Hello my friends,

I know it’s not the norm for me to send a newsletter out midweek, but with June being Pride Month, I thought it would be wise for us to think together about some of the rhetoric we have heard and will probably hear again during this month from those who claim to follow Jesus.

Unfortunately, hostility continues to be growing towards the LGBTQ community, much of which is led by people claiming to follow Jesus. I recently wrote a newsletter on that very topic, which you can read here.​

Today, I want to think about rainbows and how God’s use of them in Genesis 9 has profound implications for how we Christians should respond wherever we see rainbows in our culture today. I hope it is at least some small help to you as you think about and navigate conversations about this topic during the month of June.

But before we dive into that, here’s a few resources to consider:

-If you haven't yet checked out the BEMA Podcast, I highly encourage you to do so. It is such an enlightening and inspiring look at both the Jewish and Eastern perspectives of the Bible. It profoundly helps to understand scripture in the way it was written, especially what we call the "Old Testament." For today's newsletter, the most relevant episode from BEMA is called, "Bow in the clouds."

-Here is a really fascinating article I have shared before about the history of translating "homosexuality" within the Bible. If anything, it is needed food for thought. Has Homosexuality always been in the Bible?​

-I'd also like to again recommend, UnClobber: Rethinking Our Misuse of the Bible on Homosexuality, by Colby Martin.

-During the month of June, I am also planning to read: Changing Our Mind: Definitive Edition of the Landmark Call for Inclusion of LGBT Christians with Response to Critics, by David Gushee. Let me know if you have or are planning to read it as well.

*If you are planning on intentionally reading/listening to something regarding this topic for the month of June, let me know.*

Okay, onto today’s content.

Why Fighting About Rainbows Isn’t “Biblical.”

Over the past few months, we’ve seen tremendous backlash to corporations over their embrace of the LGBTQ community in their advertising and merchandise, most notably Bud Light and Target. Although corporations like Target have been celebrating Pride Month for years, with the recent vilification and demonization of the LGBTQ community, especially from political leaders, the backlash is becoming increasingly hostile.

This is as deeply troubling as it is heartbreaking.

It is so hard to see so many who claim to follow Jesus be so easily swayed by toxic political rhetoric against another group of people.

It is also so hard to realize how much fear and hostility was already present among those who claim to follow Jesus that could be provoked by toxic political rhetoric.

For you cannot have one without the other.

I can’t hep but imagine how American Christians would respond if another religious community was acting in the same way politically as we are seeing from so many who claim to follow Jesus act today.

What if people from another religion mounted a backlash against Hobby Lobby, forcing it to remove its blatantly Christian merchandise?

What if people from another religion worked to have the laws from its God posted in our schools and courtrooms across the nation?

What if people from another religion demanded that individual healthcare decisions abide by its definition of morality alone by law?

What if people from another religion claimed that the United States was founded on its principles alone and demanded its laws be influenced and upheld by its sacred text?

Imagine the outrage that would cause among the American Christian community, and for good reason. Yet, why can’t so many see how outrageous this is within Christianity itself? It seems to be so contradictory to Christ’s call to “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” (Matt 7:12).

Sadly, I think this can only come from religious and political arrogance.

One of the most damaging things the myth of a Christian nation has done is to convince so many Christians that God has given us the United States and no one else. Combine this belief with the equally arrogant religious conviction that we are the only ones who perfectly know absolute truth, it leads to the conclusion that only we own morality and so we have exclusive rights to how everyone should conduct themselves regarding marriage and human sexuality.

This mentality leads us to concerted efforts to not allow others to live according to beliefs that might differ from ours by law, all while ironically claiming to believe in “freedom.”

One of the ways we see this theological arrogance is regarding rainbows.

Just the other day, someone sent me an angry message repeating rhetoric I have heard far too often. “The LGBTQ community hijacked the rainbow!”

We can quickly hear what this kind of phrase is implying, right? The word “hijack” is defined as: “the unlawful seizure (an aircraft, ship, or vehicle) in transit and force it to go to a different destination or use it for one's own purposes.”

So this kind of phrase is implying that the rainbow was “owned and operated” by someone else from whom the LGBTQ community “hijacked” it for its own purposes.

So who "owned" the rainbow first then?

Interestingly, rainbows play just as big a role, if not bigger, in other religions and mythologies in the world and throughout history. Many predating Abrahamic faiths.

So, to say that one tradition has exclusive rights to the rainbow is not only not taking history into account, but it is severely lacking in religious humility.

But what has really convicted me about all this is how all the fighting and hostility towards the LGBTQ community is so antithetical to how God actually uses the rainbow in Genesis 9!

You see, in the ancient world, almost every civilization had a flood story in their creation account. From Egypt, to Babylon, to Mesopotamian, and many more, a flood narrative played a central role in their creation accounts. One of the most famous is the Epic of Gilgamesh, which predates the writing of the creation account in Genesis.

Given how almost all the ancient creation stories share a flood story, many speculate that some flood related event had actually occurred and these narratives were their way of making sense of that event.

These other flood narratives would have been so familiar to the Abraham and the generations after him. It would have been the stories they were raised with and shaped the way they saw the world around them.

In almost all the other ancient creation accounts, the “hero” either had to placate, manipulate, bribe, or defeat the god or gods in order to stop them from destroying all of humanity completely. Some even built a large boat to save all the animals as well. The gods in those narratives were violent and vengeful and it was up to the hero to stop them.

So, as Genesis is being written, two prevailing ideas are permeating the ancient world: 1) a global flood happened. 2) God or the gods had a role to play in it happening.

Yet, what is so profound about the Genesis account is that while all the other gods are against humanity and have to be placated or manipulated or bribed, the God of Genesis partners with humanity, even makes a covenant with humanity and promises to never destroy life in such a violent way again.

It is a major departure from all the other flood accounts in the ancient world.

What was the sign of this covenant, this promise? God said, “I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life.” -Genesis 9:14-15

You will notice that God actually says this three times in this passage, showing the seriousness of this covenant. You will also notice how this is a sign made by God for God. Whenever the rainbow appears, God says, “I will remember my covenant between me and you.”

But here is where it gets really moving and profound. There isn’t a word for “rainbow” in the Hebrew language. In this passage, the Hebrew word is “קֶשֶׁת” which just means “bow.” It occurs over 70 times in the Hebrew Bible, all of which is referring to bows, arrows, or archers. Some of the older English translations of the Bible, like the KJV, even use “bow” in Genesis 9 rather than “rainbow.”

This profoundly paints the picture of God laying down God’s weapon against the world. God is disarming God’s self.

Not only that, but what shape do rainbows take? If it were an archer’s bow, where is the arrow pointing? It is no longer pointing towards the earth, but towards heaven. Not only is God laying down the weapon of destruction, but God is saying, “I will take the destruction upon myself instead.”

We can see all sorts of symbolic connections here to Jesus, who is God incarnate, taking on all the destruction and harm of the world upon himself through the cross, establishing the “new covenant” (Luke 22:20) just as the God of Genesis had promised in this old covenant.

This context is always so deeply convicting for me.

When we see this context, it is easy to see how so much of the rage from Christians towards the LGBTQ community and its use of the rainbow is actually violating what God intended by the rainbow in the first place. God made the rainbow as a symbol of nonviolence. It is a symbol of peace. It is a symbol of solidarity with all humanity. It is a sign or preferring to take harm upon oneself rather than desiring harm to ever come to others. It is a promise to handle things through a covenant of solidarity and love, rather than through wrath and destruction.

When we Christians act in hostile and vengeful ways towards the LGBTQ community, claiming the rainbow belongs only to us, we are the ones who are hijacking the rainbow for our own purposes.

May it not be so with us.

Instead, imagine if the intention behind why God made the rainbow in Genesis 9 was the posture we Christians took whenever we saw a rainbow in our culture.

Now I want to hear from you. How do you feel about God's use of rainbows I described here and how it relates to our behavior as Christians in our culture today? Do you have different thoughts? Send me a message and tell me about them.

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Thank you all for reading and for all the ways you support me and this project every week.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Sincerely,

Ben

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PREVIOUS NEWSLETTERS

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​After The Culture War​

​Thoughts and Prayers vs Fruit of Repentance​

​The Gospel Comforts the Disturbed and Disturbs the Comfortable​

​Symbolic Christianity vs Substantive Christianity​

​The Humility of God​

​Why We Need Resurrection​

​Trading Jesus for Barabbas​

​The Gun Problem is a Sin Problem​