Posted on 02/02/2020 3:44:51 AM PST by Kaslin
As the media remember Kobe Bryant’s legacy, some of them are acknowledging his faith.
Americans mourned the death of the basketball legend after the media confirmed that both he and his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, perished in a helicopter crash. Seven others also died in the Jan. 26 crash in California. While the tragedy made waves in the news, a more hopeful undercurrent focused on Bryant’s relationship with God.
Outlets including CNN, The Washington Post, Fox News, and the New York Post mentioned the 41-year old’s faith.
Bryant retired in 2016 after playing with the Los Angeles Lakers for 20 seasons – but not before he set himself apart with five NBA championships and two Olympic gold medals, among other achievements. The sports star was raised Catholic, the Catholic News Agency reported. In 2001, he married his wife, Vanessa, at St. Edward Catholic Church in California, ESPN added. They had four daughters and stayed together despite considering divorce in 2011.
During a 2015 interview with GQ, Bryant revealed that he especially relied on his faith in 2003, after his arrest when a hotel employee accused him of rape in Colorado. While he admitted to a sexual encounter, he said that he had believed it to be consensual. The charges were later dropped and Bryant issued an apology. At the time, he said, he was “terrified” of going to jail.
“The one thing that really helped me during that process—I’m Catholic, I grew up Catholic, my kids are Catholic—was talking to a priest,” he told GQ.
He described his interaction with the priest, which he said was “actually kind of funny.”
“He looks at me and says, ‘Did you do it?’ And I say, ‘Of course not,’” Bryant remembered. “Then he asks, ‘Do you have a good lawyer?’ And I’m like, ‘Uh, yeah, he’s phenomenal.’”
“So then he just said, ‘Let it go. Move on. God’s not going to give you anything you can’t handle, and it’s in his hands now. This is something you can’t control. So let it go,’” Bryant recalled. “And that was the turning point.”
During that same interview, when asked about friendships, Bryant said he knew “like minds,” or “People who feel like God put them on earth to do whatever it is that they do.”
Following the Colorado accusation, Bryant said that he learned from the experience that “God is great,” in another 2006 interview, Faithwire reported.
He elaborated after the interviewer, Stephen A. Smith, prodded, “I mean everyone knows that, but the way you know it now, did you know it before that incident took place?”
“You can know it all you want, but until you have to pick up that cross that you can’t carry and he picks it up for you and carries you and the cross, then you know,” Bryant said.
His faith was something he wanted to be remembered for, he revealed in a 2015 ESPN interview.
“I wanted to be remembered as a player that didn't waste a moment. I didn't waste a day, and I felt extremely blessed by the God-given talent,” he said.
One priest revealed that Bryant had prayed at church just hours before his death, according to outlets like CNN. Father Steve Sallot told the local CBS affiliate that Bryant, a “man of faith,” was a frequent parishioner at Our Lady Queen of Angels in Newport Beach.
“I saw him yesterday (Sunday) before the 7 a.m. mass,” Fr. Sallot said. “We chatted for a couple of minutes, and then he moved on.”
“We shook hands, and I saw that he had blessed himself because there was a little holy water on his forehead,” the priest continued. “So I knew that he’d gone into the chapel to pray and came out and blessed himself.”
Singer Cristina Ballestero took to Instagram on Jan. 26 to share her story of seeing Bryant in church.
“I wanna tell a story about the time I met Kobe Bryant. I was sitting in the very back of Holy Family Cathedral in Orange, CA, on a WEEKDAY mass,” she wrote.
“As we went up to communion, he waited for me to go,” she remembered, saying that in the Catholic Church, “this is a respectful thing men do in church as a sign of respect to women.” He also commented on her “beautiful voice,” she added.
On social media, Bishop Timothy Freyer confirmed that Bryant was a "committed Catholic who loved his family and loved his faith,” CBN reported.
"A longtime Orange County resident and parishioner in our Diocese, Kobe would frequently attend Mass and sit in the back of the church so that his presence would not distract people from focusing on Christ's Presence,” the bishop added.
Similarly, Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez called Bryant a "very good Catholic, a faithful Catholic,” reported Catholic News Agency.
Following his death, sports ministry leaders remembered asking Bryant about his faith during the 2012 London Olympics, where he won one of his gold medals.
"I said, ‘Kobe, have you ever invited the Lord Jesus Christ to come into your life as your Lord and Savior?’” Randy Shepherd of Crossfire Ministry asked, as WLOS News 13 reported. “And he said, ‘Yes, I've done that.’"
Celebrated by the media when it suits them, black man religion, faith, otherwise they hate it
I seriously don’t get this. How can the fact that he went to Mass that morning console people who are atheists? It just isn’t logical but then again logic ain’t exactly their long suit, so to speak.
Also, why isn’t he being torn to pieces, figuratively, for being part of a hatey hating hatefilled religion?
Not logical but they are Rats, after all, so “to be expected”, I guess.
Life is weird.
All the time.
Maybe there’s hope for the media yet. RIP Kobe.
Even so, Jesus is the only One who can save us, even after a fatal helicopter crash.
Guess faith is not a joke to CNN and Don Lemon when it’s Kobe.
“And he said, ‘Yes, I've done that.’"
That's good enough for this PROT!
It seems so...
25 When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”
26 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. 27 Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”
28 Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”
29 Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”
30 So they asked him, “What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? 31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’[c]”
32 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
34 “Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.”
35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. 36 But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. 37 All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. 38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40 For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”
He described his interaction with the priest, which he said was “actually kind of funny.”
“He looks at me and says, ‘Did you do it?’ And I say, ‘Of course not,’” Bryant remembered.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Hopefully someone along the way informed Kobe that God frowns on adultery as well as rape. (He was denying raping the woman but acknowledged that they had sex)
“... For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”
.... Amen.
I wonder if he as talking to his priest or his lawyer when he settled out of court from the lawsuit the rape victim filed. And why did he settle if he was not guilty and the media was shut out of the case information?
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/27/sports/basketball/kobe-bryant-rape-case.html
“Prosecutors dropped the case just before it was scheduled to go to trial, citing the accuser’s unwillingness to testify. A lawsuit the woman filed against Bryant ended in a settlement, the details of which have never been made public.”
The only excuse is a high profile person may not be able make it to the court proceedings. But I’ve seen many times the judge scheduled it for when he could, so no excuse. Making him out to be a good religious person is like putting a bow on a pig.
rwood
I wonder if he as talking to his priest or his lawyer when he settled out of court from the lawsuit the rape victim filed. And why did he settle if he was not guilty and the media was shut out of the case information?
I wonder if President Trump was talking to his priest or his lawyer when he settled out of court with women numerous times ? And why did he settle if he was not guilty?
Bryant is just as deserving of a second chance as POTUS. Like Trump his life should not be judged by these incidents.
I agree 100% that Kobe deserved a second chance but also he was innocent until proved guilty. That never happened because the accuser went for the money and refused to testify against Kobe. He claimed the sex was consensual and maybe it was. A young girl could have been star struck and let things go farther then she intended. That could happen. It isn’t rape but I think Kobe knew he was pushing things too far.
We’ll never know what happened in that room. It seemed like an equitable outcome to an ambiguous he said/she said situation. She got a pile of cash and he got public humiliation & retribution from his wife. And it was certainly a lesson learned for both of those young people.
‘Like Trump his life should not be judged by these incidents.’
Okay, so what do you place your trust in him bye? Our history is who we are, not what the media makes us. I wasn’t discussing the rape case as much as that he tried to hide behind God to lesson the appearance of the act that was hideous. I do fault Tiger Woods for the same thing. He, also, made a promise to God and his family he ignored for his own pleasure. I don’t fault Dustin Johnson for what he did as he made no commitments before having an affair with a fellow golfer’s wife. I would have if he attempted to justify it with the use of God and that’s a blasphemy.
rwood
So; what’s the problem?
The LEGAL charge was RAPE.
THAT was what he was questioned about.
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