Jerry
Sandusky molested young boys. Jerry Sandusky helped win football games. Penn
State head football coach Joe Paterno knew both of these things; he gave
priority to the latter.
Paterno and other high-ranking officials knew of
Sandusky’s crime in 1998 and did nothing for fourteen years. He molested at
least nine more boys before being convicted last month. An F.B.I. report
reveals that those in charge decided that potential bad publicity for the
university “brand” and its lucrative and legendary football program outweighed
justice for defenseless children.
The problem with institutions is that they tend to
turn into self-preserving powers. Charismatic leaders morph into iconic
abstractions that must be preserved at any price. Somewhere down under the
public shell the private human being drifts into despotism without the
comforting fear of consequences. And cowardly functionaries deny and enable
because justice for one cannot turn the scale against the “greater good.”
Bathsheba was not an underage child but she might as
well have been for the powerlessness of her position. The same holds for her
husband. David and Joab do all the sending in this story: David because he indulges
unwholesome appetites, and Joab because he has to save the system. David
doesn’t do a lot of fighting anymore, but he has become a “brand” that holds
Israel’s enemies at bay. It is expedient,
Joab reasons, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not.
Between the lurid crimes of King David and Coach Sandusky stand
multitudes of ordinary folks just like us. We don’t molest children and we
don’t murder our lovers’ spouses. But we do ask, on a pretty regular basis, the
wrong question about sin: not “What is right?” but “What will happen?” And once
we admit that some justice – even a small one – deserves to die for some
benefit – even a big one – we side with the kingdoms of this world, and with
those who sent Christ to the cross.
Former Florida State coach Bobby Bowden has called for Penn
State to pull down the statue of Paterno that adorns its campus. Scripture
promises that in the end, every idol will fall. Until Christ rules consequences
in every area of my own life, I don’t think I can condemn the ancient system or
the contemporary one.
Repentantly,
Doug
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