Elmira is Ontario’s latest community to look at painting a trendy rainbow on one of it’s streets. Apparently, the Canadian Association of Mental Health has requested that the municipality paint one on a local crosswalk as a show of support for the LGBTQS2+ community. Those letters — LGBTQS2+ — are likely the latest alpha-numeric code for what has in times past been properly referred to as “sodomy” or “buggery,” or even “unnatural” and “shameful desires,” to use some Bible words. That those words are more offensive to some than appropriating a rainbow for evil likely tells us exactly what we need to know about the state of affairs.
The issue was broached at a council meeting last night, because the mental health people think the alpha-numeric-code people will be more mentally healthy if they paint rainbows on roads. Painting colourful stripes on town crosswalks strikes me as novel way to treat mental health, but I’ll leave that to the experts who keep telling us to trust the science. Scientifically proven mental health treatments aside, one local councillor — a certain Murray Martin — objected, The Record records:
“I’m not in favour of it,” he said. “It’s not fitting with the values of this community. We can send this letter right back where it came from.
“And having said that, I’m not judgmental of the way people live and what they do. Not at all. My obligation is to love them and give them respect, and the issue I have is not with the lifestyle, it’s about using the rainbow itself.”
Martin went on to say he believes the rainbow is a gift from God, “and we trash it to promote a lifestyle that is not correct.”
“That’s why I do not think that it is proper.”
Another councillor — Scott McMillan — complained about Martin:
“It’s not a lifestyle choice, it’s who they are. It’s their identity, and I don’t think we can allow comments — where we’re calling people improper or some other things that were said — to go unchallenged.”
A couple more councillors shared in McMillan’s judgment of Martin, indicating that Martin’s views are intolerable in a tolerant community like ours, and that his sentiments should be excluded because we’re so inclusive.
With all this wonderful tolerance and inclusivity, I do want to include a few thoughts on all this. Before I do, please know that I don’t know Mr. Murray, so don’t judge him for what some might perceive as a more judgmental use of language in this little blog of support for his statements. Personally, I have no shame in what I believe, especially in what I believe about shameful lifestyle choice and identities. Beyond that, I’m not terribly concerned about being judged as judgmental by judgmentalistists for stating what Scripture says. While Jesus does teach us to avoid hypocritical and sanctimonious judgmentalism, he also told us to “judge with right judgments” (John 7:24).
So, here are some right judgments. God created the rainbow as a sign of a covenant He made with our father Noah and all creation in Genesis 9:8-17. Noah, with his family, had just survived a universal flood that God had sent as a judgment on all the earth for the wickedness of mankind. Noah was likely fearful of future floods, so God hung the rainbow in the sky to remind him and us that God will never flood the earth again with water. It is a sign of peace. Every time I see a rainbow I try to make a habit of thanking God for His mercy in not flooding the earth again. The rainbow is shaped like a bow, as in a bow and arrow. In this case, should one load an arrow into the rainbow, the arrow would be pointed heavenward at God, not earthward at man. I believe that that is a further sign of the substitutionary death of Christ who is God in the flesh. Instead of shooting all of us with arrows, God filled His own Son with arrows to save a peculiar people for Himself. Jesus died in the place of sinners. Those who repent and believe escape His fiery judgments. The heavenly throne of Christ is said to be encircled by a rainbow (Revelation 4:3), and that represents His peace towards His people. The rainbow, thus, is a significant Christian symbol, pointing to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
To take that rainbow and use it to symbolize actions that are offensive to God is offensive to God. Whether the majority of the people of Elmira and Woolwich Township want this is doubtful, but that’s not my primary concern. My primary concern is the appropriation of a Christian symbol for something evil. God has left us a symbol of something good, and Woolwich councillors want to paint that symbol on the road to represent something evil. God Himself will judge that as the ultimate offence in this whole matter, and if this proceeds it will be yet another invitation for divine wrath.
