The Lead

Like so many of the rest of you, when I think of the 76th General Convention of the Episcopal Church, my mind drifts back to the 1991 NBA Finals. Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls v. Magic Johnson and the Los Angeles Lakers.

For several years, the great unanswered question in professional basketball had been when and whether Jordan, widely acknowledged as the best player of his time, would win his championship. Even as the Bulls tore through the league that year, questions lingered as to whether Jordan's individual brilliance, and willingness to take on the world singlehandedly, would somehow handicap his team in playoffs.

The defining moment in those finals came late in the fifth and final game of the series when Jordan drew a double team and, rather than find his way over, around or through the Lakers, passed the ball to John Paxson, perhaps the least-athletically gifted of his teammates who caught it in rhythm, and lofted the jump shot that won the game. (A moment you Bulls' fans can relive at about the four-minute mark of the forgiveably portentous video below the fold.)

In the aftermath of the Bulls' success there was abundant conversation about how Jordan's willingness to trust Phil Jackson's system had taken him to heights he couldn't scale on his own, how Scottie Pippen's emergence as a superstar helped balance the Bulls offense, and how Jordan's decision to tolerate seeing the ball in the hands of lesser players transformed "Michael and the Jordanairres" into a championship team.

And all that was true. But Michael Jordan was still Michael Jordan, and nothing that happened that season could have happened without him.

This is my own particular way of getting to a point I have wanted to make since a coalition of progressive groups helped nudge efforts to include gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Christians fully in the life of the Episcopal Church a few significant spaces forward. There were old groups, and new groups involved in our effort. There were grant writers and grass roots organizers, film makers and media relations experts, legislative tacticians and people who simply pursued quiet conversations with people whom they knew only slightly in the hopes of changing one more mind.

Some of their contributions were glorious and all of them were necessary.

But #23 is still #23, and none of this would have happened without her.

Cheers, champ.

Comments (9)

I have only the slightest grasp of the magnitude of this comparison. But even so, I can tell it is just right. Thank you, Susan.

Posted by Rebecca Wilson | July 23, 2009 9:37 AM

Great analogy - I cry to read it - tears of joy.

Posted by Ann Fontaine | July 23, 2009 9:50 AM

Lovely writing, Jim. You're quite correct. None of this would have happened without #23, and that is greatly to her credit.

Unfortunately, too many in my neighborhood and around the country (and the world!) will use it to lay blame, rather than give credit. That breaks my heart.

June Butler

Posted by GrandmèreMimi | July 23, 2009 11:49 AM

Jim, I join with you in applauding Susan, and with Susan in cheering for all those other amazing team members she mentions in the post to which you linked. I have also been wanting to say that YOU are a star on this team!

The passage of D025 and C056, both by substantial margins, indicates to me that the project of the IRD and its allies to break the Episcopal Church and its social witness has failed. They did a lot of damage, but they did not derail us or permanently halt our movement in the direction we feel the Holy Spirit is leading us. Your study 'FOLLOW THE MONEY' [please insert a link here if you like so that people who haven't read it can find it] made a big difference in illuminating the overt and covert activities of that group, the strategies they used, the motives behind their actions and their sources of funding. This information was essential in enabling many of us to see that behind the emotional debate and the theological arguments over whether all the sacraments should be open to all the baptised there was a racket being run against us on a global scale, and that racket was exploiting cultural and theological differences to undermine and destroy rather than to create genuine Anglican unity. You went on to launch this amazing blog with sustained and detailed coverage of all aspects of the unfolding conflict. We are all in your debt, Jim.

Posted by Jean Lall | July 23, 2009 12:24 PM

I think it's a bit unfair to make an analogy that involves Susan and the team beating the Lakers. :)

I am hoping for at least a three-peat, though. And congratulations to #23 and all who have worked so hard to bring us just a little closer to the Gospel.

Posted by Bill Carroll | July 23, 2009 12:28 PM

God bless Susan for her incredible work, tenacity, and faith!

And God bless Louie Crew, who lit the torch that lights our way.

Paige Baker

Posted by paigeb | July 23, 2009 12:55 PM

Humbled, honored and weepy. Are you happy now??? :)

Truly, thank you -- thank you very much ... and everything we did was standing on the shoulders of giants of justice like Louie Crew, Byron Rushing, Diane Pollard, Marge Christie, Ed Rodman, Michael Hopkins ... etc, etc, etc.

Posted by revsusan | July 23, 2009 1:55 PM

Hall of Famers, all.

Posted by Jim Naughton | July 23, 2009 4:37 PM

Harrumph: I just think, "It should have been My Portland Trailblazers playing the Bulls that year!" >:-/

...but seriously: Kudos & Kongrats to SusanR. We are not worthy! :-D

[Then again---"You have made us worthy to stand before You" (Rite II, Euch Prayer B)---maybe we are. ;-)]

JC Fisher

Posted by tgflux | July 24, 2009 5:38 PM

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