After the great flood in the Book of Genesis, God offered a timeless symbol of hope.<\/p>\n
The Bible says God promised: \u201cI have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever \u2026 the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, clashing rainbow symbols recently created a storm in Major League Baseball when powers wielded by team owners clashed with the religious beliefs of players.<\/p>\n
The big question: Can the biblical rainbow coexist on the same Pride Night baseball cap with today\u2019s rainbow celebrating LGBTQ+ rights?<\/p>\n
This controversy raised legitimate First Amendment issues, but also helped clarify the workplace rights of employers, said Hal Frampton, senior counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom and director of the group\u2019s Center for Conscience Initiatives.<\/p>\n
The clash between MLB leaders and several San Francisco Giants pitchers \u201cwas about both issues really,\u201d he said, reached by telephone. \u201cIt was about not being discriminated against\u201d in the workplace, especially if there were questions about whether an employer was \u201cenforcing a rule consistently\u201d or only enforcing it when there was \u201creligious expression that was seen as troublesome\u201d to employers.<\/p>\n
The firestorm began when Giants starting pitcher Landen Roupp, along with relievers JT Brubaker and Ryan Walker, wrote Bible verse references \u2014 variations on Genesis 9:12-16 \u2014 next to the rainbow logo on their Pride Night caps. Relief pitcher Sam Hentges chose to wear his standard black-and-orange Giants cap, without the rainbow logo.<\/p>\n
After the game, Roupp told reporters that the Genesis reference is \u201cabout God\u2019s covenant and a promise that He makes to us [about], you know, His faithfulness and His mercy. \u2026 There\u2019s no hate at all. It\u2019s just what I stand for.\u201d<\/p>\n
But MLB leaders said this protest violated this league rule: \u201c[a] Player may not write, attach, affix, embroider or otherwise display nicknames or messages on apparel or playing equipment.\u201d MLB said, \u201cwe have warned the players about future violations,\u201d while a follow-up statement said, \u201cthis routine verbal warning not to wear the hat in future games is not disciplinary and had absolutely nothing to do with the content of the message.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the past, MLB leaders said, they issued similar warnings after a player wrote messages such as \u201cHappy Mother\u2019s Day, I Love Mom.\u201d But critics noted that in 2020, players were allowed to wear patches reading \u201cBlack Lives Matter,\u201d including messages written on their shoes.<\/p>\n
The Pride Night festivities at the Giants game included an LGBTQ+-affirming church choir performing the national anthem and an on-field renewal of marriage vows led by drag queen Peaches Christ. Giants leaders later released a statement saying, \u201cWe understand that the choices by individual players have caused pain and anger to many in the LGBTQ+ community and we are sorry for that.\u201d<\/p>\n
In response, Queerty journalist Alex Reimer posted on X: \u201cPlayers can abstain from wearing Pride hats all they want. The issue is desecrating the Pride hat. \u2026 Why haven\u2019t any of these Giants players posted bible verses to oppose genocide, mass deportation or a litany of other atrocities?\u201d<\/p>\n
After a Department of Justice letter inquiring about the conflict, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred offered several important clarifications. For example, Pride Night is not among the MLB\u2019s 12 official events, such as Memorial Day, July 4th and Jackie Robinson Day.<\/p>\n
Writing to U.S. Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri, Manfred noted that a 2023 rule stopped teams from wearing special uniforms during local celebrations. However, the Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers \u201crequested their use of the Pride emblem on uniforms\/hats on Pride Night to be grandfathered. \u2026 MLB agreed to allow them to utilize the hats\/uniforms with emblems provided no player or uniformed staff would be required to wear them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Manfred added: \u201cUnfortunately, this year the Giants communication with players was inadequate and not clear. Some players apparently did not understand that they had the option to wear their normal uniform.\u201d<\/p>\n
Frampton said that an opt-out clause for controversial uniforms is a \u201csensible solution in this kind of situation.\u201d The question, he added, is whether players truly believe they have that right and \u201cknow they will not be bullied into wearing unforms that violate their religious beliefs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Terry Mattingly is Senior Fellow on Communications and Culture at Saint Constantine College in Houston. He lives in Elizabethton, Tennessee, and writes Rational Sheep, a Substack newsletter on faith and mass media.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After the great flood in the Book of Genesis, God offered a timeless symbol of hope. The Bible…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248437,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[7,111828,7286,7287,266,975,71256,101,103,102,3234,104,106,105,58048,71257],"class_list":["post-377331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-california","tag-columnists","tag-mendocino-county","tag-north-coast","tag-northern-california","tag-opinion","tag-redwood-valley","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-santa-cruz-county","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news","tag-ukiah","tag-willits"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}