Little League Pledge Protested

Should Little League inject religion and religious controversy into a sport that should be about fitness and fun for children? Evidently, that exactly what Little League officials think that they should be doing - their oath includes the phrase "I trust in God..." and they have no intention of changing it, no matter how many potential players it excludes.

Leslie Knopp writes for KOMO TV:

Steven's father, Josh, was paging through the Little League Newsletter, when the Little League Pledge caught his eye. Specifically, the first line: "I trust in God..." "They don't have to insert other aspects of religion into the simple joy of playing baseball," said Josh Benaloh. Josh, an agnostic, felt so strongly, he pulled his son out of Little League. "It's coercive. We just don't want to be a part of an organization that promotes religious discrimination," he said.

This portion of the pledge was written in the 1950s, the same era when anti-communist hysteria led to people adding "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance and "In God We Trust" to the nation's money. People regard these additions as "traditional" now, but that's only begging the question. Segregation was once tradition as well, but was that a reason to keep it? No. Being traditional is irrelevant when something is wrong. If someone is going to defend something like the Little League pledge, saying that it is traditional is irrelevant - it must be defends on its merits, not on its age.

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