This Pride Month, some conservative leaders and commentators have begun promoting a campaign to “take back the rainbow,” while several Republican-led states, including Indiana, have declared June “Nuclear Family Month.” Supporters describe these efforts as a way to celebrate traditional families and reclaim cultural symbols they believe have been appropriated.
As a progressive Christian (Holy Heretic), I find myself asking a different question:
Why are we trying to take something back that was never ours to own?
The rainbow did not begin as a political symbol.
It did not begin as a Christian symbol.
According to Genesis, it was a symbol of God’s covenant with ALL creation. Not just one nation. Not just one religion. Not just one type of family. All creation.
What concerns me is not that people want to celebrate families. Strong families are worth celebrating. Loving marriages are worth celebrating. Parents who sacrifice for their children are worth celebrating.
The concern is the language of opposition.
The concern is that the celebration of one group increasingly seems to require the rejection of another.
Jesus never taught his followers to build identity through exclusion.
He never instructed them to reclaim cultural dominance.
He never suggested that God’s love became more visible when society was divided into categories of worthy and unworthy.
And there is another reality we should acknowledge.
The “nuclear family” is not the only family that exists in America.
In fact, fewer than half of U.S. households are married-couple households today. Census data shows that only 47% of households in 2025 were married couples. The rest include single parents, grandparents raising grandchildren, blended families, widows and widowers, adoptive families, foster families, multigenerational households, unmarried couples, chosen families, and people living alone.
Even among households with children, family structures are diverse. In 2022, 22% of children lived with their mothers only, 5% lived with their fathers only, and 4% lived with no parent in the household.
Are these families somehow less worthy of dignity?
Less deserving of support?
Less reflective of God’s image?
I do not believe Jesus would have asked those questions.
Throughout the Gospels, Jesus consistently moved toward those who found themselves on the margins. He expanded the circle. He challenged systems that divided people into insiders and outsiders. He seemed remarkably unconcerned with protecting status and remarkably concerned with protecting people.
The irony is that the louder ‘Christians’ talk about “taking back” culture, the further they often move from the example of Christ.
The kingdom Jesus described was not built by reclaiming power.
It was built through humility, service and love; yet many claiming to follow Him build their faith foundation through dominance and fear.
If Christians wish to celebrate marriage, parenthood, adoption, foster care, or family stability, they should. Those are beautiful things.
But perhaps we should be careful when our celebrations require a counter-movement against someone else’s existence.
Because the moment faith becomes more concerned with who does not belong than with how we love, we have stopped protecting the Gospel and started protecting our tribe.
And those are not the same thing.
The rainbow is large enough for all of us.
The question is whether our hearts are.
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