Casey Blake Hates Brian Wilson's Dad. And Jesus, Too.

Over on Yahoo! Sports, the "Big League Stew" writes about a confrontation between San Francisco Giants pitcher Brian Wilson and Los Angeles Dodgers third baseman Casey Blake. Evidently, when Wilson earns a save, he crosses his arms in a gesture that he says is intended to honor "both his Christian faith and his late father." Looking at the picture below, it appears more to me that Wilson is confused about which direction he's supposed to go:

At any rate, Blake must have interpreted the gesture as a kind of showboating, because after hitting a home run off of Wilson he made the same gesture in the dugout, shown here:

Wilson, originally quoted in the San Jose Mercury News, insistst that his tribute is innocent:

"It shows no disrespect toward anybody. It's all positive praise. It's not for showboating. It's not to start an epidemic. It's just me getting a quick message out to the world and to Christ and that's it. I just thought, `What more perfect time to display my faith than at the end of a game?'"

I can't rip Wilson for finding his own way to honor and remember his father. I get that. But what he fails to grasp is that by "getting a quick message out to the world" he is inviting a potential response. It's a basic rhetorical proposition: symbols, be they words, images, or even gestures, are significant only when they are addressed to someone. Wilson acknowledges this by noting the gesture is for "the world" (big audience, by the way). Unfortunately, this reduces communication to the all-too-common "getting your message out" definition (one which I have seen far many times in undergraduate classrooms). In other words, when we address a public with an intentional message that has an explicit meaning, we simultaneously create the possibility for a response.

Perhaps Blake's response isn't particularly friendly or, in light of the fact that the gesture refers to Wilson's father, sensitive. However, and whether he intended this or not, Blake's defiance speaks to the discomfort that accompanies the now nearly-ubiquitous displays of faith that one sees on the baseball diamond. From the orchestrated "Faith Nights," to the nightly fingers pointed to the sky, baseball players sure love to give a shout out to Jesus. Not all believers, including Christians, think this is the "positive praise" Wilson claims it is. Many find that it trivializes Christianity, reducing it to nothing more than the equivalent of a touchdown celebration dance. And non-believers don't find much to identify with either. Just imagine the reverse scenario: some superstar declares he's an atheist and draws a pentagram into the infield dirt after every home run. You think that would count as "no disrespect toward anybody?"

Brian Wilson is entitled to his Christian faith. Moreover, he's entitled to make public declarations about his faith. This is not necessarily disrespectful. What is disrespectful, however, is the idea that the rest of us have to be quiet about it.