The United States Catholic Embassy is flying the rainbow flag to commemorate LGBT Pride Month, a decision that opponents say demonstrates a disrespect for the Church’s traditional beliefs.
“The U.S. Embassy to the Holy See celebrates #PrideMonth with the Pride flag on display during the month of June,” the embassy tweeted Tuesday.
The U.S. Embassy to the Holy See celebrates #PrideMonth with the Pride flag on display during the month of June. The United States respects the dignity and equality of LGBTQI+ people. LGBTQI+ rights are human rights. pic.twitter.com/Xentlnr16E
— U.S. in Holy See (@USinHolySee) June 1, 2021
The U.S. Catholic Embassy is not located within the city-state of Vatican City but rather on the same premises as the U.S. Embassy to the Italian Republic on Rome’s Aventine Hill, near the exclusive Via Veneto, The Christian Post reports.
Twitter users have been questioning if American embassies in Muslim-majority nations will also fly the LGBTQ pride flag. Vivek Ramaswamy, a tech entrepreneur, noticed that while the U.S. Catholic Embassy displayed the LGBT Pride flag, it “did no such thing in Saudi Arabia, where being gay is punishable by death.”
The embassy’s display of the LGBT flag comes after a legislative proposal by Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-NY, to bar the exhibition of any “Political” flags atop U.S. embassies.
Andrew T. Walker, an associate professor of Christian Ethics and Apologetics at Kentucky’s Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, also turned to Twitter to express his displeasure with the LGBT flag flying at the U.S. Embassy.
“Are we going to get any anguished think pieces on the compromised moral witness of Biden-voting evangelicals now that LGBT flags are flying at the U.S. Embassy to the Vatican and proposed tax-payer funded abortion is a thing? Or does that Narrative only flow in one direction?” he asked.
“Or, maybe what we’re learning is that voting rationales are complex, layered, and all the shame heaped on Trump-voting Christians by their Cultural Betters was either simplistic or in bad faith?” he added.
Or, maybe what we’re learning is that voting rationales are complex, layered, and all the shame heaped on Trump-voting Christians by their Cultural Betters was either simplistic or in bad faith?
— Andrew T. Walker (@andrewtwalk) June 2, 2021
Homosexuality is considered a serious sin by the Catholic Church, whose earthly leader and ruler of Vatican City is Pope Francis. The Catholic Church has likewise preached for millennia that pride is the most destructive of the seven deadly sins.
Photo courtesy: ©GettyImages/NiklasEmmoth
John Paluska has been a contributor for Christian Headlines since 2016 and is the founder of The Washington Gazette, a news outlet he relaunched in 2019 as a response to the constant distribution of fake news.
