Can The Genesis Rainbow Share A Baseball Cap With The Pride Night Rainbow?
(ANALYSIS) After the great flood in the Book of Genesis, God offered a timeless symbol of hope.
The Bible says God promised: “I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever … 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.”
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.
The big question: Can the biblical rainbow coexist on the same Pride Night baseball cap with the today's rainbow celebrating LGBTQ+ rights?
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's Center for Conscience Initiatives.
The clash between MLB leaders and several San Francisco Giants pitchers “was about both issues, really,” he said, reached by telephone. “It was about not being discriminated against” in the workplace, especially if there were questions about whether an employer was “enforcing a rule consistently,” or only enforcing it when there was “religious expression that was seen as troublesome” to employers.
The firestorm began when Giants starting pitcher Landen Roupp, along with relievers J.T. Brubaker and Ryan Walker, wrote Bible verse references — variations on Genesis 9: 12-16 — 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.
After the game, Roupp told reporters that the Genesis reference is “about God’s covenant and a promise that He makes to us [about], you know, His faithfulness and His mercy. … There’s no hate at all. It's just what I stand for.”
But MLB leaders said this protest violated this league rule: “[a] Player may not write, attach, affix, embroider or otherwise display nicknames or messages on apparel or playing equipment.” The MLB said, “we have warned the players about future violations," while a follow-up statement said, “this 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.”
In the past, MLB leaders said, they issued similar warnings after player messages such as “Happy Mother's Day, I Love Mom.” But critics noted that in 2020 players were allowed to wear “Black Lives Matter” symbols, including messages written on their shoes.
The Pride Night festivities at the Giants game included an LGBTQ+ affirming church choir performing the national anthem and the on-field renewal of marriage vows led by drag queen Peaches Christ. Giants leaders later released a statement saying, “We understand that the choices by individual players have caused pain and anger to many in the LGBTQ+ community and we are sorry for that.”
In response, Queerty journalist Alex Griswold posted on X: “Players can abstain from wearing Pride hats all they want. The issue is desecrating the Pride hat. … Why haven't any of these Giants players posted bible verses to oppose genocide, mass deportation or a litany of other atrocities?”
After a Department of Justice letter inquiring about the conflict, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred offered several important clarifications. For example, Pride Night rites are not among MLB's 12 official events, such as Memorial Day, July 4th and Jackie Robinson Day.
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 “requested their use of the Pride emblem on uniforms/hats on Pride Night to be grandfathered. ... MLB agreed to allow them to utilize the hats/uniforms with emblems provided no player or uniformed staff would be required to wear them.”
Manfred added: “Unfortunately, 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.”
Frampton said that an opt-out clause for controversial uniforms is a “sensible solution in this kind of situation.”
The question, he added, is whether players truly believe they have that right and “know they will not be bullied into wearing unforms that violate their religious beliefs.”
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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.