Giants players brought faith to the field on Pride Night

Every June, twenty-nine of Major League Baseball’s thirty teams host an LGBTQ+ Pride Night at their stadium. These events tend to garner local attention but generally stay out of the national news cycle. However, last Friday’s San Francisco Giants game was an exception.

Giants’ starting pitcher Landen Roupp, along with relievers JT Brubaker and Ryan Walker, wrote “Gen 9:12–16” on their caps next to the rainbow colored “SF” logo. Reliever Sam Hentges simply chose to wear the normal hat instead of the themed edition. 

The game was played as usual, with the Giants losing to the Cubs by a final score of 5–1. However, the pitchers’ addition of the Bible verse to their caps did not go unnoticed, with local LGBTQ+ organizations, members of the Giants leadership, and San Francisco politicians all speaking out against the decision. 

The team’s official statement attempted to mitigate some of the controversy: 

We understand that the choices of individual players have caused pain and anger to many in the LGBTQ+ community, and we are sorry for that. Those choices do not change our organization’s commitment to inclusion, belonging, and creating a welcoming environment for all.

Cyd Zeigler—co-founder of the LGBTQ sports site Outsports—was more blunt, describing the choice as “disgraceful,” adding “They defaced the Pride rainbow by telling the LGBTQ community they don’t own the rainbow—God owns the rainbow . . . If I was a Giants fan, I would never attend a game again.”

Is he right?

What will happen to Roupp and the others?

If Roupp and the others were trying to offend, there are a number of other verses they could have chosen to adorn their caps. Leviticus 18:22 refers to lying “with a male as with a woman” as an “abomination,” while two chapters later it’s designated as a capital offense (Leviticus 20:13). In the New Testament, Paul refers to homosexual activity as “unnatural” and “shameless” (Romans 1:27). 

For more on the context behind these verses, see Dr. Jim Denison’s “What does the Bible say about homosexuality?” But for now, the more pertinent fact is that the Giants’ players chose none of those passages. Instead, they wrote Genesis 9:12–16, where God set a rainbow in the sky as “a sign of the covenant between me and the earth” to never again flood the earth. 

As Roupp described, 

It’s just about God’s covenant and a promise that he makes to us that, you know, his faithfulness and mercy. That’s just kind of something I believe in, and I stand firm in that. And I’m thankful we live in a country where, you know, we have the freedom to believe what we want and express what we want.

Holding to that understanding is not “defacing the Pride rainbow,” though the fact that the biblical view precedes it by somewhere in the neighborhood of four to five thousand years means there is some validity to the idea that they’re telling the LGBTQ+ community it doesn’t belong to them. 

Fortunately, criticism seems to be as far as the punishment will go. 

MLB essentially gave them a warning, clarifying that the problem was the writing on the cap rather than the message itself. The Giants have also declined to do more than denounce the players’ actions. 

Still, Roupp and the others likely knew that their decision would prove unpopular and seemed ready for the criticism that has come their way. And while calling that response persecution (as some have alluded to) may put it too strongly, the truth is that our lives and livelihoods don’t have to be at risk for the difficulties we face to fall into that category.

“Blessed are those who are persecuted”

When we look back at the early Christians, their persecution often looked a lot more like ours than we might think. While the horrific examples—being fed to the lions, burned at the stake, etc.—get the most attention, the times of intense persecution in the early church were fairly rare. With the exception of a few particularly bad years, such instances were mostly regional and limited to when the Romans needed a scapegoat for a lost battle or natural disaster. 

While the threat of death was always present, it really wasn’t something that most early believers had to worry about. Rather, most of the time, the persecution they endured took the form of slander, gossip, and ridicule. Enemies of Christ said “all kinds of evil” against them because it was easier to mischaracterize their beliefs than to understand their faith. 

Early Christians were called cannibals, for example, because they shared a meal that symbolized the body and blood of Christ. They were accused of sexual perversion since they called that meal the “love feast.” And because they refused to bow before a bust of the emperor and say “Caesar is Lord,” they were accused of atheism and treason. 

This kind of persecution was, in large part, what Jesus had in mind when he said, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake” (Matthew 5:10). 

While a day may very well come when we’re asked to endure far more for our faith than slander and ridicule, learning how to remain righteous in the face of such mistreatment is just as important for us today as it was for those first generations of believers.

Evaluate your courage

The first step in enduring such trials is to realize that not all persecution is because of righteousness. Some of the stereotypes against Christians exist because they’re true. We can be overly judgmental. We can be close-minded. And we can be hypocritical. 

We are human, after all, and all humans are prone to those sins. 

Where Christians get into trouble is when we blind ourselves to sin by believing the pushback we receive for it is a sign that we’re walking with God. 

A better path when we face persecution is to first take a step back and ask God to help us honestly evaluate why we are being harassed. To that end, we can find some helpful guidance in the book of Daniel.

Daniel lived a life of such integrity that those who wished him harm came to the conclusion that the only way they could trap him was “in connection with the law of his God” (Daniel 6:5). 

If you wonder whether or not the discrimination, slander, gossip, or other trials you face are the result of your commitment to righteousness, checking those reasons against the teachings of Scripture is a very good place to start. 

After all, there are times when we can be unrighteous in our pursuit of righteousness. As a result, it’s essential for us to remember that the law of our God, especially as explained by Jesus, was often focused as much on the heart behind our actions as the actions themselves. 

It’s not OK to be a jerk just because you think you’re doing it for Jesus. Any action God calls you to take in the pursuit of righteousness can be done in a righteous and Christ-honoring way. Roupp and the others modeled that well, and the story could have been very different had they chosen to stand for their beliefs in another way.

Jesus promises that when we face persecution on account of righteousness, we join a long line of those who were willing to forgo the praise of people in order to receive the appreciation of God forever.

Enduring the scorn and persecution of others for the sake of Christ takes a level of courage and commitment that cannot be developed in the moment of trial. Instead, it requires a life of daily dedication to the pursuit of righteousness, as Jesus modeled for us throughout the Gospels.

How closely are you following his example? 

Quote of the day:

“Let [Truth] and Falsehood grapple; who ever knew Truth put to the worse in a free and open encounter?” —John Milton

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