I truly love baseball. But more than baseball, I love God. Given the decision between being a fan of any sports team and supporting my religious beliefs, I know that God is my real captain and I will always choose my faith. And I believe that when push comes to shove, most people feel the same. I also recognize that it is my religious obligation to support other people of faith in their journey.
Which is why I am so sad that I will not be attending baseball games thanks to the irresponsible management of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Major League Baseball, following the team’s blatant attack on Catholics by deciding to honor one of the most public anti-Catholic fringe groups in the country, “The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.”
For those unaware of this group, or the circumstances leading up to this decision, here is a brief synopsis of the last few weeks. The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence is an organized group of transvestites that consciously encourages hate against Catholics, Catholic clergy, and the Catholic Church through demonstrations where their male members dress as nuns and espouse hatred towards Catholicism. They preach “go forth and sin more,” have names like “Sister Broken Hyman” and “Father Fellatio,” and have made “saints” of Harvey Milk, Kathy Griffin, and Gavin Newsom. Catholic League President Bill Donohue has called them “an obscene anti-Catholic group” of “bigots known for simulating sodomy while dressed as nuns”, and they have been decried by Catholic leaders around the world from archbishops to politicians. On May 15, MLB and the Dodgers announced that they would be honoring this group and presenting them with the “Community Hero Award” at the Dodgers LGBT Night on June 16. This created a justifiable backlash of comments from Catholic Vote and other Catholic lay organizations. Senator Marco Rubio tweeted, “If the hate group ‘Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence’ was anti-Islam instead of anti-Catholic there is zero chance the Dodgers would be honoring them.”
This immediate pressure on the Dodgers forced them to dis-invite this hate group from participating on May 18. But then LGBT groups loudly and aggressively made the Dodgers re-invite them as of May 23, and this hate group is now once again a featured part of the evening’s program.
There is so much repulsive behavior in the actions of the Dodgers that it is difficult to know where to start. They should obviously have not invited this transvestite group of hate mongers to the event in the first place–both because of their blatant hatred for religion and since they are not even a group based on sexual choice, but are based on cross-dressing and denigrating Catholic women of faith. This group is not fighting for the rights of gays, lesbians, bisexuals, or even trans-genders; they are transvestites seeking to draw attention to their fetish and a destruction of religiosity. The fact that the Dodgers both dis-invited and then re-invited this group within days says volumes about the values, or lack thereof, in the Dodgers organization (a far cry from the days of the O’Malleys, who brought the Dodgers to Los Angeles originally, or Branch Rickey, who broke the color barrier by hiring Jackie Robinson).
And Senator Rubio is right in stating that if this group’s hatred was directed towards Islam, it would not be tolerated and they would never be considered for any honor. But because their hate is against Catholics, they are honored by the Dodgers.
This demonstrates exactly how little the Dodgers and the MLB value their Catholic fans.
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From the Dodgers and MLB’s point of view, it probably seems like a wise financial decision. They may believe that if they don’t have this group honored they will lose their LGBT fans forever. Meanwhile, they have faith that their Catholic fans will quickly forget about this and keep coming to games. For the Dodgers, this is a decision based on financial projections.
We all need to demonstrate their misconception, and make clear that none of us will tolerate any attacks on any faith tradition. We all need to stop going to or watching baseball games on television until baseball returns to being a sport and stops being an advertisement for the religion of leftism.
In July of 2020, in the midst of the BLM riots, I was one of the people calling to boycott Major League Baseball until they stopped promoting BLM on their uniforms and in their games, which ultimately led to MLB backing away from their partnership with BLM. As painful as it is for all of us (and I have a pair of 13-year-old twins who deeply love baseball), I believe that every person of faith must stop supporting any MLB activity unless they fully disengage from supporting anti-religious hate groups like this. It may seem painful, but it is much better for our children for all of us to play baseball with our families, churches, or synagogues rather than ever support a sports organization that demonstrates a hate for all religion with their support of a group like this.
This may not seem to affect anyone outside of Los Angeles. But remember, if the Dodgers honor this hate group on June 16, every other team has the legal argument to make with MLB that they should be allowed to honor similar groups at their games, and we will soon see similar events across the nation from Houston to Milwaukee. It must be stopped here and now by letting the Dodgers and MLB know that they will lose all people of faith as their fans.
It has been said that all issues can be simplified into a simple question of values. This is not a question of support for the LGBT community as “The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence” are not like other activist groups in that community. This is an issue of whether being a fan of a sports franchise is more important than religion. Forgetting for a moment about their cross-dressing, these “sisters” are committed to their hate of Catholicism and, by extension, all religion. And that is a hatred that we must all reject and fight against.
I have often quoted Rogers Hornsby, who said that when there is no baseball in winter he “stares out the window and waits for spring.” But if spring baseball means kowtowing to the hate of organizations like these transvestites, then my winters will no longer be waiting for baseball, but will be spent with my boys in other sports.
We each have a choice to make, and it is bigger than just being about a professional sport. We can ignore the behavior of the Dodgers and MLB, and continue to surrender to the hatred and lack of values that are demonstrated by these “sisters.” Or we can take a stand and make the Dodgers and MLB realize that if this is how they want to reinvent baseball, we will take our time and money and spend them elsewhere.
I am a Jew, and it is because I am that I support my Catholic brothers and sisters and will not support any organization like the Dodgers while they support anti-Catholic hate by honoring groups like these “sisters.”
We each need to determine if our “religion” is a sports team or our faith. Is Dodger Stadium our real church, or do we know that the temple or church we occasionally (or often) attend is the place for our spiritual fulfillment? Are we devoted to a baseball team or God?
If the answer is that God is our captain, then our actions must be clear, and we must boycott the Dodgers and all of MLB until they realize the financial loss they will have by losing fans who are more devoted to their faith than their team.
And in the meantime, I will stay away from baseball, and find my joy and community in faith. If we all do the same, perhaps baseball can once again be the game that we wait for each year until spring.
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