Not much method to Methodist madness over team name

Washington Times:

The United Methodist Church has rejected Richmond for its 2012 international conference because the city's minor league baseball team is named the Braves.
"Many Native Americans, if you ask them what they think about team mascots, will tell you that they find [them] to be demeaning," said Stephen Drachler, a spokesman for the United Methodist Church.
Apparently, nobody asked Virginia's Monacan Nation, located near Lynchburg about 130 miles west of Richmond.
Kenneth Branham, Monacan chief, yesterday said, "The mascot thing has been blown out of proportion."
The problem is not that teams have American Indian names and mascots, but how those mascots act, Mr. Branham said.
"It is not so much the name as the silly way they act," he said. "When children see that, they think that is how Indians act."
The Richmond Braves don't have a mascot. They have a duck -- "a big, happy, yellow" one named "Diamond Duck," Braves spokesman John Emmett said.
What's more, the mascot for the Atlanta Braves -- the Major League parent team of the Richmond Braves -- is a large, talking baseball named "Homer."
A United Methodist Church panel last week announced that holding the General Conference in Richmond would violate a 2004 resolution barring Methodist events in cities where professional sports teams use American Indian names or symbols.

...
How can you take a church policy like that seriously?

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