Miffed by drag-queen ‘nuns,’ Clayton Kershaw pushed Dodgers for Christian Faith Day
When pitcher Clayton Kershaw learned about his Los Angeles Dodgers’ honoring the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and their mockery of Jesus and Christianity, he decided to do something about it.
As a result, the Dodgers quickly relaunched the Christian Faith and Family Day as a response.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, the Cooperstown-bound pitcher said he disagrees with the drag-queen team of “nuns,” because of their mockery of religion, not their LGBTQ status per se.
Mr. Kershaw announced the relaunch of the Christian promotion, which the Dodgers regularly did before the COVID-19 epidemic, last week on social media and told the Times it was prompted by the team’s planned recognition of the Sisters group.
“I think we were always going to do Christian Faith Day this year, but I think the timing of our announcement was sped up,” Mr. Kershaw said. “Picking a date and doing those different things was part of it as well. Yes, it was in response to the highlighting of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.”
The Sisters were invited, then uninvited, then reinvented by the Los Angeles Dodgers to the team’s June 16 Pride Night, the flip-flopping resulting from first pressure from Catholics and then pushback from LGBTQ advocacy groups.
The “nuns” regularly mock Christianity and the church by, among many other things, pole-dancing around a cross.
Mr. Kershaw said Monday that he disagreed with the team’s decision to honor the nuns, though he added that he has no plans to boycott the game or Pride Night generally over it.
“I don’t agree with making fun of other people’s religions,” he said. “It has nothing to do with anything other than that. I just don’t think that, no matter what religion you are, you should make fun of somebody else’s religion. So that’s something that I definitely don’t agree with.”
The nine-time all-star and three-time Cy Young Award winner said that he, his wife Ellen, and others discussed the proper response to the Sisters.
“For us, we felt like the best thing to do in response was, instead of maybe making a statement condemning or anything like that, would be just to instead try to show what we do support, as opposed to maybe what we don’t,” Mr. Kershaw said. “And that was Jesus. So to make Christian Faith Day our response is what we felt like was the best decision.”
Christian Faith and Family Day is set for July 30 at Dodger Stadium, when the reigning National League West champions host the Cincinnati Reds.
“More details to come — but we are grateful for the opportunity to talk about Jesus and determined to make it bigger and better than it was before COVID. Hope to see you on July 30th!” Mr. Kershaw wrote on Twitter last week.
