Posted on 09/20/2005 4:24:28 PM PDT by SJackson
The Washington Nationals on Tuesday suspended clubhouse credentials for a prayer service leader after a flap over comments about Jews.
Club officials said Jon Moeller will not be allowed access to the locker room while the team investigates. Meantime, the Nationals have asked the Christian ministry Baseball Chapel, which oversees clubhouse prayer services, to provide a replacement.
An article published Sunday in The Washington Post described outfielder Ryan Church asking Moeller if Jews are "doomed" because they do not believe in Jesus — to which Moeller reportedly nodded.
In a team statement issued Tuesday, Church said, "I am not the type of person who would call into question the religious beliefs of others."
Team president Tony Tavares said the reported remarks "do not, in any manner, reflect the views or opinions of the Washington Nationals franchise."
Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld, who leads Washington's oldest Orthodox synagogue, Ohev Sholom Talmud Torah, said, "The Nationals did a good job about bringing hate into the locker room."
Herzfeld said he met with Tavares for about 30 minutes Tuesday after denouncing the reported remarks at a news conference outside RFK Stadium. He described the meeting as productive, but said he would continue to follow the situation.
Another Jewish leader, Rabbi Ethan Seidel of the Tifereth Israel synagogue, said, "Yeah, no one likes to be told they're going to hell, but Christians have been saying that for thousands of years."
Vince Nauss, president of Baseball Chapel, said his group understood the Nationals' position, but added that Moeller had served the team well. In an e-mail to The Associated Press, Nauss said the group planned to talk with the team before taking any action. Moeller could not be reached for comment.
According to Baseball Chapel's Web site, the ministry extends throughout major and minor league baseball and also serves foreign leagues.
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Ryan Church has some splainin to do as well.
The Chaplain has the right to his religious POV, the baseball team has the right to not pay for or give sanction to the Chaplain's POV.
Next?
Even Satan believes in Jesus. I don't understand the question.
Yes to both
Ask the rabbis if Jesus was the messiah. If they shake their heads no, are they introducing hate into the locker room?
Nothing like expressing your own bigotry and ignorance while criticizing that of the other guy.
If they don't believe in hell then what are they worried about? Christianity teaches us to love the sinner not hate them.
That's bigotry?
Were there a rabbi in the locker room to deliver what I presume was a non-sectarian prayer, I'd hope he'd have the good sense not to answer. If not, he should be fired.
My guess, if his prayer revolved around Bush eats babies, he would have been fired too.
Ok, so I read the article expecting to see horrible statements. He didn't make any.
Why isn't the guy who asked the question in trouble?
So the goal is to create in a world where we're never challenged by anything said by anyone who is on the payroll?
"Ask the rabbis if Jesus was the messiah. If they shake their heads no, are they introducing hate into the locker room?"
How is that hate?
For some reason, many people seem to want to marginalize the beliefs of others. They don't seem to realize that when it comes to religion, be definition, one must be right, and all the others must be wrong. Please, let's leave the South Park references out of this! lol. And they don't seem to think that people are actually serious about their religion and beliefs.
Mark
Herzfeld sounds like the type that promotes his victimhood because it is good for business. The club should have told him to take a hike.
It's a rather dumb question, likely designed to force the Chaplain to take a position the player is afraid to verbalize himself.
He's not in trouble because he belongs to a union. And hopefully the reprecussions for the Chaplain aren't serious.
"So the goal is to create in a world where we're never challenged by anything said by anyone who is on the payroll?"
Why should I pay someone who says that another ethnic group is going to hell?
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