As we covered here at Not the Bee, several San Francisco Giants pitchers found themselves facing criticism this week after writing references to Genesis 9 on their hats during the team's Pride Night celebration.

The verses point to God's covenant with Noah and the rainbow that serves as a sign of that everlasting covenant. The players did not refuse to play, nor did they disrupt the event or attack anyone. They simply chose to passively express a biblical conviction during a night dedicated to celebrating a dramatically different set of beliefs.

That was enough to earn a public rebuke from The New York Times and Athletic columnist Grant Brisbee.

According to Brisbee, the players had "missed the point" of Pride Night. Completely lacking self-awareness, he accused them of turning the evening into an "us versus them" conflict and argued that they had failed to appreciate the event's purpose of promoting belonging, support, and inclusion.

His criticism reveals a glaring contradiction that has become increasingly common in modern conversations about diversity and acceptance. At one point, Brisbee wrote that Pride Night is about "bringing more people into the group and telling them they belong in the same stadium, rooting for the same team."

I'm sure Brisbee believes that. But with as admirable as the sentiment sounds, the obvious question is whether Christians who hold orthodox biblical beliefs are included within that vision of belonging.

Brisbee's answer is no.

According to his words, the simple act of communicating a biblical conviction that runs contrary to the cultural zeitgeist is a moral failure requiring shame and rebuke.

The inconsistency is difficult to miss. A night devoted to celebrating the "inclusion" of sexual appetites has very little room to include those whose religious convictions lead them to disagree with those sexual appetites.

The problem here extends well beyond baseball.

The real test of a culture's commitment to freedom of conscience comes when someone publicly expresses a conviction that runs against the moral currents of the moment. Applauding beliefs that already enjoy widespread approval requires no sacrifice. The harder task is preserving space for principled disagreement without immediately treating dissent as hostility.

Brisbee repeatedly assumes that the players' actions stemmed from judgment or hostility. What never seems to occur to him is that these men take their faith seriously and genuinely care about what Scripture teaches.

That possibility matters because the issue here is ultimately theological.

• Brisbee operates from a moral framework in which love is largely defined by affirmation and celebration.

• Christianity has historically understood love in a more comprehensive way.

Christians are commanded to love their neighbors, serve their neighbors, pray for their neighbors, and treat every person as someone made in the image of God. They are also commanded to speak truthfully about good and evil and to submit their moral judgments to God's revealed will.

Those obligations are inseparable.

This is where Brisbee fundamentally misunderstands the Christian position. He appears unable to imagine that someone might genuinely love his neighbor while refusing to celebrate behavior that Scripture identifies as sinful.

The MLB, sadly, is in the same boat:

Yet Christians make that distinction every day, including in their own lives. Faithful Christians do not celebrate greed, adultery, dishonesty, drunkenness, pride, or any number of sins condemned by Scripture.

The prophet Isaiah warned against precisely this temptation when he wrote, "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil."

Notice that he is not saying "woe to those who do evil things." God is condemning those who celebrate that which He calls sinful, or evil.

That warning remains relevant because every generation faces pressure to adjust God's standards to align with prevailing cultural assumptions. Christians who believe Scripture is God's Word simply cannot participate in that project.

Brisbee may believe they are wrong, but disagreement does not transform conviction into hatred - a reality Brisbee would undoubtedly cite should someone accuse him of hating these Christian players.

Near the end of his column, Brisbee tells pitcher Landen Roupp to "dig deeper."

The irony is that these players have already dug deeply enough into Scripture to discover that their ultimate allegiance belongs to Christ.

Their decision to reference Genesis was not an act of hostility. It was an act of faithfulness.

And faithfulness is becoming increasingly costly in a culture where "inclusion" is only extended to those willing to affirm the approved narrative.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Not the Bee or any of its affiliates.