No Bible Verses Allowed In The Major Leagues

One of the starting Major League pitchers for the San Francisco Giants is Landen Brice Roupp. A native of North Carolina, Roupp when to Faith Christian School. So when the San Francisco Giants held a "Pride Night" for the GLBTQIA+ community on Friday, Roupp refused to completely shed the faith of his upbringing. For last Friday, the San Francisco Giants required its players to wear a ball cap that was emblazoned with the rainbow colors symbolic of the homosexual community since June is celebrated in the GLBTQIA+ community as gay pride month. In response to the requirement to wear the gay pride ball cap, Roupp wrote "Gen 9:12-16" on his baseball cap.

"Gen 9:12-16" stands for Genesis 9:12-16 from The Bible, which is actually an innocuous paragraph from The Old Testament wherein God states that He is establishing the rainbow as a sign of the covenant between God and the people of the earth after The Great Flood. With the rainbow serving as a reminder that He will never again destroy all of the people of the earth. Nevertheless, the Major Leagues have decided that such an innocuous Bible verse falls within the realm of the "offensive". With the MLB issuing official warnings to Landen Roupp and the two other major league pitchers who followed his lead and put the same Bible verse on their ball cap.

According to the MLB, Landen Brice Roupp and the two other pitchers who also wrote the same Bible verse on their ball caps - JT (Jonathan Trey) Brubaker, and Ryan Patrick Walker - were in violation of the uniform regulations for the majors. With said regulations prohibiting any unauthorized writing on official apparel or playing equipment. If Roupp, Brubaker, and Walker write Bible verses on their ball caps or other official apparel again, they could be fined up to $10,000.

While the fine is intended to discourage any of the Major League baseball players from following in the steps of Roupp, Brubaker, and Walker, the possibility of such a steep fine has prompted the actor, Rob Schneider to promise to pay the fines for any baseball players targeted by Major League Baseball for their faith. The threat on the part of the Majors of such a fine has also prompted the Attorney General from the State of Florida to issue a statement that any religious discrimination against baseball players by the MLB in Florida will not be tolerated. If the Major Leagues persist in discriminating against the Christian baseball players, according to the Florida Attorney General, the MLB will hear from his office soon.

U.S. Senator Josh Hawley felt compelled after the MLB issued warnings to the three pitchers to write a letter to the MLB demanding answers for their pattern of discrimination by pointing out some of the discrepancies on the part of the Major Leagues when it comes to enforcing their uniform regulations. In his letter, Hawley stated that, "The league's claim that it merely forbids 'writing of any kind' on its uniforms does not survive a cursory review of the league's recent history. In 2020, MLB itself turned its uniforms and its fields into a billboard for political and social messages. It created jersey patches reading "Black Lives Matter" and "United for Change." It authorized 'BLM' to be stenciled onto pitching mounds. And it suspended its own equipment rules so that players could display progressive political slogans on their cleats. The league went beyond tolerating speech-it designed speech, promoted speech, and shoehorned social and political messages into the game broadcast to millions of Americans. Yet when three players added a handful of characters citing the Book of Genesis to their caps, the league reached for its rulebook."

Furthermore, Senator Hawley explains in his well thought out letter to the Commissioner of the MLB, the Harvard educated attorney Robert Manfred, why the MLB can't simply discriminate against Christian baseball players. For "Alone among America's professional sports leagues, baseball enjoys a sweeping, judicially manufactured exemption from the federal antitrust laws-a privilege the Senate Judiciary Committee has examined with bipartisan skepticism in recent years. A league that benefits from such an extraordinary dispensation owes the public a corresponding measure of accountability, and it invites the closest scrutiny when it appears to wield its market power to punish Americans for their beliefs. That exemption, in any event, has never been understood to shield the league from its legal obligation not to discriminate against its employees on the basis of religion." As Senator Hawley clarifies in his latter to the MLB, "The freedom to live out one's faith does not end at the ballpark gate."

A fourth pitcher for the Giants, Sam Hentges, refused to let his faith end at the ballpark gate, and he refused to wear the gay pride baseball cap, altogether. Saying that he didn't morally support it. Indeed, The Good Lord blessed Hentges for his stance, as the left-handed relief pitcher threw a scoreless inning in the game.

The San Francisco Giants has a history of hosting a gay "Pride Night" in the month of June. As it became the first professional sports team to include the rainbow flag on their on-field apparel in 2021. This year, their "Pride Night" at Oracle Park featured same-sex couples renewing their weddings vows with a drag queen officiating the ceremonies. Along with an LGBTQIA+ affirming church choir singing the National Anthem at the start of the baseball game.