I Want My Rainbow Back

First reading	Genesis 9:1-13 ©

The sign of the Covenant

God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, ‘Be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth. Be the terror and the dread of all the wild beasts and all the birds of heaven, of everything that crawls on the ground and all the fish of the sea; they are handed over to you. Every living and crawling thing shall provide food for you, no less than the foliage of plants. I give you everything, with this exception: you must not eat flesh with life, that is to say, blood, in it. I will demand an account of your life-blood. I will demand an account from every beast and from man. I will demand an account of every man’s life from his fellow men.

‘He who sheds man’s blood

shall have his blood shed by man,

for in the image of God

man was made.

‘As for you, be fruitful, multiply, teem over the earth and be lord of it.’

  God spoke to Noah and his sons, ‘See, I establish my Covenant with you, and with your descendants after you; also with every living creature to be found with you, birds, cattle and every wild beast with you: everything that came out of the ark, everything that lives on the earth. I establish my Covenant with you: nothing of flesh shall be swept away again by the waters of the flood. There shall be no flood to destroy the earth again.’

  God said, ‘Here is the sign of the Covenant I make between myself and you and every living creature with you for all generations: I set my bow in the clouds and it shall be a sign of the Covenant between me and the earth.’

For some reason, the GLBT community has adopted the rainbow as their symbol.  They fly rainbow-colored flags at their events and demonstrations and use it as a device to let everyone know that they are of the GLBT community and believe in all of the things that being in the community entails.  Many of those things are against the law of God. Please, do not get me wrong.  I do not judge these people because what they do is between themselves and eventually God.  I will leave them to His merciful hands because Lord knows I am a sinful man and sin is sin no matter what form it takes so I am probably even more liable because I have a better understanding of the law of God and how it affects my life.  But, I want my rainbow back! 

The rainbow as we see in our reading served as a reminder of the Covenant between God and all on earth.  While this is the Old Testament, and today we know what causes a rainbow scientifically, it still should evoke not tales of the bedroom but it should remind us of a sovereign God who loves us, each and every one of us because we are made in His image and He has given us the earth to master and care for.  The rainbow is God's symbol and I want it back!  It is not a symbol of gay pride or of gay unity.  It has been co-opted for this use but it is not a legitimate use of the symbol. The rainbow is meant to display the love of God and not the love of carnal things.  I want my rainbow back!  

Okay, I've ranted enough. Am I homophobic?  No, I don't think so. I do not hold what people do in private against them and I certainly would not discriminate against a person who I knew to be homosexual.  All I want to say is that the rainbow means more than what this group has attached to it and it should be restored to its former position.