Last June, Target’s stock price and sales at their stores plummeted after their “Pride Month” line featured a brand that also sells Satanist-inspired merchandise. This June, the national retail chain promised to scale back their celebrations to only “select stores.” Meanwhile, in a move that would have its founder turning over in his grave, Walmart has announced they will offer an expanded line of “pride” merchandise and acknowledgments.
Christians can and should protest, both with our voices and our pocketbooks. At the same time, we have something far better to offer, and for the second year, a former colleague and collaborator of Chuck Colson is proposing an idea worth considering. In an email last year, Professor Robert George of Princeton University wrote:
By the authority vested in me by absolutely no one, I have declared June to be ‘Fidelity Month’—a month dedicated to the importance of fidelity to God, spouses and families, our country, and our communities.
Perhaps the leading Christian legal thinker of our lifetime, Professor George worked closely with Colson and Dr. Timothy George to produce the Manhattan Declaration, a 2009 statement of Christian conviction on the areas of life, marriage, and religious liberty. It only makes sense that Professor George would suggest June as the time to remember the essential allegiances so often scorned in a culture like ours. “Pride” is a deadly sin that prioritizes our own desires and autonomy over allegiance to God, children, each other, and ultimately, to reality itself.
June is also a particularly good month for Christians to renew our commitment to, as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn put it, “live not by lies.” It’s never easier, in fact, to go along with something that isn’t true than during so-called “pride” month. Just as Israel would set aside specific days and seasons to remember, repent, and recalibrate, we can choose to be intentional to make June a time to remember and teach the next generation about our most important responsibilities, as those made in the image of God.
In a video at fidelitymonth.com, Professor George issued the following challenge:
If you’re not active in the affairs of your religious community, your local parish church, your community church you belong to, or your synagogue, start playing a role there. So that’s how we rededicate ourselves as a practical matter, not just resolution, going beyond resolution, it’s a practical matter, rededicating ourselves to God.
Now, what about family? Spouses? Well, you might be a faithful husband in the sense that you’re not having affairs. But now let’s ask ourselves, “Am I being a great husband, or am I being a great wife? Am I really serving my spouse?” Not just technically being faithful, not having affairs, but “Am I serving or am I wanting too much to be served?” …
Now, what about patriotism and community? How can I be a better citizen? Am I voting? Or when election day comes, do I just not make it, or am I busy with other things? How about being involved in civic affairs?
Also associated with Fidelity Month, Professor George has called for a National Day of Prayer and Fasting on Monday, June 24. Go to www.fidelitymonth.com for a sample prayer. You can find the Fidelity Month symbol on the website, a specially designed wreath that can be posted on social sites. The symbol is, according to Professor George:
. . .representative of God and His eternal nature, while the openness at the top of the wreath is suggestive of a divine embrace. The branches and leaves that compose the wreath signify a family that is dependent upon and in union with God.
The star and stripe at the center bottom of the wreath symbolize our common union as Americans–“one Nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
The color gold symbolizes generosity and compassion–virtues that are closely connected to fidelity (supporting it and being supported by it). Fidelity, generosity, and compassion are anti-narcissistic virtues, reflecting the knowledge–the wisdom–that everything is not “about me.” It is a recognition of the duties we have to others and that our true fulfillment is to be found in serving others: God, our spouses and families, our communities, and our country.
The color blue, our background color, symbolizes truth, loyalty, responsibility, and peace.
The Fidelity Month website includes ideas for individuals, families, churches, and leaders to reframe this next month in a way that honors God, each other, our children, and our nation.
For more resources on how to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
Photo Credit: ©Getty Images/Brandon Bell/Staff
Publish Date: June 11, 2024
John Stonestreet is President of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, and radio host of BreakPoint, a daily national radio program providing thought-provoking commentaries on current events and life issues from a biblical worldview. John holds degrees from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (IL) and Bryan College (TN), and is the co-author of Making Sense of Your World: A Biblical Worldview.
The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of CrosswalkHeadlines.
BreakPoint is a program of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. BreakPoint commentaries offer incisive content people can't find anywhere else; content that cuts through the fog of relativism and the news cycle with truth and compassion. Founded by Chuck Colson (1931 – 2012) in 1991 as a daily radio broadcast, BreakPoint provides a Christian perspective on today's news and trends. Today, you can get it in written and a variety of audio formats: on the web, the radio, or your favorite podcast app on the go.