Letters to Sports: Criticism abounds for Clayton Kershaw, the Dodgers and Sisters

Regarding your story “Kershaw Disagrees With Sisters Honor, Urges Faith Day”: I am a big fan of Clayton Kershaw and admire his work on and off the field. However, I feel like he is missing the point about the honor for the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. Both he and the Sisters are actually promoting the same things. Their methods may differ, but both are urging respect and tolerance for other people and their beliefs.

Peggy Jo Abraham
Santa Monica

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If Kershaw wants to stuff Christianity down our throats at Dodger games, let him also offer us nights for Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, any other common religion, and, for some of us, an Atheist night. His hypocrisy has me gagging.

Dell Franklin
Cayucos

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Clayton Kershaw’s push to prod the Dodgers to stage a Christian Faith Day is an incredibly bad idea that the Dodgers should decline. The Dodgers are a city and regional institution that, with the right leadership, fosters inclusion and unity in our community. Everyone is welcome to become a Dodgers fan regardless of ethnicity, location, religious and political beliefs, sexual preference, income, or other factors that often divide people.

Choosing to formally celebrate one religion, in this case Christianity, at the expense of all other religious beliefs necessarily tears at the unity that normally exists among Dodgers fans.

Ray McKown
Torrance

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Clayton Kershaw is wrong to say that the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence are making fun of religion. They are providing comfort and support to people who are being marginalized by and rejected by bigots, which is the same type of work that Jesus was known for providing.

Kershaw is not acting like a Christian. He is acting like a wealthy celebrity who is looking out for himself. I hope that he will read the Bible, see the errors of his hurtful words, and apologize to those he has offended. That would be the Christian thing to do.

Brent Trafton
Long Beach

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As if Christians haven’t done enough to destroy the family with dogma to help keep LGBTQ+ members in the closet, frightened and vulnerable within communities all across America, this event is not a shadow of the bigger problem with homophobia; it is a rally call for more hypocrisy, divide and a “wink” to those who are legislating anti-LGBTQ+ agendas in the name of “Christian” ideals across America. Congratulations, Dodgers and spokesperson Kershsaw, for this political stunt disguised as faith, and bowing at the feet of pressure from those who continue to make life a living hell for the LGBTQIA community!

Scott Matz
Los Angeles

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Bravo to Clayton Kershaw standing up for his religious beliefs and articulating what many of us think. It’s mind-boggling to think the Dodgers would honor a performance group that satirizes Christianity by depicting a raunchy Jesus being crucified. Thank you, Clayton, for your thoughtful, Christian response to this insult.

Mary Curtius
Coronado

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By claiming that “loving Jesus” is his response to Pride Night and the Sisters inclusion, Clayton Kershaw says the quiet part out loud. Catholics view the Queer community as their opposition. By framing Christian Night as a response to their Pride Night, he’s only furthering the divide.

Nick Chatillon
Newport Beach

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Having been a stand-up guy his whole career, it comes as no surprise he would take a stand against honoring a group that mocks religion. The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence are fortunate they operate in the U.S. If they attempted their brand of “humor” on Islamic traditions in any other country they would find out what intolerance really means.

Ken Blake
Brea

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To say that I am disappointed in the Dodger organization would be a colossal understatement. When did MLB embrace Christianity as part of the rites of summer? When did religion become conflated with our beloved national pastime? Religion belongs in the home, at church, in a synagogue, mosque and temple. Where it doesn’t belong is in our ballparks, especially when it celebrates one religion to the exclusion of all others. Shame on Clayton Kershaw and shame on the Dodger organization.

Marna Shulberg
Sherman Oaks