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Yesterday Mariano Rivera, the greatest relief pitcher in the history of baseball, was inducted into Baseball's Hall of Fame.
However, the Left-wing press published an article accusing Rivera of "secret far-right politics," just because he is a Bible-believing Christian and supports the State of Israel.
Be informed.
Yesterday was a great day for several of the greatest baseball players in history---they were inducted into Baseball's Hall of Fame.
One of the inductees was Mariano Rivera---one of the greatest in a long line of NY Yankee greats.
The far-Left, but widely read Daily Beast published an article titled, "Inside Baseball Hall of Famer Mariano Rivera's Secret Far-Right Politics."
Regarding his baseball ability, the Beast said
"To this day he is held up as the ideal athlete, bestowed with endless grace and an unflappable demeanor on the mound that belied a burning competitive desire. Rivera represents a nearly unbroken succession of Yankee greatness that stretches all the way back to the 1920s, from [Babe] Ruth and Gehrig to DiMaggio and Mantle, and then Reggie Jackson and Derek Jeter."
However.
The Daily Beast continues:
"Over the past three years, he has also served at the pleasure of a racist president, taken part in thinly veiled propaganda on behalf of an apartheid, far right government in Israel, and gotten chummy with outright bigots and apocalyptic loons."
The Racist.
The accusation of "serving" at the pleasure of a racist president is obviously a reference to Rivera's service on President Trump's Opioid Drug Abuse Commission.
The Beast is so obsessed with destroying this man because of his beliefs, they are willing to overlook the fact that Northeastern University and a number of other news services reported last week that CDC announced a slight decline in overdose deaths. Northeastern University reported, "Drug Overdoses Are Down for the first time in 30 years. Is this the turning point?"
Last January, following the vote, President Trump tweeted this:
"Congratulations to Mariano Rivera on unanimously being elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame! Not only a great player but a great person. I am thankful for Mariano's support of the Opioid Drug Abuse Commission."
Israel.
Unlike Left-wing athletes who are praised for taking anti-American stances, Rivera focused on the game, rather than politics.
Silverman, the writer of the Beast story, describes that as a cover-up, accusing the pitcher of undertaking "conscience efforts to keep this information about his private life under wraps."
Silverman also asserts that Israel has an "apartheid" government---a claim he never backs up because he can't. Jews and Arabs have equal rights in Israel, and Arabs have the vote and serve at the highest levels of government.
And he says:
"The vast majority of Evangelical Christians also believe in a particular messianic biblical prophecy: Jews must rule the Holy Land before Christ can return"---but admits he doesn't know for sure if Rivera shares that belief---"but his support for Israel and the Israel Defense Forces is a matter of public record"---which in the mind of the Left makes him "far-right"---frightening and dangerous in a peaceful progressive world.
The Daily Beast article is even accompanied by a picture of Rivera standing on an Israeli flag, perched on white baseball mound ringed with a blue circle, which makes it appear to be a "yarmulke," the traditional head covering worn by Jewish males.
Apocalyptic loons.
The outright "apocalyptic loons" Silverman is referring to must be Pastor John Hagee---a widely respected Christian pastor and leader whom Silverman attacks as "Islamophobic" using worn-out talking points from decades ago.
John Hagee, the founder and national director of Christians United for Israel (CUFI), said President Trump's decision to move the US Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem earned him "political immortality."
At the time, Hagee explained the importance of Jerusalem to most all evangelical Christians.
He said many "Christians believe that Jerusalem will be the capital city in the Eternal Kingdom, ruled by Jesus Christ. The US Embassy moving to Jerusalem is a very clear indicator of the verse in the book of Deuteronomy (28:13) where God promises; 'I will make you the head and not the tail'."
Hagee said:
"Jerusalem is the epicenter of Christianity. Jerusalem is where Abraham placed Isaac on the altar on the Temple Mount in this city. Jerusalem is where Jeremiah and Isaiah penned the principles of righteousness that became the moral foundations of our civilization...Jerusalem is the city of God."
The pastor also praised Trump for getting America out of the Iran nuclear deal describing Iran as the "head of the snake" in the Middle East. He emphasized that Americans are safer because of Trump's decision...noting that Obama "put into the hands of a terrorist state...billions of dollars that helped pay for advanced weaponry to use against Israel and the United States."
The pastor said allowing Iran to have nuclear weapons would be dangerous because "Iran has a theology that glorifies death"---as opposed to America and Christianity having a theology of life.
He also noted that President Harry Truman's closest friends and political advisers urged him not to recognize Israel as a state, but ignored their advice, and 11 minutes after Ben Gurion read their declaration of independence ---the United States formally recognized them.
He says Trump's action to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem is equally historical and biblically important.
The Daily Beast article gives no evidence of "secret far-right politics." But that's not the point. The point is that people are uninformed, in a hurry, and pick up information through headlines and soundbites.
This story is a classic example.
Serving on a committee that helps reduce the number of drug overdoses in our country is a "racist" act if the Left hates the President who created the committee.
Holding evangelical biblical beliefs is described as holding "secret far-right-politics."
And people who preach and believe biblical evangelical eschatology and support Israel for those reasons are labeled "apocalyptic loons."
Be Informed. Be Vigilant. Be Discerning. Be Faithful. Be Prayerful.