Meg Oliphant/Getty Images I can’t imagine a beloved professional sports team awarding a Community Hero Award to an antisemitic group that mocks religious Jews to advance its agenda.
Or to Islamophobic activists who make fun of the prophet Muhammed.
And yet, this is what the Los Angeles Dodgers were accused of doing last year, when they honored “The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence,” a group that has been called “a vile anti-Catholic organization” and whose motto is “Go and sin some more.”
The brazen “Sisters” use the cross for pole dances, mock Easter Sunday with a Hunky Jesus/Foxy Mary contest and, according to the Catholic League, hold “Midnight Confessional Contests” awarding the “hottest confessions.”
That’s not very respectful.
And for an organization that prides itself on its community relations, honoring such a group is also not very smart.
Evidently, the Dodgers had already figured that out when they rescinded the initial invitation to the “Sisters” in response to outraged fans. It could have ended there: Mistake. Outcry. Fix.
But then, the Dodgers caved again after the California Teachers Association (CTA) sent this warning: “CTA shall release a public statement condemning the Dodgers’ recent decision to rescind the Community Hero Award for the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.”
The CTA rationalized its stance with this accusatory statement: “The Dodgers decision is rooted in the same bigotry that’s led to the LGBTQIA+ books being banned, drag shows being criminalized, and life-saving medical care being taken away from minors.”
Who wouldn’t be spooked by an accusation of bigotry?
The CTA stance was a classic case of disingenuous misdirection– using an incendiary accusation to obscure a blatant offense against a group that doesn’t share your agenda.
While the Dodgers took the brunt of the heat from offended groups, the CTA also deserved its share.
“CTA’s offensive intrusion into America’s national pastime and its endorsement of drag queens mocking nuns is scandalous,” Brenda Lebsack and Rebecca Friedrichs wrote in Real Clear Politics. “That’s why discerning Americans have had enough and are rising up in protest against teacher unions.”
The writers characterized the CTA’s stance as a “deceptive” statement:
“Americans are pushing back on pornographic books, drag queen events, and sex transition surgeries on children because these things are destructive to children and an affront to families and American values.”
Some Jews also weighed in, such as rabbi and law professor Dov Fischer, who wrote: “The state’s school system, established to provide a safe learning climate for all students regardless of their ethnicity, race, language or religious affiliation, is now [thanks to unions] a social laboratory where students and families from devout faiths feel ostracized.”
One Muslim group also registered its protest:
“Making fun of religious symbols or mocking religious figures should not be celebrated, especially by those who have the honorable job of educating our children,” Dr. Ahamed Soboh, chairman of an umbrella organization of 67 mosques throughout California, said in a statement.
It doesn’t matter if you’re left or right, Democrat or Republican, Jewish or non-Jewish: If you condemn acts of antisemitism or Islamophobia, you ought to condemn similar offenses against the Christian religion.
This is not about one’s political or personal views. You can be a radical progressive who shares the CTA’s beliefs and still recognize the offensive anti-Christianism espoused by “The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.” The CTA refused to see the offense because it couldn’t see past its activist agenda.
So, if Jews want to be taken seriously when they condemn acts that smear Jews, it behooves them to speak up against acts that smear other religious groups, including Christians. And God knows, attacking Christians has become a risk-free American pastime.
Indeed, what sounds so obvious for other religious groups doesn’t seem to apply to Christians. Why is that? Why does mocking the religion of 2.4 billion people rarely draw much attention, let alone outrage?
Is it because Christians are seen as the ultimate exemplars of white privilege, white supremacy and white patriarchy— that modern trifecta of sinful racial identity? Is it because religious Christians are seen as the enemies of the woke and Godless revolution remaking American culture?
None of these considerations, no matter how you feel about them, are pertinent to the core issue of offending a religious group. This must always be condemned, especially if you’re in one of those groups that’s been on the receiving end for a few thousand years.
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