Los Angeles Dodgers reliever Blake Treinen and starter Clayton Kershaw blasted the organization for reinviting the anti-Catholic group Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence for Pride Night.
Washington Nationals starter Trevor Williams, a Catholic, also spoke out against the Dodgers.
Before the left gets in a tizzy over their statements, Kershaw, Treinen, and Williams are ticked because the group makes fun of Catholicism and Christianity as a whole.
It’s easy to make fun of Christians, especially Catholics, because we respond by praying for them. I bet the Dodgers wouldn’t invite a group that openly mocks and disrespects Islam. I’d be just as ticked if they ever did that.
God bless Kershaw. In order to counter the Dodgers’ choice to honor the anti-Catholic group (I refuse to use their name except when I need to), he asked the team to push out his announcement of the team’s Christian Faith and Family Day.
Kershaw is ticked off because the anti-Catholic group mocks a religion:
“I think we were always going to do Christian Faith Day this year, but I think the timing of our announcement was sped up,” Kershaw said. “Picking a date and doing those different things was part of it as well. Yes, it was in response to the highlighting of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence [by the Dodgers].”—“I don’t agree with making fun of other people’s religions,” he said. “It has nothing to do with anything other than that. I just don’t think that, no matter what religion you are, you should make fun of somebody else’s religion. So that’s something that I definitely don’t agree with.”
Kershaw wanted to learn more about the group but found it hard to watch videos of them. I do not blame him. It’s appalling and disgusting. If you want to watch videos, search for them because I refuse to put them in my piece.
It should offend anyone, even if they’re not Christian:
He said he “did the best I could to try and understand what they stood for,” but called it “tough” to see videos and other examples of the group’s portrayal of Christianity.“For us, we felt like the best thing to do in response was, instead of maybe making a statement condemning or anything like that, would be just to instead try to show what we do support, as opposed to maybe what we don’t,” Kershaw said. “And that was Jesus. So to make Christian Faith Day our response is what we felt like was the best decision.”Kershaw was adamant his issue was with the Sisters group specifically, and not the LGBTQ+ community at large.“This has nothing to do with the LGBTQ community or pride or anything like that,” Kershaw said. “This is simply a group that was making fun of a religion, that I don’t agree with.”
Kershaw will not boycott the June 16 Pride Night game: “As a follower of Christ, we’re supposed to love everybody well. And I think that means being able to be at a lot of different places and be able to be a part of a lot of different things.”
Reliever Treinen also denounced the team’s decision to honor the anti-Catholic group, especially since the team has shown it supports many groups in the past.
“However, inviting the Sister’s [sic] of Perpetual Indulgence to perform disenfranchises a large community and promotes hate of Christians and people of faith,” wrote Treinen. “This single event alienates fans and supporters of the Dodgers, Major League Baseball, and professional sports. People like baseball for its entertainment value and competition. The fans do not want propaganda or politics forced on them.”
Treinan said that the fiasco “with Bud Light and Target should be a warning to companies and professional sports to stay true to their brand and leave the propaganda and politics off the field.”
Like Kershaw, Treinan’s stance has nothing to do with the LGBT community: “This group openly mocks Jesus Christ, the cornerstone of my faith, and I want to make it clear I do not agree with nor support the decision of the Dodger’s to ‘honor’ the Sister’s [sic] of Perpetual Indulgence.”
Williams pitches for the Washington Nationals, not the Dodgers. However, Williams is an outspoken devoted Catholic. I’m not shocked he spoke out against the Dodgers hosting that group:
A Major League Baseball game is a place where people from all walks of life should feel welcomed, something I greatly respect and support. This is the purpose of different themed nights hosted by the organization, including Pride Night.To invite and honor a group that makes a blatant and deeply offensive mockery of my religion, and the religion of over 4 million people in Los Angeles county alone, undermines the values of respect and inclusivity that should be upheld by any organization.Creating an environment in which one group feels celebrated and honored at the expense of another is counterproductive and wrong. It is a clear violations of the Dodgers’ Discrimination Policy, which explicitly states that any conduct or attire that is deemed to be indecent or prejudice against any particular group (or religion) is not tolerated.It seems that the Dodgers have made an exception in this case, doubling down that this group – which grossly disrespects and openly mocks many of the treaduitions and beliefes that Catholic hold most dear – should be celebrated.
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