In the United States “Pride” Month is in full swing.  The San Francisco Giants baseball team hosted their official Pride Night game late last week, with the players sporting a rainbow Giants logo on their baseball caps.  One might imagine that in San Francisco, long a Mecca for the LGBTQ community, that there would be no dissenting voices to be heard.  But contrary to expectations, several members of the Giants pitching staff wrote Bible verse citations on their hats, including starter Landon Roupp.

Roupp wrote Gen 9:11-15 on his cap, which speaks of God’s covenant promise of the rainbow in the cloud - the promise that He would never again destroy the earth with a flood of water.  "It's just about God's covenant and a promise that he makes to us that, you know, his faithfulness and his mercy," Roupp said to reporters. "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.”

We say, “Amen” to Landon Roupp’s remarks.  But the heads at Major League Baseball apparently were not edified by his silent sermon or its explanation.  The Athletic reported that an MLB official issued a warning to Roupp and the other players that their writing on their caps violated MLB rules.  But Ian Miller (Outkick Sports) notes that other players have written on their caps in recent years, apparently without consequences.  But let anyone in the public eye (such as Landon Roupp) express his faith in God and quote the Bible, and an immediate reaction follows - mostly from those who favor the political left.

We would pose this question - How is the effort to push expressions of faith out of the public square any different in character to mandating religious observances?  Both cases seek to establish ideological conformity by threats of reprisal.  If one is wrong, then both are wrong.  This is why the First Amendment of the U. S. Constitution forbids congress from legislating to establish religion or to prohibit its free exercise.  We would do well here in America to keep these principles in mind.