(AgapePress) - A professional baseball team is being criticized for honoring the homosexual community. Yesterday as the Philadelphia Phillies played host to the Milwaukee Brewers, the organization also held its first "Gay Community Day" at Veterans Stadium. A homosexual fan even threw out the ceremonial first pitch of the game.

Ed Vitagliano, director of research for the American Family Association, believes the Phillies sacrificed family values to make a few extra dollars, just as other corporations have done with similar promotions. He calls the Phillies' mercenary action an attempt "to try to attract homosexual customers as if it were 'Ladies Day' at the ball park."

The researcher feels that the ball club put marketing over morality. "Unfortunately one of the dangers of capitalism is if it is detached from any kind of moral foundation -- like a Christian ethic -- it becomes anything for a buck," he says.

Four Christians -- Linda Beckman, Nancy Major, Susan Startzell, and Michael Marcavage -- were thrown out of the stadium during the August 12 event. Within minutes of unfurling their banner, which read "Homosexuality is sin, Christ can set you free," the four were told to take their banner down or have it confiscated. Even though other larger banners with diverse messages were being displayed throughout the park, stadium officials apparently judged the Christian message too offensive and required the group to leave their centerfield seats and be escorted from the park.

Michael Marcavage, a field preacher with the Philadelphia-based pro-family group Repent America, said he and the others were at the game to declare God's Word while bringing a message of hope to homosexuals. And Beckman said the banner, seen by thousands, was "extremely effective." The group did get their money back, along with free tickets to another game, which they say they will use to return later in the season and again bring their scriptural message to the fans at the stadium.

Nevertheless, the gesture does not mitigate the Phillies' choice to offer a stamp of approval to the homosexual lifestyle, and Vitagliano expects that the organization may be induced to further accommodations of the homosexual agenda. The researcher says he would not be surprised to see the Phillies organization pressured at some point to drop its relationship with the Boy Scouts of America. He notes that homosexual activists in Pennsylvania and across the nation have been pressuring cities, businesses, and corporations to cease doing business with the BSA because the scouting organization takes a stand in favor of moral decency.

Vitagliano says the Phillies' choice to host "Gay Community Day" was a grave disservice to young people who attended the game, some of whom will be deceived into entering the homosexual lifestyle and experiencing the repercussions of such risky behavior.

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