What do the Episcopal Church and Kobe Bryant have in common? Both are being forced to face the consequences of earlier moral commitments that may take them to places they never wanted to go. For the Episcopal Church, the initial commitment was to social equality. For Kobe, it was marital fidelity. Next year at this time, the Episcopalians may be splintered into several factions, and Kobe could be on permanent loan to the Colorado penal system. Like most conundrums, by the time the shouting started, it really was too little too late, because the ending was ordained by the beginning.
The Episcopal Church has historically helped lead the spiritual charge for social change. When Martin Luther King Jr. marched on Selma, Episcopal clergy were right alongside him. When women demanded a more authoritative voice in mainstream churches, the Episcopal Church was among the first, albeit reluctantly, to hear their cry. It was not surprising that the Episcopalians were also among the first to accept openly gay people as leaders in their church.
And so, in Minneapolis on August 6, the Episcopal Church of the U.S.A. confirmed the openly gay Rev. Gene Robinson as a bishop. The historic vote, hailed variously as a “calling by God” or the beginning of the apocalypse (hey, in a metaphysical way, isn’t that the same thing?), the Episcopalians made the front page of every newspaper in America. Strangely enough, nearly everyone acted as though the vote caught them by surprise. Considering the past forty years of Episcopal commitment to equality and basic human nature, this decision was a foregone conclusion.
Can an organization make a commitment to equality for all (as the Episcopalians say they do), and then deny equal access to its entry-level management position (priest)? Well, enough church members did not think so, and admitted openly gay people like Robinson into its divinity schools, knowing that eventually, they would want to be priests. And once they became priests, they would want all the perquisites that come with the job—including the chance to move up the food chain.
How does this have any possible connection with hoopster Kobe Bryant? Think about it: Kobe, like the Episcopal Church, also made a commitment, one that involved the words “honor” and “forsaking all others.” Once he made that commitment, he certainly knew that most people, especially his wife and the companies who paid him millions to hawk their stuff, expected him to keep it. He’s not married to his sponsors, but they’re certainly married to a reputable image of him; that’s why they pay the big bucks.
Yes, basketball made Kobe a prosperous sports star, but what made him really famous and really, really rich were his endorsements. The Nikes of the world realize that being tight with a clean-living good guy makes you look like a good guy, too. And Kobe, unlike the Dennis Rodmans of sportsdom, epitomized clean living. He spoke Italian, had a drop-dead-gorgeous wife, and boycotted the after-game parties where his teammates consumed booze and women with equal gusto.
Therefore, once Kobe made his decision (or more likely, continued to make his decision) to trash his commitment, there were several possible consequences. Some were immediate, such as sexual gratification. Others—for example, disease, pregnancy, divorce, scandal, loss of endorsements—were only possibilities and, Kobe apparently thought, worth the risk.
What is the lesson learned from these two summer headline grabbers? First, publicly committing to high ideals creates the entirely reasonable expectation that one will live by them, too. In other words, when the Episcopal Church says, as it does on its official website, that its mission is to “restore all people to unity with God,” then does it have any choice but to make its priesthood (and higher positions such as bishop) accessible without regard to how gay is too gay? And when Kobe promised to forsake all others, and then made that commitment an integral part of a public image worth millions, can he honestly be surprised when his fans and his corporate sponsors drop him like a used jock strap?
This brings us to the most important lesson of the past six weeks. One should never forget when making a commitment—either to treating every person the same or being intimate with just one—that keeping it can be just as costly as breaking it.
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