Three years ago, the United States Supreme Court made a ruling that forever changed the way our country looks at marriage as between one man and one woman. It was decided in the landmark case of Obergefell vs Hodges that same sex “marriage” was legal.

If you were on Facebook, you were inundated with not only photos and news of this  event, you had the chance to change your profile picture to a rainbow filter. You were also pressured to repeat the mantra “Love Wins” in several posts.

At the time, I probably had close to 800 “friends” on Facebook. Unfortunately for them, I had just returned from Pennsylvania where I had taken a class called Theology of the Body 1 – A Head to Heart Immersion Course. I was on fire for the Lord and God’s plan for sex and marriage. I was really excited to share all of this newly discovered information (for me it was new, even though it was 2000 years old) with family and friends.

I recall working my part time job at the time and walking out of the store where I had just finished my shift and went on Facebook to find out what SCOTUS had decided.

My heart dropped as I scrolled thru my feed – It was inundated with rainbows. I didn’t need to read much of anything else. One look at people, some close friends, but most people I wasn’t very close to to begin with, had all of a sudden changed their profile picture to a rainbow filter, courtesy of Facebook, of course. The hashtag, #LoveWins was trending.

I knew it was my duty as a Christian to speak up. To say that this wasn’t right, that God created marriage between one man and one woman, and this is written right into our bodies as being created in the image and likeness of God.

I had read the statement from the USCCB and decided to cut and paste it:

Supreme Court Decision on Marriage “A Tragic Error” Says President of Catholic Bishops’ Conference

Others used much more colorful language. I defended my position as well as I could. I tried to do my best to talk about chastity and our universal call to holiness and promoting the short film “The Third Way.” I referenced the Catechism but mostly I mentioned how we are all sinners in need of mercy. And of course, I referenced some Theology of the Body books and resources for those that were open to learning more.

I was surprised at some of the people, many of whom were my Catholic high school classmates, who commented or sent me a private message. Some of them expressed similar feelings to me but admitted that they didn’t have the guts to post about it on social media for fear of offending someone. Others simply thought I was nuts for believing in traditional marriage.

Fast forward to this year. We are now in the month of June, typically known as Pride Month.  This is the month when, traditionally, most Gay Pride Parades take place.

For those that have never attended a pride parade, you can simply Google Image search them, but I wouldn’t recommend it. It’s heartbreaking and shocking. A better representation of what happens is to ask those who attend from a Catholic perspective. One of the best people to ask is a man named Joseph Sciambra. He has a great story of conversion. He wrote a book that I cannot seem to finish due to its graphic nature called “Swallowed By Satan: How Our Lord Jesus Christ Saved Me From Pornography, Homosexuality and The Occult.”

Joseph attends the pride parade in his hometown of San Francisco, the biggest pride parade in the country (maybe the world?) every year and hands out rosaries and cards with his website that simply says “Jesus loves gay men.” He has posted on Facebook some of his interactions with the (mostly men) who he speaks to. The stories he tells are both tragic and troublesome to even READ.

I refuse to even type the words of what has been reported as happening during these parades because the devil isn’t someone to play with. This isn’t me being a paranoid Christian either, this is the real deal. Some legit occult-like acts happen right there on the parade route, some of the more evil ones behind screens.

This isn’t something I say to shock anyone. I say it because not too many people even know about this. They think pride parades and promoting the gay agenda is all innocent because, “no one gets hurt,” and “love is love.”  Well, I beg to differ. Read Joseph’s story or read about those who used to consider themselves gay and who came back to the Church. They may still be attracted to members of the same sex, but they have embraced celibacy because they understand to love someone, is to will the good of the other.

But here’s the positive side of social media and these silly #Hashtags and a perfect example of how we as Catholics (or simply those who aren’t religious but believe in traditional marriage) –  can change the conversation. And we can come up with our own hashtag. Case in point – After Obergefell, someone posted a painting of a crucified Jesus with the hashtag #LoveWon.

Simple and very effective.

This month, after seeing one particularly popular Jesuit priest tweeting all about PrideMonth, I took it upon myself to Retweet his thoughts (they were blurring the lines between affirming pride and sin) but with the link to Desire of the Everlasting Hills, my FAVORITE film about same sex attracted folks, and I used the hashtag #HumilityCuresPride.

Granted, that’s a long hashtag and I didn’t think anyone would start using it, but the point was to insert our faith into the culture in order to steer others towards the path to God, not sin.

So imagine my surprise when I saw #HumilityMonth was trending this morning on Twitter! A bunch of popular Catholic authors and speakers and others were using this opportunity to talk about how pride is still a sin, that of course we love all of our brothers and sisters in Christ regardless of who they are attracted to, and by the way, let’s stop promoting a deadly sin!

So I thought about how I can help. How can I help steer people towards the Church? How can I share the Good News and how the Church is the antidote to our hyper-sexualized culture, not just for gay people, but for all?

My idea is this: Tweet out one line from the Litany of Humility each day with that #HumilityMonth hashtag.  It’s an amazing prayer, it’s a challenging prayer and it’s a great cure for pride. How great would it be to see Humility “trending?”

For those who would like to pray it, join me:

O Jesus! meek and humble of heart, Hear me.
From the desire of being esteemed,
Deliver me, Jesus. (repeat after each line)
From the desire of being loved,
From the desire of being extolled,
From the desire of being honored,
From the desire of being praised,
From the desire of being preferred to others,
From the desire of being consulted,
From the desire of being approved,
From the fear of being humiliated,
From the fear of being despised,
From the fear of suffering rebukes,
From the fear of being calumniated,
From the fear of being forgotten,
From the fear of being ridiculed,
From the fear of being wronged,
From the fear of being suspected,
That others may be loved more than I,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it. (repeat after each line)
That others may be esteemed more than I ,
That, in the opinion of the world,
others may increase and I may decrease,
That others may be chosen and I set aside,
That others may be praised and I unnoticed,
That others may be preferred to me in everything,
That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should…

Happy Humility Month!