By Michael Patrick O’Brien–
(Editor note: The Boy Monk blog just celebrated its one year anniversary! In honor of the occasion, and in light of the ongoing scandal afflicting the Catholic Church, we invited regular contributors to address the rather timely theme of “When human institutions fail…”)
I did not think Catholic nuns watched much television until one day, in the late 1980s, a friend who also was a Benedictine sister told me she was excited to get home to see “The Cosby Show.” Given recent revelations that the show’s star Bill Cosby is a felonious sexual predator, I often wonder what she would think about the show today.
“The Cosby Show” was a hit NBC-TV sitcom from 1984 to 1992. It featured family life stories about Dr. Cliff Huxtable (played by Cosby), his attorney wife Clair (Phylicia Rashād), their five children, and extended friends and family. For most of its eight year long run, the show was the most popular television program in the country among all demographics.
The show was groundbreaking and memorable for many reasons. It portrayed black people not in a stereotypical or economic class context, but as our neighbors who lived just down the street. A New York Times critic explained in 2014 that “The Cosby Show” featured an important aspect of black American life: “a Black narrative that focused on education instead of poverty. A Black narrative that focused on art instead of gang violence. A Black narrative that focused on love instead of pathology.”
Despite that significance for the black community, another New York Times commentator said the show succeeded not because it was about a black family, but rather because it was about a family that “just happened to be black.” Thus it was that Cliff and Clair Huxtable and family provided thoughtful, funny, and poignant commentary about gender equality, friendship, and marriage, all crossing racial and socio-economic lines.
The Huxtables also gently addressed a range of social problems, including dyslexia, racism, drug use, divorce, single parenthood, and teen pregnancy. The program showcased a role model married couple, supporting each other both professionally and domestically, and raising their children in a realistic way, with love (sometimes tough love) and humor, but with anger and disappointment too.
“The Cosby Show” also just made us feel happy. A 2017 television newspaper critic said that once a week, it kept “at bay the tide of bad news from the outside world while never skimping on the glories and hassles of being alive.”
But then, everything seemed to change. Bill Cosby was accused, arrested, and eventually convicted, of criminal sexual assault, after multiple women complained about him. What did this new reality mean for “The Cosby Show?” It virtually disappeared from the airwaves. To many, the kind and beloved show now seems tainted, perhaps even hypocritical.
It’s really not unlike what has happened to the Catholic Church and its members after numerous reports of child sex abuse by some priests, and a cover up of the misbehavior by cardinals, bishops, and other church leaders. In many ways, the beloved institution had failed, and now seems tainted, perhaps even hypocritical.
Like “The Cosby Show,” albeit in a different way, the Catholic Church was a bona fide “hit” for many years, hundreds of them to be precise. It too had a groundbreaking and important message, one that has survived a history filled with scandal.
Many years ago, while studying theology at the University of Notre Dame, I took a one-year-long Catholic Church history course, covering nearly 2,000 years in just two semesters. During the course, we studied the good and bad about the historical Catholic Church. This ranged from miracles to murders, from saints to sinners, charity to corruption, and inspirations to inquisitions. It was discouraging at times.
Yet, despite all the turmoil caused by the imperfect humans running the Church, a basic perfect truth, a goodness, and a light survived. The essence of the Church’s message prevailed during this tumultuous history, despite the best efforts of some to corrupt or destroy it.
What is this enduring essence? It is the Sermon on the Mount, proclaiming that blessed are the peacemakers, and the merciful, and those who hunger and thirst for justice. It is the soothing words of love and comfort found in the Twenty-third Psalm. It is the Gospel words of Jesus commanding us to love one another and do unto others as we would have them do unto us. It is a letter from St. Paul reminding us that love is patient and kind, and endures all things, and that of the core virtues of faith, hope, and love, “The greatest of these is love.”
Ironically, it is the failure of many to follow that very message that has caused the criminal child abuse and related scandal that now threatens the message itself. History confirms, however, that the Catholic Church is at its best, and overcomes its darkest hours, when it returns and remains firmly anchored to this core message of love.
What happens to that message now, in the confusing aftermath of the terrible misconduct of some in Catholic leadership? Is a good message destroyed or diminished by the fact it was delivered by a flawed messenger, or by a bad shepherd?
Perhaps this is where “The Cosby Show” provides an unexpected lesson. Maybe, just maybe, it is possible to be disappointed and angry at Bill Cosby, but still like and admire Cliff Huxtable and the Huxtable family.
I think my friend, the TV-watching nun, would think so.
