00:00Today, I'm going to tell you how the controversy with the San Francisco Giants and the Pride Hat
00:04actually goes back to a similar controversy with the team about 50 years ago.
00:08Now, if you've been following the news, you know that several Christian players on the Giants have
00:12declined to wear a Pride hat or have inscribed biblical verses on the hat as the team has
00:17observed Pride Month in June. Almost every single Major League Baseball team does something for
00:22Pride Month, and on the one hand, it's no different from other observances that teams do to show
00:27solidarity with communities in their fan base. The LA Dodgers, for example, have a special
00:31relationship with their Japanese fans, and the Miami Marlins held a special Passover night to
00:35honor their Jewish fans. But these issues can sometimes become quite charged when religious
00:41values clash with some of the values being promoted by management, and that's what happened in San
00:45Francisco. The LGBTQ plus community does clash sometimes with traditional Christians, and the
00:51players felt they were being told to say something they fundamentally disagreed with. The media picked
00:56up on the controversy and claimed that the players were the ones making this all about themselves.
01:01Of course, some of the same people in the media were very happy to see Colin Kaepernick take a knee
01:06during the Black Lives Matter protests. But this actually goes back even deeper than that. In 1978,
01:12the Giants earned the name The God Squad from the local media because several players were outspoken
01:18Christians at a time when Christians didn't really talk publicly about their faith. Nobody minded when the
01:23team was winning, but when the team started losing in 1979, some media commentators blamed the
01:28religiosity of these players for the losses. Now, baseball and sports in general have come a long
01:34way in their tolerance toward gay athletes. However, the media, as we've seen, has not come particularly
01:41far in their understanding of Christian athletes for whom tolerance doesn't seem to apply.
01:46Have a good day.
01:46you
01:46You
Comments