At this point during the year 2023, when Bud Light found out what would happen when they pushed their customers too far and when Fox News found out what happened when they alienated the fans of their highest-rated host, it would seem that brands and corporations might pause a moment before taking an action that would insult a large swath of the people who pay their salaries. And last week it seemed that the Los Angeles Dodgers viewed those examples as cautionary tales when they disinvited the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, an anti-Catholic group that does a bit of charity work when it’s not sponsoring sacrilegious drag shows, from this year’s Pride Night. In addition to having the Sisters as honored guests on this night, the organization planned to present them with the Community Hero Award.

While people such as Sen. Marco Rubio snarkily commented something about sanity prevailing in California for once when the Dodgers made their disinvitation announcement, I knew that what the Dodgers organization had done was an extremely courageous thing to do in Los Angeles, where the local politicians – who control all sorts of things related to the smooth and profitable running of a business – are all on the extreme left, and are all very petty and retaliatory. Remember, Gavin Newsom closed beaches in just one county on one weekend during the pandemic because its leaders dared fight back against restrictions. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti had an outdoor skate park filled with sand to make people obey and threatened to deputize city bureaucrats to enforce lockdowns.

These people don’t play.

But, what I saw as an actual member of the community was how upset the Dodgers’ fan base (heavily Latino and heavily Catholic) was about this planned award – and I believed then and still believe that the Dodgers management disinvited the Sisters because of those objections, and not because Marco Rubio said something.

The reaction to the disinvitation from leftists in Los Angeles was swift and vicious, and every Democrat elected official (which is nearly all of them, since there are only a handful of Republicans in elected office in the county) called the Dodgers out. The LGBT Center pulled out of Pride Night and told the Dodgers they should just cancel it. Fast forward a few days, and by Monday afternoon the Dodgers had caved – they reinvited the Sisters, and also plan to honor them in a pre-game ceremony.

Horvath (surprise, surprise) announced that she led the struggle session discussions that resulted in this, uh, development.

Thanks to the @LADragnuns for your work to serve & uplift the LGBTQ+ community. You model the best of my faith.
 @Dodgers, it is rare for an organization like yours to publicly recognize mistakes & commit to doing better – thank you 🙏🏼

— Lindsey P. Horvath (@LindseyPHorvath) May 23, 2023

“You model the best of my faith”? Oh, please. What faith is that?

It’s certainly not the faith of Dodgers ace pitcher Julio Urias, a devout Catholic. Before each Julio Urías start, his father stands in the family home in Culiacan, Mexico, and prays before the Virgin of Guadalupe.

Carlos Urías has a routine before watching every one of his son’s starts: He plugs in a Virgen de Guadalupe light fixture hanging in the hallway just off the living room and prays.

La Virgen was bright on a recent Sunday morning, colorfully illuminating the dim white space. A few minutes after 10, before Julio Urías took the mound 2,000 miles away in Miami, Carlos approached her. He took off his Dodgers cap, whispered some words and offered the sign of the cross.

“God has been good,” he said. “I have a lot to be thankful for up there.”

When Urias, who underwent 10 eye surgeries before age 10 due to a benign brain tumor, was finally called up to the majors, the first thing his parents did was visit their Catholic church with flowers to give thanks.

It’s not the faith of the Voice of the Dodgers, Vin Scully, a devout Catholic who humbly served in his parish in Westlake Village as long as his health allowed. Scully’s nephew, National Review’s Dan McLaughlin, said Monday night, “I cannot overstate what a betrayal it is for the Dodgers, of all organizations, to give a home to an anti-Catholic hate group.” As Dan wrote in a tribute to his uncle:

Vin’s Catholic faith was deep, and it carried him through many trials. So did family. His first wife died tragically young around the same time my oldest brother died at age seven. Vin’s daughter came to live with us for a summer, and my grandparents went to California for a few years until Vin remarried. Family gets through these things together. His oldest son, my cousin Michael, died in a helicopter crash while his wife was expecting their second child, who was born that day. It was devastating. Vin was married to his second wife, Sandi, until her death after a long illness in 2020. He bore his crosses the only way he knew how: with faith.

It’s not the faith of longtime Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda, whose personality was nearly the polar opposite of Vin Scully’s, but whose devotion to his Catholic faith ran just as deep. Lasorda often told stories about how his Catholic upbringing and education in Catholic schools shaped his life, and his religion was visible at Dodger Stadium, too:

The oversized, gold-framed portrait of Mother Teresa was fairly easy to spot for Tommy Lasorda when he sat at the desk of his fifth-floor executive office space at Dodger Stadium, carved out for him after he was given a “special adviser” role by Dodgers ownership.

Even among the countless other glossy photos of former presidents, legendary entertainers, and star athletes, Lasorda made sure that it was visible — it was even autographed. Not far is a portrait of Los Angeles Archbishop Emeritus Cardinal Roger Mahony.

Then there is also a picture of an unassuming nun wearing a white habit.

“That’s Sister Immaculata, my seventh-grade teacher,” Lasorda explained in “I Live For This! Baseball’s Last True Believer,” a 2007 biography on him. “She was the only one who believed in me.”

It’s not the faith of Walter O’Malley, the man who brought the Dodgers to Los Angeles from Brooklyn, and it’s not the faith of Fernando Valenzuela, the legendary Dodgers pitcher whose name is revered by all who bleed Dodger blue.

Horvath’s “faith” is also not the faith of millions of Dodgers fans of all religious beliefs – whether Catholic, Protestant, Mormon, Jewish, agnostic – who believe that honoring a group whose performances are extremely sacrilegious and mock not just Catholicism but Christianity as a whole as a “Community Hero” is wrong. (By the way, the Sisters only raise a few hundred thousand dollars a year, and a good portion of that is spent on things like promoting the transgender agenda in schools.) Here’s a sampling of their “entertainment.”

Sample “religious names” of the SPI include “Sister Mysteria of the Holy Order of the Broken Hymen,” “Sister Sermonetta of the Flying Phalus,” “Sister Rose of the Bloody Stains of the Sacred Robes of Jesus,” and “Sister Missionary Position” pic.twitter.com/Pi9KabItWj

— CatholicVote (@CatholicVote) May 23, 2023

It’s not just Jesus… they also mock the Blessed Mother.https://t.co/SNOtY3I0tc

— CatholicVote (@CatholicVote) May 23, 2023

To join the group, there is a year-long, four-step process with the steps named “Volunteer,” “Postulant,” “Novice Sister,” and finally “Fully Professed (Black Veil).” https://t.co/bs0iiYLLSB

— CatholicVote (@CatholicVote) May 23, 2023

Horvath’s “faith” is in grift and political power, and in using Los Angeles’ far-left mockingbird press to make her disingenuous points. To wit, a piece from the LA Times:

To pacify religious and political extremists, the Dodgers scrapped plans to bestow a Community Hero Award to the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a self-proclaimed “leading-edge Order of queer and trans nuns” that uses satire and drag to call attention to sexual intolerance and raise money for nonprofit organizations that benefit underserved communities.

The honoring of the Sisters was protested by a handful of conservative Catholic leaders and bottom-feeding Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who argued the charity group was “anti-Catholic.” The Dodgers folded as quickly as they did last year in the National League Division Series against the San Diego Padres.

In a separate piece, an anonymous Dodgers employee claims that it was all of the bigots calling the Dodgers front office who put Pride Night in jeopardy.

“They caught people off guard, we had to handle the phones and get yelled at on the front lines,” said one of the employees, who requested anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly on the topic. “It sends everyone in a tizzy.”

However, the outrage triggered by that decision threatened to derail Pride Night entirely, an outcome unacceptable to the Dodgers…

“As it stands now, we’d lose our Pride Night,” one of the employees who requested anonymity said… “I don’t know how we’d come back from that.”

Dodgers staffers across all sexual orientations were vocal in their dismay at the decision. “We knew the Sisters would react, but we didn’t have a feel for how swift and strong the response was going to be and how it would pull in others,” the employee said. “And a lot of employees are upset.”

Those placed pieces had an impact, and Dodgers team president Stan Kasten was soon the one in a tizzy. One thing he gets right is that the Dodgers really hadn’t faced a pressure campaign in the past – which is the exact point I was making last week. LA’s political leaders are so radical that the normies usually keep their mouths closed, knowing that speaking up can cost them their livelihood.

“This is new territory for us,” he said. Facing a pressure campaign, Kasten said, “we weren’t sure what to do, but we wanted to address the issue quickly and we made this judgment too quickly. Before really hearing out all of the people and the points of view, particularly from the LGBTQ community whom we’ve had a long and very good relationship with.”

That fact that so many Angelenos reacted so viscerally should have caused some reflection in the Dodgers front office and not a reflection of the kind that led them to Lindsey Horvath’s struggle session – because that choice is going to lead to expensive consequences as Dodgers fans of all faiths and walks of life are making their displeasure known, some even choosing to walk away from the team their family has cheered on for generations. I asked Dodgers fans on Twitter what they thought of this, since it’s their opinion that matters the most.

Tolerance also means not poking fun at, ridiculing, or disparaging the religious beliefs of a particular group. Dodgers management are obviously having a difficult time with that reality.

— Tim Rosales (@TimRosales) May 23, 2023

It’s killing me. Absolutely shredding. Catholic all my life and bleed Dodger blue, now apparently they don’t want me as a fan at all unless my faith is the target of their mockery. I guess sticking with them for the futile ‘90’s isn’t good enough.

— Matt Wand (@WandMatt) May 23, 2023

Dave Goss said:

As you saw, I’m out. There are two reasons I’m out. First was because of the mockery of religion, that is unacceptable and if this group were mocking any other religion other than a Christian one there would be outrage, but that’s not the main reason I’m out on the
@dodgers. The main reason I’m out is the cowardice of the organization to be intimidated by a county supervisor to change their decision. They should be doing what’s right by their fans, which they had done, but then reversed course which I can not support. I wish the players well, but the organization is dead to me.

Latina here, born in ELA so it’s part of my heritage that I’m @Dodgers fan of 50 yrs+. Cudn’t be more disappointed in Dodgers decision to re-invite an organization that mocks my religion & uses sex toys to make crosses. Dodgers gave us the middle finger today, I won’t forget.

— Scouter34🇺🇸⚾️🏈✌❤🚔 (@Scouter34) May 23, 2023

Well since ya asked. I too am @dodgers through thick and thin. It’s been rewarding as the team has been entertaining and competitive.

I wish they would stick to baseball and stay out of politics and culture.

From O’Malley down to Tommy and Vin, they USED TO BE the classiest…

— el Sid (@RevSid) May 23, 2023

From a fan from the Vin Scully and Jerry Doggett days; from the Bobby Valentine and Maury Wills days; bye-bye Dodgers.

— 🇺🇲Kathy❤God❤Family❤️Country🇺🇲 (@ProudMomGrammy) May 23, 2023

You get the idea. There are dozens more tweets like this, just in response to my question.

And there’s also this point:

I’m gay and not Catholic but there’s no way a group that intertwined LGBT imagery with Islamic symbols would ever be allowed at such an event.

— byokop (@byokop) May 23, 2023

Personally, my family has chosen to boycott the team – a decision made even more difficult by the fact that today is my youngest son’s birthday and we usually take in a Dodgers game to celebrate.

Today's my youngest's 20th bday. We normally go to a @Dodgers game to celebrate (we were going to go on Memorial Day since they're not at home tonight) but we just had a conversation at breakfast abt it and he doesn't want to give the org our $ anymore. 6 yrs ago memories =… pic.twitter.com/x2EmI4jgTg

— Jennifer Van Laar (@jenvanlaar) May 23, 2023

This is also going to require an investment in some new clothes for me since roughly 1/4 of my wardrobe is Dodgers-related (I crafted this column while wearing a 2020 World Champions t-shirt, which will be going in a storage bin while I pray ownership comes to its senses).

We fans are going to need help from Catholic leaders in California to get this done. Thankfully, Archbishop Cordileone up in San Francisco had harsh words for the Dodgers.

Our Catholic sisters devote themselves to serving others selflessly. Decent people would not mock & blaspheme them. So we now know what gods the Dodger admin worships. Open desecration & anti-Catholicism is not disqualifying. Disappointing but not surprising. Gird your loins. https://t.co/JloPQe9tC1

— Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone (@ArchCordileone) May 23, 2023

As I was finishing up this piece, which I started Monday night, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles issued a statement.

The Archdiocese calls on all Catholics and people of goodwill to stand against bigotry and hate in any form and to stand for respect for one another and for the religious beliefs of our communities of faith.

The decision to honor a group that clearly mocks the Catholic faith and makes light of the sincere and holy vocations of our women religious who are an integral part of our Church is what has caused disappointment, concern, anger, and dismay from our Catholic community. The ministries and vocations of our religious women should be honored and celebrated through genuine acts of appreciation, reverence, and respect for their sacred vows, and for all the good works of our nuns and sisters in service of the mission of the Catholic Church. From providing a quality education for inner city students, to serving the sick, the homeless, the hungry and so many others in need, to caring for the souls of our faithful through prayer, our women religious have dedicated their lives to the Catholic faith and mission, sharing God’s loving grace with others. The Archdiocese stands against any actions that would disparage and diminish our Christian faith and those who dedicate their lives to Christ.

The Archdiocese calls on all Catholics and people of goodwill to stand against bigotry and hate in any form and to stand for respect for one another and for the religious beliefs of our communities of faith. Let us also show our care and respect for our women religious by sending a message of support to their communities through phone calls, letters, and posts on their social channels, supporting vocations by donating to their orders, and/or making donations in their name to the programs they support. Let us show the world how much our women religious mean to us and our Church.

This statement is a good start, but it’s not nearly as tough as it should be.

Still, Dodgers brass should be worried about the ongoing financial support of both die-hard and casual fans given the level of anger in Los Angeles over their capitulation to Lindsey Horvath and the Sisters (which probably also had something to do with Horvath’s position with LA Metro and the team’s troubled gondola project). The team is playing in Atlanta today, and something tells me that there will be a rude awakening when they next take the field in Chavez Ravine.

(EDITOR’S NOTE: To politely make your opinion on this issue known to the Dodgers management, contact information can be found here.)