Giants reliever Jeremy Affeldt urges Christian tolerance toward gays
San Francisco Giants relief pitcher Jeremy Affeldt is one of the good guys in baseball — he’s a devout Christian who fights against child poverty and human trafficking. He once returned $500,000 to the Giants after noticing they paid him too much because of a clerical error.
Well, Affeldt’s latest social justice interest might ruffle feathers among his fellow conservative Christians. Affeldt penned a blog post this week in which he urged Christians to be more tolerant toward gays. He writes:
Why do people who aren’t Christians hate us? They look at us and say, “You’re just a bunch of Bible thumpers who are homophobic and you don’t love anybody.”
We’ve brought that on ourselves. I don’t think we’re showing the love of Jesus. Gay people are asking for equal rights under the law, and we’ve got Christians saying “God hates you.” I get so angry because that’s not true! Godloves you! Jesus walks with the gay community! I think Jesus says, “I love you just as I love someone who is not gay. I love you as a human being. I just love you.”
Affeldt doesn’t directly connect this to current events, but it’s easy to read his words and make connections to the religious freedom law under scrutiny in Indiana because it would allow businesses to discriminate against homosexuals. A similar law in Arkansas is also under fire this week. This even matters in baseball, where the Oakland Athletics’ Pride Night has rattled some fans in the very liberal Bay Area.
Criticisms from Affeldt don’t come lightly here, or without having walked in those shoes. In his 2013 book, “To Stir a Movement:” Life, Justice, and Major League Baseball,” Affeldt admitted his own past homophobia. He wrote about not wanting to leave his hotel when he played in the Bay Area as a visiting player because he was so uncomfortable. When he joined the Giants in 2009, Affeldt’s views started to change.
In this week’s blog post he addresses that too:
I had homophobia. I know what that’s like. But I was wrong to fear like that. God reached deep within my heart and changed me. Now I have gay friends and colleagues. There is no difference between us. Gay people are human beings, and I’m going to love on them just as God told me to love all human beings. God told us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Maybe if more of us did that, Christians wouldn’t be so hated everywhere we go.
Affeldt goes on to address other ways he thinks Christians and their churches can better love their neighbors — like staying in their community and not building mega-churches 15 miles away. But urging Christians to accept gays is a brave stance by Affeldt, one that will most certainly earn him criticism in some circles and one he could have easily ignored as he gets ready for another MLB season.
But you see that tattoo on his arm? It says “No Man Shall Live For Himself.” That’s a good reminder that Affeldt doesn’t settle for what’s convenient.
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Mike Oz is the editor of Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @MikeOz
