Radio Lux Lucet #21 Darkness for Light - Major League Baseball and the LGBT Agenda

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Welcome to Radio Luke's Lucid. I'm your host Steve Matthews. Thanks for joining me. Well, it's been a little while since I've done a podcast.
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I think about three months to be exact. I had a little bit of an excuse there for a while. I had an extra busy time when
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I was at work. We had a big project at work and it was right about the time
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I started doing some of the podcasts back in May and we really got busy and I just had to put it aside for a few months.
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We got through the the difficult period and then it's like one of those things we kind of get out of the habit of doing something and you you want to get back to it but you somehow you you don't get around quite to doing it.
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You know things get in the way this that and the other thing. So anyway I get this message the other day from Tim Shaughnessy at Thorncrown Ministries and he's like, hey
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I miss your podcast. I said well you know it's funny I I've been thinking about going ahead and trying to get one done here soon.
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So anyway this is this is the result of that. So if you don't like this podcast you can just blame it all on Tim Shaughnessy.
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It's all his fault. Just kidding about that. No actually I'm glad to do it and I'm glad to be back doing it.
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I look forward to being able to do some of these podcasts here on a on a regular basis. One thing
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I've been thinking about here recently is okay well what story am I going to do? Well you know a lot of times a summer and in August there's not much going on.
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There's actually quite a bit going on right now in the world of of politics and economics and such like and of course this this podcast it's really kind of about the if you will the intersection of of politics and economics and the
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Bible. As I had mentioned on an earlier podcast I am a scripturalist. That is
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I use the the method of approaching the Bible that was developed by Gordon Clark and John Robbins and as scripturalists one of the the things we believe one of the fundamental ideas that we believe is that the
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Bible has a systematic monopoly on truth. So when we we go to look at the world when we you know pick up the newspaper or maybe look at something online or maybe see a story on TV or what have you we have to analyze what's going on in the world through the lens of Scripture.
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So you know the one of the sort of the the main thrust the main purposes behind this podcast is to apply the
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Word of God to the stories that we see in our everyday lives on a regular basis.
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That that certainly was my goal at least in in doing this podcast. And I wasn't quite sure what
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I was going to do and I had a story actually an idea for a story just kind of hit me out of the blue just yesterday.
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I was at work and and I turned on my my computer you know booted up my computer in the morning was getting ready to go and if you use a computer at work and maybe you're like my company and we've got a home page sort of a default page that comes up and that page it's it's it's
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Microsoft News it's a Microsoft News it's a basically like a news aggregator.
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It's just a it's a web page it's got lots of headlines drawn from a variety of sources and it covers everything from economics and politics and sports and you know the whole nine yards as far as runs a full gamut is like what
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I'm trying to say there in terms of of the kinds of stories that it covers. Anyway there's this one particular headline caught my caught my eye and and the headline was this
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Daniel Murphy's message to gay Cubs fans oh dear I hope you would root for the Cubs. Now they caught my headline for a couple reasons of course
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I've written and talked some about the the homosexual agenda and I'm also a big baseball fan you know
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I live in the Cincinnati area I've been been a Reds fan my whole life so I've always loved
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Major League Baseball love the Reds big Reds fan I know it's been kind of brutal over the last 25 years or so to be a
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Reds fan we've had a few good seasons in there but there's been a lot of dry spots hopefully things are looking up for the team here but anyway this isn't a podcast about about the
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Reds I just mentioned that just to say you know as I said I've been a baseball fan really my whole life and so I saw this story and it kind of caught my hand
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I thought well let's let's take a look at this now one of the reasons it caught my my attention was because the headline was about Daniel Murphy now if you don't follow
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Major League Baseball you may not know who that is he he is a pretty good pretty good ball player he's been a second baseman and the
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Cubs traded for him in fact he was playing second base I was watching the Reds today the Reds were playing the Cubs and he actually hit a home run against the
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Reds is probably one of the better all -around second baseman in in the
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National League and has played in Major League Baseball I'd say for at least the last five years maybe maybe longer than that but but he's had a well -established career at this point as a as a top
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Major League second baseman so anyway he he actually as far as I'm aware
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I think he came up originally with the with the New York Mets he played for the Washington Nationals for a while and now he's with the
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Chicago Cubs they traded for him I guess they're trying to make a push for the the playoffs which are gonna be coming up in in about a month or so so they it's kind of a late -season acquisition for the
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Cubs so anyway this this headline as I say kind of getting back to it's Daniel Murphy's message to the gay
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Cubs fans oh dear I hope you would root for the Cubs so like I say that's the headline that caught my attention and I opened up the story and and this is how the
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I'll just read you the first couple paragraphs here quote the Cubs waiver where acquisition of Daniel Murphy would be seen as the perfect type of transaction if all we saw were his numbers
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Murphy has had a very hot second half slashing has a batting average of 342 an on -base percentage of 373 and a slugging percentage of 528 in the second half having recovered from injury so he's had a really good good year here since the the second half usually from the all -star break on so he's had about a good six seven weeks of baseball been pretty hot okay the story continues quote unfortunately unfortunately it says unfortunately
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Daniel Murphy is a person not just his numbers and Murphy is on the record as quote disagreeing with quote the gay lifestyle comments
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Murphy hasn't ever really walked back to any degree Murphy was always going to be asked about those comments in Chicago but when he got to the question today it wasn't apparent that he expected it end quote so that's the first couple paragraphs of this story so this really kind of caught my attention you know you you kind of see what the story is going you know in the second paragraph they begin with the term unfortunately
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Daniel Murphy is a person so it's unfortunate okay so obviously the writer of this story but it's a gentleman by the name of Jay Rigdon Jay Rigdon doesn't much like Daniel Murphy and we find out pretty quickly why he doesn't like him and it's because Daniel Murphy had made some comments disagreeing with with the gay lifestyle so anyway this this story really kind of hit me out of the blue and I thought well you know this be actually a pretty good pretty good podcast so I did did a little bit of research on this and what what this whole story refers back to it refers back to some comments that were made back in in 2015 so it goes back about three years with some comments that Daniel Murphy had made and I'm going to read you those comments here in just a moment but one thing
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I wanted to say here is I titled this podcast darkness for light you know Major League Baseball and the LGBT agenda one of the reasons
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I called it darkness for light I hope to kind of make that a recurring theme here on this podcast the idea of darkness for light you know we live in a time when it seems as though everything has been flipped upside down and things that are good are considered evil and things that are evil are considered good and and not only that but but this this way of looking at the world was perverse way of looking at the world it has become enforced with with some real rigor in the colleges in the workplace online
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I mean we see I've been writing a series on my blog if you followed that about about social media de -platformed
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I call that series and it's talking about the the attack on free speech in the social media and in this whole issue surrounding surrounding homosexuality is just one facet of that and and so I want to call this darkness for light and it's just going to be maybe some one -off podcast examining certain aspects of how how popular culture the sort of the anti -christian popular culture that's out there is really attempting to and in some cases
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I guess successfully has really kind of flipped reality on its head and of course the the entire gay agenda is is one such example it's absolutely astounding to me you know
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I'm 52 years old and and I remember growing up and in a time when when homosexuality was not considered normal and it wasn't that long ago you know it's it's kind of funny because I sometimes sound
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I feel like I sound like my my grandparents or something like that why these kids these days why they're they just gone completely crazy well you know it's amazing the world really has gone crazy and it's kind of funny you know
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I look back in the 1980s when I went to high school and it's hard for me to believe
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I'd actually saying this but it actually seems almost like like father knows best or something like that it wasn't
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I mean we had you know it was sort of the post 60s kind of a culture and I mean you know what was the saying back in the day sex drugs and rock and roll right that that's what they used to say and of course there were a lot of people live that lifestyle
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I mean I went to high school with a lot of people that that live that type of lifestyle so I mean it's not as though it was
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Ozzie and Harriet or the you know the 1950s or anything like that I mean there was there was a lot of for a fair amount of debauchery in the culture but you know by comparison say to today you know going 30 35 years on it seems almost downright innocent and I never thought that I would say that so I'll have to say
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I've been a little bit surprised at the the degree and maybe the aggressiveness of the culture change that I've seen over you know just in my lifetime which
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I don't think it's that long but sometimes it seems like it so anyway you know we live at a time when the the
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LGBT that's a lesbian gay bisexual transgender agenda political agenda is is really in the ascendancy and it's just amazing to me how aggressive it's gotten and it's gotten to the point now where if you criticize homosexuals if you criticize anything that they do anything that they say anything about their the choices that they make in their lives well you're a homophobe you're the one that has the problem they don't have the problem you have the problem and and that's the way this this particular story that's that's the standpoint that's the slant that's the the spin if you will on this particular story and this writer is
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Jay Rick and he's very upset that Daniel Murphy has expressed himself as disagreeing with the gay lifestyle so I thought
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I'd go back and take a look at and maybe share with you Daniel Murphy's original comments the now
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Daniel Murphy has says that he's a Christian I don't know Daniel Murphy but I'm gonna take his word for it that he is in fact a
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Christian and the the comments that he may go back to spring training in in 2015
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I found a story this is in on the new jersey .com website and they were they were covering the
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Mets Daniel Murphy played with the Mets at the time and apparently the
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Mets had brought in a gentleman by the name of Billy Bean and Billy Bean is is a guy who he became famous first in a book called
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Moneyball maybe you've heard of him it was a book Lewis Michael Lewis I think is the author's name it was called
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Moneyball and that book was actually made into a movie Billy Bean was was a major league ballplayer he played for six seasons and then he went he became the general manager of the
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Oakland Athletics back in the early 2000s and the the reason he he was the subject of this book and later on in the movies because he did something fairly revolutionary in baseball he was as far as I'm aware the very first general manager baseball general manager to apply modern statistics to building a team you know up until that time you know baseball used a little bit of statistics but it wasn't really in a very systematic way and and there was a whole body of statistics that's been developed
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I guess going back maybe to the 1980s sometimes it's called sabermetrics and and these guys that do these sabermetrics analysis they it's it's very complex but what they do is they've they've brought a lot more statistical analysis to baseball and what they've they've shown is that you know certain things that were always kind of assumed to be true maybe based on the statistics really actually aren't true and so it's it's given general managers and managers some new tools to evaluate players and also in in the way they even manage the game and you see a lot of that in in baseball today it really has changed baseball
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I think it's actually pretty interesting and I think it's been been beneficial to the game of baseball in many ways but by kind of leaving that aside that that was
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Billy Billy beans main claim to fame and within the last few years though he's became known for something else he has actually been came out came out as a homosexual
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I don't know exactly when he did this but I'd say maybe within the last five years or so something like that and he's now no longer the he's no longer the general manager for the
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Oakland A's he actually serves as a can't find his title here but something like an inclusivity director or something like this for Major League Baseball so he actually works for Major League Baseball and I guess when you say inclusivity that really apparently primarily means bringing in the the
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LGBT agenda into into Major League Baseball so the the
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New York Mets had hosted Billy B and I guess he had come and he had had given a talk on at the
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New York Mets and a reporter at I guess in the reporter covering the
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Mets that had asked Daniel Murphy some questions about this and in this really is where the kind of the controversy controversy
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I'll maybe put that in quotation marks I don't think anything that he said was controversial in fact
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I think what he said was actually pretty pretty diplomatic and and I think pretty low -key
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I'm gonna read you read you what what Daniel Murphy said that's caused so much consternation among the among the the great and good the the movers and shakers in the the baseball world here's what here's what
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Daniel Murphy said talking about about Billy being and his his homosexuality quote
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I disagree with his lifestyle I do disagree with the fact that Billy is home is a homosexual that doesn't mean
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I can't still invest in him and get to know him I don't think the fact that someone is a homosexual should completely shut the door on investing in them in a relational aspect getting to know him that I would say you can still accept them but I do disagree with the lifestyle 100 % end quote and Murphy goes on to say quote maybe as a
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Christian that we haven't been as articulate enough in describing what our actual stance is on homosexuality we love the people we disagree with the lifestyle that's the way
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I would describe it for me it's the same way that there are aspects of my life that I'm trying to surrender to Christ in my own life there's a great deal of many things like my pride
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I just think that as a believer trying to articulate it in a way that says just because I disagree with the lifestyle doesn't mean
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I'm never going to speak to Billy Bean every time he walks through the door that's not love that's not love at all end quote so those are
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Billy Beans comment or excuse me those were Daniel Murphy's comments and I think as you can see from that I was was actually
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I was impressed with I mean it was a very mature response I mean he wasn't trying to throw bombs he wasn't being being bombastic or trying to be really
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I don't know preachy or maybe that's the right word he was he stated what he believed and I think he did it in a way that was pretty low -key and I think very
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I think showed some wisdom and some maturity but that doesn't really matter to our diversity commissars that we have today the the way things are today either you agree with the agenda that's being pushed by the
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LGBT folks and and the other various liberal political economic liberal points of view either you agree 100 % with them or you are history
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I mean there is no room for disagreement I mean it's it's I mean these guys are really the diversity commissars and if you don't accept what they say they will come down on you like a ton of bricks it doesn't matter how reasonable you may want to be how mild you want to be how conversational you want to be how much you may want to reach out to somebody they basically want to give you a headache to me if if you if you cross their line
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I mean these people they have they don't seem to have any mercy at all and in reading through this article kind of going back to the original article that I I started talking about when you read through this
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I mean the slant on Daniel Murphy is is really pretty amazing I mean they just they just attack attack attack right from the right from the beginning they say unfortunately he's a person well
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I mean that kind of sets the mood for the for the for the whole piece and and he goes on and you know this this whole article and it's not that long of an article but it's just it goes on in basically the whole idea is that Daniel Murphy is a horrible person
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Daniel Murphy's a terrible person because he disagrees with the
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LGP agenda and it's in the article goes on to talk about the fact that the
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Cubs that they brought in that they brought in this player right before they have their their big their big gay day apparently they they're going to be having a a it's called out at Wrigley and that's something that's gonna be held actually tomorrow
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I'm recording this on August 25th it's actually gonna be held on Sunday August 26 it's called it's called out at Wrigley and it's
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I guess a pretty big big deal and in fact it's something it's a kind of a gay day at Wrigley Stadium and at Wrigley Field I should say and the the
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Cubs actually promote this I was looking and I saw some you know there's some hats in this you know with rainbow colored hats and in this sort of thing and the
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Cubs are not alone I and I was I didn't realize this I did not realize that major league baseball teams were we're having these these kind of out days these sort of gay days at the ballpark and I found there's one article that said in fact 24 teams 24 major league teams were having having these kinds of gay days
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I didn't realize that they did that so that was that was kind of new to me so you know what we see here is is you know as a ballplayer who goes out and expresses himself as I said
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I think in a pretty mature fashion and in a very most understated fashion and and yet he you know three years later he's still having these comments thrown at him and he's having articles written in in in the mainstream press basically saying what a horrible person he is looking in here there was a another article that I know that I found here oh yeah this this one was this is an article on on Daniel Murphy this is from from Yahoo News you know
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Daniel Murphy still doesn't get it that's that's the headline this is written by Craig Calcaterra for NBC Sports I'll just quote you some of this back in 2015
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Daniel Murphy then with the Mets got on some hot water when he decided it was his job to tell the world that he disagreed with Major League Vice President Billy Beane's lifestyle meaning of course with Beane's homosexuality he added
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I don't think the fact that someone is a homosexual should completely shut the door on investing in them in a relational aspect how generous says
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Mr. Calcaterra I guess dripping with a certain amount of sarcasm and in the this article actually goes on it talks about Billy Beane's position it says
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Beane I guess at the time was the ambassador for inclusion and he he actually congratulates
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Billy Beane for taking diplomatic tact but of course he gives no credit whatsoever to to Daniel Murphy for showing a certain amount of diplomatic tact and which which
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I think he did and yet you know the the fact that he expressed his opinion that happens to go against the prevailing winds of the
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LGBT agenda well that's enough to get you you know shuffled off to I don't know
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I guess what inclusivity Siberia or something you know the gulags whatever your re -education camps you know comrade we have we have great things planned for you comrade it seems to be the the message of the the the press in in dealing with with Daniel Murphy and you know some of this this guy kind of got me to thinking a little bit you know of course you know as Christians you know how it is we you know we we act and and speak when when we're we're confronted with this whole
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LGBT thing and it's a real challenge because you know there really isn't a third way you know there's not a way that we can dodge this you know there's not a way we can say well you know you do your thing we'll do our thing and and you know everything will be just fine you know
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I mean we can't do that and and I actually found a I did find one story where we're
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Billy Bean had said in response to Daniel Murphy's comments he said well you know
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I appreciate the fact that Daniel Murphy spoke his truth you know Daniel Murphy spoke his truth you know that that the operative word there is his and now and I thought to myself when
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I saw that I thought you know that that is such a 21st century statement right I mean isn't that just the kind of thing that you expect to hear in our in this day and age you know you've got your truth
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I have my truth you know we all have truth you know truth truth truth but it's because some truth is is more important than others that seems to kind of be the thought behind that and you know
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I got to thinking to myself some about you know again you know how do we as Christians answer these sorts of things and and and I would say that you know some of that really depends on the circumstances you know
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I I don't know that there is you know when we're confronted with with questions you know someone comes to you and asks you about well you know what do you think about the you know the you know having a gay teammate or something like this yeah and as a
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Christian I mean if someone's an athlete or maybe you're you're not an athlete maybe this is something just comes up at work or maybe in some other setting maybe that's not explicitly
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Christian setting now how do we deal with that how do we how do we respond to something like that well you know as Christians of course we clearly know you know the
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Bible condemns homosexuality I mean that that's not a tough question you know you know what is the
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Bible stance on homosexuality well it's a sin you know it's a sin and you don't have to be you know some some theological genius you know you don't have to be
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Gordon Clark you don't have to be John Robbins or you don't have to be you know
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Martin Luther or John Calvin or John Gill or one of these guys you don't have to be some giant theological giant to understand what the
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Bible says about about homosexuality it's very simple it's a sin yeah and in those who practice that sin will not inherit the kingdom of God you know this this isn't difficult it's not hard the
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Bible's not equivocal on this but you know the question is of course you know as Christians so how do we respond to people and and I think that you know the
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Daniel Murphy now I think what he said was you know as I said
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I think it was very diplomatic I think he was very I think he showed a certain amount of maturity and what he said I think he tried to be gentle and what he said but I think he was also firm you know in fact it's kind of interesting when you read through some of these articles talking about Daniel Murphy they seem incensed incensed they're outraged at the fact that he has not ever walked back his statement you know and they seem to be perplexed by this you know how come this guy hasn't walked back his statement yeah why hasn't he done this well
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I mean the reason is is because he can't you know if he actually is a Christian I mean he can't come out and say well yeah you know that that whole gay lifestyle thing that's just awesome well it's it's not awesome you know it's it's not good it's it is not pleasing to God it is destructive to those who practice it and and they will in this life and it is destructive to them eternally unless they repent and and that's that's what the
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Bible teaches but again you know how do we get back and how do we we we answer these things when it comes up well as I said
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I think it takes real wisdom you know how do we apply the Bible's teaching in our everyday life you know there's there's knowledge and then there's wisdom you know so there's there's there's two different those are two different but closely related things you know knowledge when we talk about the knowledge of the scriptures we talk about the you know the the ideas the propositions the doctrines that that are taught in the scripture but then the question comes up okay well how do we apply these things to our lives you know to the situations that we run into the men to the the circumstances in which we find ourselves you know we have to be able to apply the teaching of the
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Bible you know not just on Sunday morning but throughout the six days of the week and so how do we you know how would we answer something you know it's probably not a bad idea to think a little bit about you know how you would talk to someone if they were to ask you a question say about well you know what would you think about a gay teammate now how would you answer that question
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I think that that's a very good thing very very good question to ask yourself and to consider one one thing and I just want to maybe talk about one option
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I mean there there are a number of different options and and like I say it depends I think on the circumstances that we're faced with on how you answer a question like that but one option and I think this is an option that a lot of Christians maybe don't consider is the fact that you don't have to give an answer you're not always required to give an answer when
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Simon every time somebody asks you a question some of that really depends upon I think the motives of the questioner and and I would suggest that that you can actually get some of that out of out of the
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Sermon on the Mount let me read to you this is a bit out of out of chapter 7 I'm just gonna read here
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Oh verses 1 to 6 of the Sermon on the Mount Matthew chapter 7 judge not that you be not judged for with what judgment you judge you will be judged and with a measure you use it will be measured back to you and why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye but do not consider the plank in your own eye or how can you say to your brother let me remove the speck from your eye and look a plank is in your own eye hypocrite first remove the plank from your own eye and then you will see clearly enough to remove the speck from your brother's eye do not give what is holy to dogs nor cast your pearls before swine as they trample them under their feet and turn and tear you to pieces okay so what does what does this have to say about about how
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Christians should deal with questions when they come up with a sort that say was was posed to to Daniel Murphy well one of the the things of course is that famous passage does not lest you be judged now that that's a course of passage that that unbelievers like to throw up at Christians all the time judge not lest you be judged
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I think it's the only verse in the Bible a lot of them ever know or have ever heard and of course you know
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Jesus is not prohibiting judgment simpliciter that is he's not permitting judgment prohibiting judgment in every case in fact it's impossible not to judge we all have to be judged we all will be judged what this passage is talking about is you have to judge according to the proper standard
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I mean elsewhere in Scripture says you know what Jesus says you know judge with righteous judgment so I mean what this is really warning about is judging according to unbiblical standards we have to judge according to the
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Bible and and Jesus goes on he talks there and I especially want to highlight verse 6 of chapter 7 he says do not give what is holy to the dogs nor cast your pearls before swine as they trample them under the feet and turn and tear you in pieces now
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I think with this passage and this is what I believe that Jesus was talking about here in this passage at least what
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I'd like to at least throw out for your consideration is is I think what Jesus is saying here is is you don't always have to give somebody an answer you know we have that saying about we talk about pearls of wisdom right well we don't have to give what is holy to dogs or cast our our pearls of wisdom you know
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I cast our scriptural beliefs before before swine you know there are people who come and you can see this some in the
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New Testament where you know maybe some of the Pharisees or the Sadducees come to tempt Jesus and they ask him questions and they don't ask him questions because they have a motive because they want to learn from him they they they they have an ulterior motive you know their their motive for asking him a question is not to learn but it's to catch him in a trap you know catch him in a verbal trap and and go
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I guess and what tattle on him to the authorities and get him in trouble or or try to refute him or embarrass him things of this sort of course it never worked but I mean that was their purpose behind asking those questions yeah and sometimes people may ask us as Christians questions not because they want to learn
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Christian doctrine but because they want to they want to get some red meat that they can use to tear us to pieces you know they they want us to to give them a quote that they can come in and beat us over the head with for years to come
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I think that that that also is is I think that's what
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Jesus is talking about here in this passage you know we don't necessarily have to give somebody with ulterior motives an answer you know we don't have to give them the ammunition we don't have to give them the bullets that they can use them to turn around and shoot us with so I mean
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I think at least in some cases I think maybe the best thing to say as Christians is no comment now
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I'm not saying that in every case I mean there's a time where we do have to stand but there are some times maybe when the best thing to do is just say no comment and so I mean that that's something that that is an option that's available to us you know as Christians and I think that's something maybe that we can consider as is maybe a a tool in our tool bag when dealing with with some of these these people who really do have a deep -seated hatred for Christians and and ultimately their their hatred isn't isn't of Christians it's it's really of Christ himself that they hate and that's expressed in the hatred that they have toward his people so anyway that about wraps it up for this week thanks very much for for listening and I really enjoyed having you
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I hope you got something out of this podcast and until next time we we talk again may the spirit of truth guide you in all truth as you read and study