Rainbows of Pride

Today, I was scrolling through my timeline and I came across a post that struck me in a funny way. In typical social media fashion, it was short and to the point with no explanation of any kind. It read: “I refuse to look at a rainbow and think ‘pride’. I look at the rainbow and I think ‘MERCY’. God gave it as a promise and we shouldn’t confuse it with anything else.” Now, there are several things I take issue with as a queer Christian Religion major who fully supports Pride events in any way I can. But it struck me that this is why Christians (and some Jewish People) have an issue with the rainbow being used for Pride. It’s not just because it’s a biblical symbol to them. It’s what they believe the symbol means. Mercy.

I find it strange, but I’m sure you’re wondering why. Well, to begin with, ‘mercy’ is both a very narrow and a very broad understanding of what God was promising with the rainbow in Genesis. This symbol comes from the story of Noah and the Ark. It was God’s promise that God would never again destroy the world with flood. The exact words in Genesis chapter 9 verse 11 are, “I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy Earth.” Then God places the rainbow in the sky as a reminder of that. The only thing that is literally represented by the rainbow is a promise not to flood the world again. That’s it. It’s in that way that mercy is too broad.

However, the Bible doesn’t always state exactly what is meant to be the message. Mercy is a very reasonable conclusion to come to when contemplating the meaning of this passage and this symbol. God promises not to destroy things equals God showing mercy to the creatures and peoples of the world. It’s a fair conclusion, but that’s not the only thing there. If you’re going to look into a story and find meaning underneath the literal, you have to start with what is stated. Yes, God showed mercy, but that’s not what God said the rainbow represented. God said the rainbow was a promise to everything on Earth. The promise was that the world would never be as bad as it was at God’s hands. So, really, the rainbow means growth. I’ll go ahead and warn you that I follow the theology that the Christian God is not a stagnant God. God grows and God’s people and our understandings grow too. That is my belief. Following this belief, the promise of the rainbow is one that is meant to show God’s people moving beyond the sins of before the flood. So, while mercy is a perfectly fine conclusion, it goes much deeper. The rainbow is mercy, faith, and growth. It’s moving forward and hopeful promises.

Now we can move on to the rest of the message that struck me. As you may have gathered, it was meant to be a hit at Pride events and LGBTQ+ people using the rainbow as their symbol. Part of why I was so bothered by this is the homophobia. The other part has to do with what I’ve just explained. If we can conclude that the biblical meaning of the rainbow is growth, mercy, and faith, then the rainbow is the perfect symbol for the LGBTQ+ Community. For decades, queer people in the modern world have been persecuted for who they are and who they love and desire. Pride events around the world are meant to be celebrations of the generations that came before and fought for the rights queer people now possess. Pride is celebration in memory of protests and riots which built the foundations of the movements we have now. We’re not done. Not by a long shot, but we’ve come a long way. That’s why the rainbow is so perfect. Not only does it represent diversity in the secular world, but the Christian understanding of the symbol is essentially what Pride represents.

Basically, the whole reason I’m writing this out is that the people who argue that the rainbow belongs to Christians and that using it for Pride misrepresents it need to understand their understanding is not the only one. In fact, it’s quite narrow minded to believe only one group of people can own a symbol or that meanings can’t be understood differently than you understand it. In short, Pride using the rainbow isn’t an insult. It’s probably the best thing the Bible has to offer the LGBTQ+ community from the Hebrew Bible.