The Dodgers need truth … and Jackie

The Dodgers have made waves across national headlines in their decision to uplift The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a charity and performance group that uses drag and religious imagery to satirize issues of sex and gender. (Unsplash photo)

In 1947, Jackie Robinson made his debut for the Brooklyn Dodgers. The manager and the entire team received backlash for allowing an African American to take the field that day. The team was going against the grain and uplifting the dignity of the human person. 

Why couldn’t a player, needless to say a very good player, play the game simply because of their skin color? To alienate someone and degrade them for this simply did not make sense.

Enter the Dodgers of 2023, who might reside in Los Angeles, but still carry their name from Brooklyn. What has made waves across national headlines is their desire to uplift a group who some may claim are simply championing the rights of Americans like the Brooklyn Dodgers did in 1947. The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence exist to uplift the rights of the LGBTQIA+ community and they have been doing so for decades. 

Is the transgender rights group who degrades the Catholic Church in countless ways the 21st-century version of the 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers? Perhaps, they are the ones on the right side of history, not the Church? Is it the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence who are championing human dignity and the value of every person, not the Church?

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Truth is what we must keep in mind while America continues to journey through its cultural and spiritual war between corporate America and the average American. “Truth is the conformity between one’s mind and reality,” said St. Thomas Aquinas. Even though we do not keep this definition at the forefront of our minds, the average American knows the truth when they see it. The truth is that every human person has infinite worth and dignity, because of who they are, not what they look like or where they come from.

Every person of every race and creed and background has the same worth and value. Even those members of this transgender group receiving an award from the Dodgers, every one of them, has infinite worth and value. The trouble is they think that Catholicism does not teach that about them. They think the Catholic Church hates them and discriminates against them. And yet, they are the ones who mock and metaphorically scourge the truth of the Catholic faith by mocking nuns and dressing up as them while performing heinous acts. 

Individuals are born as male or female. No individual is inferior because they are male, female or of a specific background. Biological sex is the result of our God-given DNA and unfortunately, it is not up for grabs. That is not bigotry, that is truth, and that is reality. Despite what makes one feel good, truth is what is best for us. 

In this wild case it is actually the Catholic Church, who is acting like the 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers – they are siding with the dignity of the human person. As Bishop Barron, the bishop of Winona-Rochester, and many other bishops and priests have noted, discrimination against the Catholic Church is the last acceptable form of bigotry in our nation. Would there be silence from the mainstream media if this was a Jewish or Muslim hate group? 

The Catholic Church is a community of love and peace immovably grounded in the words and actions of Jesus Christ himself. However, it’s also a community that stands firm in the truth and the fact that it is the truth that sets you free. Not going through with gender-altering surgery and dressing according to your God-given sex is actually good for you (even if it goes against the true feelings someone is having). We see this in the astronomically high rates of anxiety and depression among individuals struggling with gender dysphoria. 

What is becoming ever more clear is that society is actually more aligned with the values and truths proclaimed by the Catholic Church for over 2,000 years than they think they are. Churches might be empty, Christian and Catholic schools might be diminishing, and the understanding of the importance of faith is on a downward spiral, but you can’t take the natural inclination toward truth out of the human person.

We might be able to be led astray here and there. We might be capable of very monstrous things when we neglect the reality of God. However, at the end of it all, we know the truth when we see it. We know that we are created equal by our God, despite the color of our skin and our national background or our gender. 

We also know that awarding the mockery of God is dangerous. We know that when we look at pictures from this group of individuals who will be honored by the Dodgers that there’s something wrong with what is going on here. Deep down, we know the truth would be good for them. 

Against the powers that be, against all the money that a team like the Dodgers has, and influence that the transgender movement appears to have, it is the truth that will ultimately reign victorious. Truth always wins, even if it takes time to see it. 

Jackie Robinson once said: “Life is not a spectator sport … If you’re going to spend your whole life in the grandstand just watching what goes on, in my opinion, you’re wasting your life.” 

So let’s get out of the bleacher section and stand with the Catholic Church. Let us stand with truth and pray that America may be set free in the process. 

Thomas Griffin is the chairperson of the religion department at a Catholic high school on Long Island where he lives with his wife and two sons. He has a master’s degree in theology and is the founder and editor-in-chief of Empty Tomb Project: The Magazine.