A July 4, 2026 Message: Don't Be Silent!

As I take stock and reflect on America’s 250^th Anniversary and this July 4th holiday, I feel compelled to offer some words of advice to Evangelical Christians, actively practicing Roman Catholics, and observant Jews. The recent trip my wife Cathy and I made to Germany makes this need very apparent to me.

As I shared in last week’s blog, our local German tour guides were very candid and transparent regarding the atrocities carried out by the Adolph Hitler Nazi regime. So, I took it upon myself to take one of our guides aside for a private conversation at the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial. I had previously read from Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s writings that he believed if German pastors and other Christian leaders had spoken up clearly and decisively early in Hitler’s rein, Hitler might have been dissuaded from pursuing the worst of his horrific genocidal acts. I asked our guide for her opinion on Bonhoeffer’s speculation. Our guide was unequivocal in her response that she believed Bonhoeffer was correct in his assessment that speaking up would have made a difference. In support for her viewpoint, she cited the widespread opposition by Christian churches, physicians, and families to a Nazi euthanasia program undertaken in the mid 1930s to kill mentally ill and disabled individuals, including children. One of the most effective leaders in the opposition movement was Bishop von Galen of Munster through his clear and passionate sermons. As a result of this opposition, Hitler eventually suspended this evil undertaking.

So why would I be discussing the evil perpetrated by the Nazi regime during this season of celebrating America’s 250^th Anniversary? What possible similarity is there between America in 2026 with Nazi Germany in the 1930s? Can’t Americans just relax and feel safe with the knowledge that we have Constitutional protections such as Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Religion which most of the world does not enjoy? While I like to believe this is true, a recent event in professional sports gives me pause. As part of June Pride Month Celebration of LGBTQ, Major League Baseball “encourages” teams to conduct Pride Month events, which include Pride Month stadium banners and players on teams wearing baseball caps which celebrate and endorse Pride Month. Only the Texas Rangers team declined to take part in the Pride Month celebration.

Several players from the San Francisco Giants added Bible verses to their Pride Month caps to make clear their Christian faith opposition to what Pride Month celebrates while another player wore his regular cap. Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred wasted no time in announcing that these players faced possible disciplinary action for their actions in placing Bible verses on their caps and warned that their recalcitrance should not be repeated. Just to be clear, major-league baseball is a private business and can choose to celebrate whatever causes it sees fit to celebrate. It can be argued technically that, as a matter of Constitutional law, baseball players enjoy no First Amendment protection for their religious beliefs because Major League Baseball is a private business and not the government which is the coercing agent regarding their religious beliefs. This places Christian players in a difficult position just as other Christian employees in Corporate America are faced with similar challenges regarding Corporate America’s worship of DEI in the workplace. I discuss this important tension between religious liberty and private business DEI worship and possible actions for Christian employees to take in my book

Almost Finished. https://a.co/d/0cNCGOoP.

Thankfully, in the case of Christian Major League baseball players, many religious and political leaders did not remain silent with respect to Commissioner Manfred’s threat to punish the San Francisco Giant players. United States Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri wrote a very powerful letter to Commissioner Manfred criticizing Manfred’s actions and demanding an explanation. Christian Podcaster Ali Beth Stuckey also spoke out against Commissioner Manfred’s actions.

Well, guess what happened? Commissioner Manfred issued a statement in which he “clarified” that, while no baseball cap should be altered with messaging because of the need to preserve uniformity, no baseball player was required to wear a Pride cap and the San Francisco Giants, and the Los Angeles Dodgers were just “confused” as to how the Pride cap issue should have been handled.  Commissioner Manfred made clear that none of the San Francisco Giants players would be punished for the addition of Bible verses on the Pride Caps and any major league player who wished to wear the team’s standard cap instead of the Pride cap could do so.

So let me conclude this July 4, 2026, blog with a few questions. Does anyone believe that Commissioner Manfred would have issued his “clarification” statement if Senator Hawley, Podcaster Ali Beth Stuckey, and other political and religious leaders had not stepped up and called out Commissioner Manfred and Major League Baseball? Does anyone believe that we can take our Constitutional Freedoms for granted and assume that they will be honored by the cultural elites in our country? Does anyone believe that freedom is naturally free and that no one in the past paid a price for the freedoms we enjoy today as Americans? Does anyone believe that we can remain silent in the face of actions taken by some cultural elites to denigrate our freedoms if we are going to continue to enjoy our freedoms in the future? I believe most of us know the correct answers to these questions.

God bless you and thank you for the privilege of your time in reading my blog.