It’s hard to believe that people like me — normal Christians trying not to choke on all of the LGBT alphabet soup being shoved down our throats — are the ones deemed controversial during a month devoted to haranguing the world with the left’s sexual agenda.
Yet that’s exactly what happened after I, along with several others, called out the popular Christian TV show “The Chosen” for not just allowing a pride flag on its Bible-themed set but also defending the LBGT propaganda.
Some on the right claimed that Christians concerned with “The Chosen’s” response were simply overreacting, or looking to cast stones, gin up controversy, and hold the show to impossible standards.
Those accusations lost any merit they may have had on Thursday morning when at least two cast members from the show doubled down on the openly Christian creators’ explicit decision to stand not with its audience of faithful, Bible-believing Christians, but for an icon that brags of sins such as sexual immorality and pride.
“Another one of the actors on The Chosen here. Anyone who is going to go at one of our family members for something like this, is no fan of ours. They can close the door on the way out[.] ‘Love one another as I have loved you[.]’ We stand with our brother,” Giavani Cairo, who plays Thaddeus on the show, tweeted. He concluded the statement with pride flag and red heart emojis.
Cairo’s words were quickly retweeted by several other show actors including George Xanthis who plays the Apostle John.
Jordan Ross, the actor who plays Little James, affirmed Cairo’s statement with a pride flag-decorated tweet of his own.
“My brother @GCairo06 isn’t the only one who stands by the LGBTQ members of our Chosen family,” Ross wrote. “[G]et outta here with your hate, homophobia and ignorance. Not very Jesus-like of you, Jonny.”
Calling “The Chosen’s” audience, many of whom believe what the Bible teaches about sexual immorality, “homophobes” is not Christlike. That smear is not only a betrayal of the principles the show claims to represent, but it’s also completely false. Complying with God’s words on sex and marriage is not a “phobia.” It’s obedience to the Creator and Savior. Christians should be recommitting themselves to fidelity to God and His mission, not using their platform to openly reject God’s call for repentance and sanctification.
But on a broader level, the whole “Chosen” debacle vindicates Christians who saw the pride flag as a red flag. Recall that “The Chosen’s” original rebuttal claimed the flag was the product of the show’s policy to “work with anyone on our show who helps us portray or honor the authentic Jesus.” That original lukewarm response already hadn’t cut it for many Christians. The comments from Cairo and Ross, however, affirmed that Christians were right to be wary when they spotted an LGBT flag on set — and confirmed their suspicions that one of the few entertainment refuges they have from the world had caved to it.
It’s all very reminiscent of the Bud Light controversy, though, of course, that one didn’t revolve around Christian entertainment. The right was correct to be alarmed by Anheuser-Busch’s decision to partner with professional woman-mocker Dylan Mulvaney. One can of beer with a man masquerading as the opposite sex isn’t worth a boycott, Republicans like Donald Trump Jr. claimed as Bud Light profits tumbled.
Over the course of mere days, however, it was clear that Bud Light, even after suffering the wrath of angry Americans, was doubling down on its commitment to transgender insanity by sponsoring several pride parades across the U.S.
Similarly, Christians have called for years for boycotts against the increasingly radical Target. It wasn’t until the retailer partnered with a Satanist and began selling pro-transgender merch to children that the rest of the nation began to put its foot down.
I can almost guarantee that, even after all of this hubbub, fans of “The Chosen” do not want to see the show tumble from its place as one of the few pillars in Christian media. After all, it was faithful Christians who financially supported the show in its humble beginnings and continued to shower it with praise through its Netflix debut.
But the program and performers’ recent embrace of a movement that denies the principles celebrated in every episode has put devoted Christ-followers in a tough spot. There’s nothing God-honoring or Christlike about promoting the alphabet movement that approves of men in costumes sharing bathrooms with women and girls, irreversible sexual experiments on minors who can’t even legally consent to the permanent mangling of their bodies, kids reading porn and discussing sexuality in schools, false pronouns in government emails and Instagram bios, men profiting off the mockery of women, mostly naked adults gyrating in front of children for their own amusement — or even flying or defending a plain rainbow flag that celebrates “pride” and a version of sex and marriage outside what God Himself has prescribed.
No amount of pushback from Congress, corporations, or cranky keyboard warriors will change that.