad choices they eventually made as much as the adulterer or fornicator is rightly ashamed of his activities. God loves and favors all repentant sinners; every lost sheep.

Innocence of the “gay” condition

We’re all sinners in need of salvation. The human condition is afflicted by the world (environment), the flesh (biology), and the devil (spiritual warfare). Such conditions afflict each and every human being conceived in this world. According to the Church, every human suffers some kind of concupiscence, a.k.a. disordered desires. There is not personal fault for its origins, but we are responsible for what we choose to do with the temptations engendered by concupiscence. We are intelligent and free beings and responsible for what we consciously choose to do with our desires. We are called to love in truth our fellow man and ourselves. Concupiscence’s effects differ. The conjunction and intertwining of fantasy (from the word “phantasms”), imagination, sexual desire, intelligence and anxiety can afflict a person’s psyche and memory and start the struggle with homosexual temptation…through no fault of their own.

A bit over-simplified, but this body-soul combination of the psyche (additionally affected by the world, the flesh, and the devil) can continue the indention of a struggle within the psyche like ripples on water from a rock. The whole body-soul composite is constantly reverberated in the struggle of intelligence with the emotions that shake it and imprint the psyche. The struggle to bring bodily-emotional desires into reasonable and truthful activity is the arena in which every human experiences concupiscence and temptation. Some powerful concupiscence can remain with persons their whole lifetime, but God loves them no less and rewards their faithfulness and struggles for truthfulness.

Some psychic struggles are easily compounded once concupiscence sets in and every time some kind of association triggers it. It seemingly becomes a part of the person’s nature and identity and often comes through no personal fault of their own. God greatly loves the people who are afflicted by such temptation, but such people are initially very confused and shaken by the temptations. They question if they are lovable and too often they get very poor guidance. They are lovable and God loves them deeply. Shame on those who do not love them and give false guidance.  Many so-called “LGBTQ+” people are no more pleased by this confluence in their natural powers than straight people with confused and unintegrated drives which lead to adultery, fornication or masturbation.

The persecution of humans who experience homosexual temptations or concupiscence is unjust. However, speaking-out against dishonest activity is not unjust, just like when the Church condemns acts of fornication and adultery. We all must struggle to live in honesty and truthfulness in how we relate to our fellow man if we are to love others truthfully and intelligently. Jesus promised he came to save and not to condemn us (cf. Jn 3:16; 12:47). He urges us to keep striving for wholeness, truthfulness and forgiveness. We cannot achieve it without Jesus who proved that God is love and loves us sinners. It is only the self-righteous and obstinate sinner who is in danger for not wanting God’s love and mercy.

Seeking integration with intelligence and wholeness through love

We all believe in truth and objective truth or we would not be offended when people lie to us or lie to others. It is because humans love the truth that we are upset when people lie to us. Lies steal our freedom while the truth makes us free. We could not experience betrayal if we did not love the truth and reality. Love of truth is inescapable for intelligent beings. Intelligence is the higher aspect of our lives and gives us dignity to not be governed solely by reactions to imagination and impulses like the other animals. Love of truth prevents us from being manipulated and gives us authentic freedom.

Not only do intelligent beings love the truth, we also do not like being wrong and do not want to live lives that are false. Admitting we were wrong is painful because it means admitting we have been living lives that are somewhat false and of less value because they lacked the value of truthfulness. No one wants to have to admit to himself that he has been living lies or falsity. Wanting things to be true can sometimes even lead us to deceiving ourselves when we cannot admit we were misled and took a wrong turn. Believing one’s own lies is one of the greatest of darknesses of which humans are very capable.

The truth is what makes us free and fulfilled, but it can be hard to discern the interdependence of truth and desires since human organisms experience desires at multiple levels: subjectively in body and emotions, and objectively in intelligence and the desire for truth (in shared language and shared space-time). Intelligence naturally desires truthfulness and honesty to provide for wholeness of the organism: the truth makes intelligent beings free and whole. Spiritual and higher realities are more important than bodily desires and so they must guide and lead bodily desires if intelligent beings are to maintain fulfilment and integrity. Intelligent and spiritual realities are higher and more important realities because only spiritual realities survive bodily death.

Sometimes the lower truths about bodily need come in conflict with the higher power and goods of personal intelligence, personal relationships, commitment, and integrity. Instead of choosing the higher values of honesty and integrity, too often humans value the lower fixes of immediate gratification of bodily or emotional want. Confusion sets in. Lying becomes a temptation in every human being; most dangerously, lying to oneself. Subjectivity interferes with finding fulfillment in higher realities when a person relativizes what is higher and lower than itself. Choosing the lower goods over and against the objectively higher goods – instead of integration with the higher and true goods – makes humans more like the lower animals and ruled by passion instead of intelligent love (the likeness of God) which opens to participation in eternal life.

Section II: If fornication, contraception and adultery are forms of lying, then what is sodomy?

If I tell a heterosexual man that he is a pig, a liar, and a user for cheating on his wife, no one is upset by it because deep-down everyone knows such a man has chosen to act as a scoundrel and follow base desire over and against truthful, honest, and loving relationships. Additionally, women should not be treated so cheaply (as does adultery and fornication) since women are left bearing the greatest costs and burdens. Every honest human loves his mother and knows he has value because of her caring love. He knows she bore the greatest cost.

Every human is the product of a sexual embrace (a real union of male and female); and every human has the dignity of being intelligent and the image of God. Human life is not cheap and should not be deprived of origin from an honest union between a man and woman. Human life comes from the excellence of male and female and elevation into intelligence through sharing in human nature. Human life is made in the image of God, the intelligence behind all creation and the arrival of intelligent biological entities.

Children naturally love their mothers, but men must act like fathers before they are worthy of love. Fatherhood means commitment, integrity, strength, and sacrifice. Indebted to our mother’s love and care since conception, every human knows that when I tell a man he is a pig, then it means his conscious sexual acts are inseparable from being intelligent and also meaningful acts; that with his freedom comes responsibility. Calling him a pig means that his acts are beneath fatherly human dignity of being intelligent, free, and responsible. No matter his immature protestations, acts of cheating are acts of betrayal against his spouse, his children, and his intelligent nature.

Adultery is an act of betrayal against his spouse because accepting her love meant cherishing her love and her person; showing gratitude and loyalty. She did not give herself away to have her love thrown away. Humans are not cars or slaves that can be traded for different models; they are the image of God and always more than mere objects for personal use. Cheating shows narcissism, arrogance, and being a user. Cheating makes men (and likewise women) thieves and liars; taking and pretending, but not giving and committing to what nature pledges within them as intelligent creatures.

Acts of cheating are acts of betrayal against his children because children are nature’s signs of the commitments he consciously made his spouse in shared bodily language in time and space every time they united; pledge after pledge after pledge. The face of a child is the face of innocence and honesty, the face of nature asking if the man will remain true and become fulfilled in fatherhood. We his children are signs of nature’s pledge and only liars seek to deny us what is our due from nature…a father and a mother.

All human languages communicate objective meanings. Promises are presumed to be truthful. For this reason, lying is universally detested amongst the human race and all Wisdom traditions. When shared by intelligent beings, sexual acts are a form of body language designed by Mother Nature, and they communicate truths. The intimate powers being shared between man and woman (intelligent biological entities) reveal a willingness to share a future life together in the bodily language of the gift of the self; a total unifying embrace speaking a primordial language of promise and pledge which communicates faithfulness. Only humans, because of intelligence, comprehend this language.

Being intelligent and free, the persons involved in sexual intercourse signify love and can bring into existence a new human life which should be cherished (and needs a family). The bodily union is inescapably a promise and a pledge spoken bodily through conscious and intelligent creatures and only such unions between male and female can be called sexual intercourse. Only a man and a woman – without any other humans involved – have the power to bring new intelligent beings into this world. With great power comes great responsibility.

The quote from Benedict XVI, now makes more sense: ““The importance of ecology is no longer disputed. We must listen to the language of nature and we must answer accordingly. Yet I would like to underline a point that seems to me to be neglected, today as in the past: there is also an ecology of man. Man too has a nature that he must respect and that he cannot manipulate at will. Man is not merely self-creating freedom. Man does not create himself. He is intellect and will, but he is also nature, and his will is rightly ordered if he respects his nature, listens to it and accepts himself for who he is, as one who did not create himself. In this way, and in no other, is true human freedom fulfilled.”

No to Sodomy, Yes to Ecology

The heterosexual union is superior and unlike the distortions involved in sodomy. Sodomy can only mimic honest heterosexual intercourse, but never achieve real and natural unions. Nature approves and proclaims the reality of true union which is signified and proclaimed by the mystery of new life signified in the new child. Humans intelligently grasp our origins and debt to Mother Nature, which God gave us as a guide. Humans admire the elegance of symmetry, diversity in nature, the possibility of union with the “other,” and the mystery of life. Only male and female together unlock the mystery of life by themselves and with no one else involved. Mother nature could not be more clear about natural and sexual ecology. Attempted bodily unions which are not true unions – and which fail to respect the love pledged within marital relationships – fail to respect natural intelligence and so are a failure of human ecology.

Homosexual attempts at sexual union become a rejection of Mother Nature, an abuse of intelligence and piety, a lack of respect for the natural environment and ecology that led to human beings. Mother Nature needs to be respected for her ends which God the intelligent and loving Creator assigned. Mother nature is a book of wisdom and teaches us through common sense and experience about God’s purposes. We all naturally have mothers, and we all naturally know the difference between authentic unions and inauthentic unions; between truth-telling and falsehoods, between loving unions and lies. Fathers and mothers are our guides until we mature and preserve their wisdom and become mothers and fathers. Men are made for fatherhood, women for motherhood, and together they protect wisdom for future generations.

Even if intelligent humans agree just to use each other, even if they attempt to deny authentic human bodily union its inherent, intelligible, and primordial language of faithfulness and love (as assigned by Mother Nature), it just means both people agreed to accept a lie or engage in emotional prostitution (trading in pleasures). They are agreeing to be users of each other, but it doesn’t make them honest lovers of each other. Since when is purposely falling short of the truth, and the purposeful misuse of a human person, something to be celebrated with special flags…whether bunnies or rainbows?

Every act of contraception, especially amongst the married, is always an act of lying and something beneath human dignity. It too rejects Mother Nature and human ecology. It prevents true union in an act that Mother Nature elegantly designed to speak of total union. For what? To take pleasure from one another without care that each are debtors to a primordial language that has a purpose and meaning greater than themselves. Contraception blocks true union of mind and body and replaces it with the goals of mutual masturbation (false unions)…opening it to the charge of sodomy. The deepest and most intimate powers of one another – fertility – are blocked, rejected, and resented. Humans act like thieves. Contraception tells Mother Nature that mankind has the right to take advantage of her goodness and pollute her beauty and truth-telling. All the while humans lie and pretend to sing within Mother Nature’s harmonies of life, rhythm, and cycles. Really, contraceptors are lip-syncing and becoming liars and thieves.

If the misuse of sexual acts amongst heterosexuals inside of marriage – and even outside of nature’s institution of marriage – are acts of lying, then one can imagine how further misuse of sexual acts leads to further degradation in acts of sodomy. Acts of sodomy speak an even greater lie in the language of the bodies that Mother Nature provided. This essay will spare the reader of descriptions and explanations of sodomy (sins from which even demons turn their eyes). It is enough to say that common sense is sufficient to see that the Pride flag is a symbol that promotes sexual lying and use of humans  just like the Playboy bunny is a symbol that promotes the lying of fornication and adultery.

The Intelligence behind this intelligible universe lovingly admonished us, “But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, as for murderers, fornicators, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their lot shall be in the lake that burns with fire and sulphur, which is the second death” (Revelation 21:8). Take note that all sin is summed up as “liars,” so it is a lie to say, “Love is love” in order to defend acts of sodomy. Lies work against authentic love and one cannot have union with authentic love, with God, when one refuses to live within truthfulness. When fornicators and adulterers are on the path to perdition for their lies, did those who commit sodomy really think Christian cultures should celebrate their activities with special flags? Such flags are signs of the acceptance of lying as a way of life and do not set people free.

“The coming of the lawless one by the activity of Satan will be with all power and with pretended signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are to perish, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved” (2 Thessalonians 2:9-10).

Biography: Dr. Matthew A. Tsakanikas is an associate professor of theology. See the “Transcendence After America Project: Restoring Jesus Christ to the Public Square” at catholic460.com