The Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays will meet in the first game of the 2025 World Series Friday night in Toronto, and Clayton Kershaw and Blake Treinen are two reasons why the Dodgers are expected to repeat as world champions.
Kershaw and Treinen are both pitchers. And both are Christians who speak openly about their faith. They also do not like it when people attack or ridicule their religion—or anyone else’s. “I don’t agree with making fun of other people’s religions,” Kershaw has said. “I just don’t think that, no matter what religion you are, you should make fun of somebody else’s religion.”
The 37-year-old Kershaw is one of the all-time great Dodger pitchers and a near-certain baseball Hall of Famer after his retirement after the series. His teammate Treinen is a top reliever and closer who, like Kershaw, is not afraid to talk about his beliefs.
“How do we make heaven crowded?” Treinen said in a recent TV interview. “Every single one of us has been given a gift, and our way of repaying it to the Lord is how do we honor him with that gift. When I enter into the gates of heaven I want to hear ‘Job well done. Good and faithful servant.”
Treinen’s comments to CBN (Christian Broadcasting Network) reawakened a 2023 controversy in which the Dodgers organization, as part of Pride Month events in June, decided to present a “Community Hero” award to the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. This San Francisco-based group is largely composed of homosexual and transgender men who dress up as nuns and mock, sometimes in very degrading ways, Catholics and people like Treinen and Kershaw who regard Jesus Christ as their personal savior.
The Archdiocese of Los Angeles, religious leaders of various faiths, Marco Rubio, and many prominent Catholics and Catholic groups strongly opposed this idea. So did Blake Treinen.
“Their work only displays hate and mockery of Catholics and the Christian faith,” he said. “This group openly mocks Jesus Christ, the cornerstone of my faith.”
The Dodgers, caught in the center of a public relations disaster of their own making, reversed their decision, then reinstated it after pressure from LGBTQ groups, then dropped it a second time. The next month they held a Christian Faith and Family Day at Dodger Stadium in part to mend their self-inflicted wounds.
Dave Roberts, the manager of the LA club and a Christian, attended the faith day at the park and enjoyed it. “Sometimes we get overly criticized because of our Christian beliefs,” he said. “Our voices need to be heard too.”
Despite a nice turnout by fans, Faith and Family Day did not return to Chavez Ravine in 2025. Nor did another faith-based event, Jewish Heritage Night. Pride Month, however, came back into its regular slot in June, prompting a quiet protest by the bearded Dodgers lefthander who won three Cy Young awards, emblematic of the National League’s best pitcher, and a Most Valuable Player award in his stellar career.
All the Dodger players and coaching staff wore ball caps with rainbow designs in recognition of Pride’s rainbow theme. Next to the “LA” on his cap, however, Kershaw wrote a reference to Scripture: “Gen 9 12-16.” This referred to the first book of the Bible, Genesis, chapter 9, verses 12 through 16. In that passage God speaks to Noah whose ark saved humanity and all the animals and birds from the overwhelming rains that flooded the earth.
God essentially promises Noah to never do it again: “Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and youand all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life.” (New International Version.)
Only Kershaw can speak for Kershaw. But in an event that aspires to promote diversity, he was expressing a different point of view, an alternative Bible-based meaning of what a rainbow signifies. That there was a holiness to the beauty and joy of a rainbow, that it was a sign of God’s and Christ’s love for us, and that we should be grateful for these gifts and never take them for granted.
Such talk is a long way from the chatter about who will win the Series or how many home runs will Shohei Ohtani hit. But these issues now form part of the game within the game in professional sports. More Christian sports stars seem willing to show their faith and express it, even if their views grate against the militant secular conformity of the media and elites. It is a trend worth following.
