I remember when I was growing up in Chino Valley having to learn math. First came the addition and subtraction, which was fairly easy. Then they taught us to multiply, which was a little more difficult. After that came division, another challenging step at first.

I could go on and on about going into algebra and trigonometry in high school, but division seems to be a good place to end the math metaphor. Unfortunately, division seems to be an easier task today as we constantly find ourselves in us vs. them scenarios where we’re encouraged to see ourselves as adversaries in a given situation.

This sprang to my mind in the month of June, which is LGBT Pride month, for two reasons. One of the reasons came from a story I read online regarding the San Francisco Giants and the three pitchers who wrote references Bible verses on their Pride-themed caps, specifically Genesis 9:12-16. Their thought was that the rainbow, a common icon for the LGBT community, belongs only in the hands of God.

Except that’s not what the verses actually say. Here’s the word of God:

“And God said, ‘This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh, and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.’”

It’s a covenant for all of us, but these pitchers are taking it to mean that the rainbow was stolen by LGBT people when, in reality, the rainbow brings multiple colors—and by extension, multiple types of people—together in beauty and harmony. The pitchers were trying to promote condemnation with a set of verses that promote unity.

Irony is alive and well today.

However, it’s not only ironic on the right side of things. Sadly, some within the LGBT community have also made it clear that the constant alphabet soup of the movement is diluting the message that everyone should be treated the same.

This topic of conversation came up while my sweetheart, Todd, and I were attending a Pride cookout in Green Bay by a couple we have recently become friends with. In attendance were many people representing several letters of the community.

One of our gracious hosts was talking about the Pride festival he’d recently participated in as a drag queen, and he commented that it seems like some people are happy with the cliques that have formed. We have the L’s, the G’s, the B’s, the T’s and the Q’s. That’s enough, in their eyes, and our host found that to be a problem.

I know exactly where he’s coming from. I find myself making more friends these days among the alphabet soup than I do among the cookie-cutter society. Last November, we befriended a transgender couple with some amazing artwork who live in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. However, there are plenty of people spreading hate, and many of those calls come from inside the house.

I remember writing a few years ago about how a bisexual woman attended her first Pride festival and, upon seeing more vendors serving meat than vegetables, felt that the LGBT community had a moral obligation to be vegans—not just vegetarians, but vegans. Her thoughts were if you weren’t, then you weren’t really a member of the community.

Another message that divided.

We’ve mastered the art of tearing each other down in this day and age, but we haven’t really figured out how to clasp hands of

You only have to look at Luke 10:27 to figure out what we should be doing instead of defacing baseball caps and claiming we cannot consume any part of a cow. “He answered, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind,’ and ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

There isn’t an addendum at the end that says, “but not if they’re gay.”

Happy Pride, everyone.