The Tragic Loss of Kobe Bryant An American Professional Basketball Athlete Was Dishonored And Christians Should Stand Against Racism

The memory of Kobe Bryant, an accomplished professional basketball athlete, was dishonored by a photo on a magazine cover that was clearly racist. While this noble athlete had some troubling news stories and private challenges, which I have not fully researched, and which appear to be unresolved, the portrayal of him as an angry warrior as the centerpiece photo mis-representing his entire life, was disrespectful to African-Americans, regardless of his private life.

Basketball is a gentleman's sport accessible to all races and cultures, and not a warrior battle.

To get to the bottom line of what you're saying: yes, racism is bad.

Actually, almost everything is bad and worth condemning. The media misrepresents people and ideas in order to fit an agenda or confirm the bias of their audience.

So while a Christian(s) could condemn something that's wrong, we would have to run a 24/7/365 never-ending dialogue of rebuking the media just to keep up with everything they say that is corrupt and ungodly.

Making people aware of their sins is normally only used in the great commission to inform people of their error, their fallen state, to convict them of their need for repentance and salvation. Once a person has faith in Christ, there is no new condemnation. There is no more judgement because that person has already passed from death into life, forever.

So open-ended condemnation and rebuking without offering a way to salvation and forgiveness has done a lot of damage to the Christian image and misrepresents Christ. This sort of indiscriminate lashing out over hot-button issues in the media is actually unChristian. Though I feel your heart is in the right place, slow down.

The best thing you can do is approach people on an individual basis, show them love, forgiveness, and pray.

Indeed I find an angry rebuking online or over the phone is poor remedy. A one on one yields far more fruit. You need to be personal to get the point across

which magazine?

I can't find a thing that would indicate what you are posting

ps...basketball, along with so many sports, has changed for the worse. referees seem to turn their back often enough as they do in other sports

I've always heard that horse racing was a gentleman's sport (although horses breaking down at the track don't think so)

please, what are you referring to

Basketball is not a gentleman's sport, it is a professional sport. Countless thousands of people have died since the helicopter crash that had lived more valiant and productive lives than Kobe Bryant. The guy cheated on his wife, and was compensated millions of dollars for playing a game. There was not much noble about him. Unless a poll was conducted it cannot be said that any African-Americans was disrespected in anyway. in regarding any photo concerning him.

Thanks for writing and your encouragement. It means a lot to me. I've been trying to slow down for a long time.

I'm sorry but I will try to respond later.

I
It's good to see the good in people.

I agree. I'm not quite up to basketball these days but I hope to be feeling better soon. I enjoy the sport very much.

Perhaps, but unwise to glamorize them.

His "private challenge" was that he cheated on his wife. Did it only happen once? Who knows. Racism is always wrong, if you have a link please share it. I don't recall seeing that. But deeming him "noble" without knowing him personally is a stretch.

@HeraldtheNews hasn't posted the magazine wherein this is allegedly a story. I wouldn't put too much stock in this in that Kobe Bryant was held in high esteem by many in media. It is hard to imagine there would be anything even remotely linked to him after his passing that would appear within the racist parameters the OP claims.

I also agree that Basketball is not a gentleman's sport.

I found nothing when I did a search and in this climate in this country, it would have popped right up

go figure

Sorry about the delay with the requested info, but it may be better to wait. Different info is found in different areas, such as west coast USA and east coast. My objection was to the choice of photos - out of his whole life, the magazine chose a cover photo that depicted him as an angry warrior, possibly in a moment of victory. I have not had time to research the issues, but the photo was clearly racist and offensive to African Americans, regardless of the issues in his life. He was a good basketball player, not a boxing champion. It would be like putting a photo of boxing champion Muhammad Ali in the 10th round of a boxing match on the cover of a magazine to represent his whole life, which would be disrespectful and would not portray his life. Muhammad Ali was a good boxer, but that would not characterize his whole life.

I'm actually neutral on the subject

so is this your opinion that the photo was racist?

What photo?

from the op

I am leaning towards op's own bias here

read the op anyway...it's short ....midget sized in fact

Something about Muhammed Ali in the 10th round. The thing is, each of his fights that didn't result in a knockout of his opponent went the full 15 rounds. This has since been change to a max of 12 rounds because of the brutality of the body.

I just reviewed dozens of photo's of Kobe Bryant on the internet. Most of them seemed respectful of his career as a basketball player.
However, the photo chosen for the cover of the Los Angeles Times newspaper after the tragic loss of his life, along with his young daughter, and I believe 7 other individuals on board the aircraft, was the same photo chosen for the Los Angeles Times Commemorative magazine issue, which was clearly disrespectful of his career as a star basketball player, since the photo chosen, out of hundreds and hundreds over his career, was one that depicted him as an angry warrior in a fit of rage, when he was probably enjoying a moment of victory related to a basketball game, shouting to express the joy of victory. Basketball is a non-contact sport, with strict rules of non-violence and accidental or deliberate contact between players during the game.
The photo chosen to represent his life on both the cover of the Los Angeles Times newspaper, and one of the commemorative issues - and there were more than one photo's for different versions of the commemorative issues, were clearly disrespectful, racist, and dishonored his career and is demeaning to African-American people, regardless of the known, and unknown issues in his life, public and private, and by nature of the violence depicted in the photo, was clearly deliberate. No professional magazine or newspaper would publish such a volatile and disrespectful photo, unless they had malicious intent. Such reckless-endangerment through social media is reprehensible and very dangerous, since it has a destabilizing effect, and I, for one, as a Christian man of God of European descent, on behalf of all cultures, am demanding an immediate apology from the Los Angeles Times, if that has not already occurred.