The alphabet mafia, those lovely people preaching tolerance and acceptance for all except anyone disagreeing with them on any given point as these cretins must be drawn and quartered, have found a new target to tackle. This time around, it is San Jose Sharks goaltender James Reimer. He decided not to participate in his team’s pregame warmup before its March 18 match against the New York Islanders, as the Sharks were having Pride Night with warmup jerseys designed for the, uh, occasion.
Reimer, who is something of an NHL anomaly in that he is an outspoken Christian, provided a statement as to why he would not wear the Pride Night jersey.
A statement from Goaltender, James Reimer: pic.twitter.com/GwhWxhbmb4
— San Jose Sharks (@SanJoseSharks) March 18, 2023
Naturally, the usual subjects typed their furious replies through clutched handkerchiefs.
The You Can Play Project, which works to promote inclusiveness in sports, said the organization was disappointed in Reimer’s actions.
“Religion and respect are not in conflict with each other, and we are certainly disappointed when religion is used as a reason to not support our community,” the organization said. “Wearing pride jerseys, like any celebration jersey worn, is not about the personal feelings of an athlete; rather the communication from the team that a community is welcome in the arena and the sport.”
We pause here to point out some of the issues with this statement.
- “Religion and respect are not in conflict with each other” — Actually, yes, they are. In this case, the utter refusal of the alphabet mafia to respect the sincerely held beliefs of another is the conflict.
- “… we are certainly disappointed when religion is used as a reason to not support our community.” — No, Christianity does not “support” an aggressive gay lifestyle. It also doesn’t support adulterers, murderers, thieves, selfish self-obsessed pigs, and a whole bunch of other things people do collectively known as sin. That’s kind of the entire point of Jesus’ coming to the earth, dying on the Cross, and rising from the dead. So we can enjoy eternal life with Him despite our sins. Besides, when the Almighty God says, “Yeah, don’t do that; it’s bad for you,” we might want to give Him a listen.
- “Wearing pride jerseys, like any celebration jersey worn, is not about the personal feelings of an athlete; rather the communication from the team that a community is welcome in the arena and the sport.” Okay, let’s look at this. Suppose a professional sports team decided to have a Faith and Family Night and, as part of the event, had its players wear warmup jerseys with John 3:16 emblazoned on them. Is there anyone who didn’t spend their childhood eating lead-based paint chips as breakfast cereal that honestly believes these selfsame organizations wouldn’t be screaming blue murder? The alphabet mafia doesn’t want equality. It seeks unquestioned and unchallenged exclusivity.
In the true modern-day fashion of never letting a virtue-signaling opportunity go to waste, whoever runs the Sharks’ Twitter account let their rainbow flag fly.
#SJSharks Pride Night Twitter starts now🏳️🌈💙 pic.twitter.com/wUOSaRAjaJ
— San Jose Sharks (@SanJoseSharks) March 19, 2023
By my count, the account proceeded to pump out 41 tweets, each partly or wholly devoted to the alphabet mafia’s assorted talking points. To say the response ratio was something less than enthusiastic would be a tremendous understatement, but this gentleman said it best out of all the people who tweeted back.
I’m gay. Please stop. This is cringe and just making the anti-LGTBQ+ crowd even more aggressive. You’re a hockey team’s Twitter account.
— Chris Kreider Enjoyer (@IgorShesterKING) March 19, 2023
This isn’t the first time this season that an NHL player has declined to don the rainbow. In January 2023, Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Ivan Provorov chose not to participate in his team’s Pride Night warmup. Like Reimer, Provorov cited his faith as directing him not to endorse the gay lifestyle. Like Reimer, he was hammered in the press. Hopefully, Reimer will be able to enjoy the same last laugh as Provorov.
By the way, Reimer didn’t play in the game, which the Sharks lost to the Islanders 4-1. San Jose has the second-worst record in the NHL. Which, as a Sharks fan, is something in which I take no pride.
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