Penn State acted in accordance with their values
In what everyone is hoping will be the end of a sad and twisted saga, former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky was recently sentenced to 30-60 years in prison for molesting numerous children. The scandal, and its cover-up by the school's administration, brought down legendary head coach Joe Paterno, the university president and other administrators, and has nearly destroyed what had been one of the top college football programs in the nation. As details of the cover-up unfolded - particularly the conclusion of ex-FBI Director Louis Freeh that Paterno himself concealed Sandusky's crimes - the public was increasingly shocked and horrified. As we all should be.
But many were also left scratching their heads. How could otherwise respected leaders have participated in covering up such monstrous actions? Beneath the veneer of integrity, was Coach Paterno so greedy that he would trade the innocence of young boys for success? Beneath the veneer of intellectual excellence, was University President Graham Spanier actually stupid enough to think that covering this up was a good idea? Gary Moore suggested that the involvement of large sums of money in college athletics is the source of the corruption. But plenty of industries, not to mention single corporations, routinely handle larger sums with far more minor scandals. When the last time you were afraid to take your children to McDonald's because they did $27 billion of business last year?
The scary truth is that Penn State was not hypocritical. On the campus of a major public university, athletics is pretty much the only thing that passes for religion. As theologian Michael Novak has observed, sports satisfy our longing for sacred time and sacred space. And as George Marsden described in The Soul of the American University, sports eventually filled the naked space left by higher education's abandonment of a Christian center. Most institutions of higher learning no longer have any required classes, much less required chapel attendance, and cannot identify any core of knowledge or values they wish to pass on to students. With the concurrent growth of Marxist social views and the proliferation of student groups with their own grievance-based politics, the modern uni-versity has nearly degenerated into a "versity" with nothing to unify it... except sports.
Simultaneously, nearly every major university thoroughly inculcates their students in moral relativism and seeks to banish any talk of moral absolutes. Simplistic notions of right and wrong have been replaced by nuanced shades of gray, which over time all start to blend into the same shade of whitewash.
And to top it all off, here was a man satisfying his own particular sexual orientation (albeit one that is still considered deviant).
So what's the administration to do? Preserve, at all costs, the one thing actually considered sacred on their campus. Protect the high priest (Paterno) and his assistant priest (Sandusky). And dismiss all talk of "the right thing to do here" as the product of unsophisticated notions. And if the innocence of a few young men must be sacrificed on the altar of the venerable institution and its religion - well, what's so bad about a few early sexual experiences?
As the scandal broke, students rioted, and when the NCAA sanctions were announced, all those idealistic young future leaders were aghast - some apparently even weeping. One would have thought that the real victims were the football players rather than the children who were raped.
The bottom line is that Penn State acted in accordance with its deepest values as an institution. Apalling? Yes. Shocking? No.
But many were also left scratching their heads. How could otherwise respected leaders have participated in covering up such monstrous actions? Beneath the veneer of integrity, was Coach Paterno so greedy that he would trade the innocence of young boys for success? Beneath the veneer of intellectual excellence, was University President Graham Spanier actually stupid enough to think that covering this up was a good idea? Gary Moore suggested that the involvement of large sums of money in college athletics is the source of the corruption. But plenty of industries, not to mention single corporations, routinely handle larger sums with far more minor scandals. When the last time you were afraid to take your children to McDonald's because they did $27 billion of business last year?
The scary truth is that Penn State was not hypocritical. On the campus of a major public university, athletics is pretty much the only thing that passes for religion. As theologian Michael Novak has observed, sports satisfy our longing for sacred time and sacred space. And as George Marsden described in The Soul of the American University, sports eventually filled the naked space left by higher education's abandonment of a Christian center. Most institutions of higher learning no longer have any required classes, much less required chapel attendance, and cannot identify any core of knowledge or values they wish to pass on to students. With the concurrent growth of Marxist social views and the proliferation of student groups with their own grievance-based politics, the modern uni-versity has nearly degenerated into a "versity" with nothing to unify it... except sports.
Simultaneously, nearly every major university thoroughly inculcates their students in moral relativism and seeks to banish any talk of moral absolutes. Simplistic notions of right and wrong have been replaced by nuanced shades of gray, which over time all start to blend into the same shade of whitewash.
And to top it all off, here was a man satisfying his own particular sexual orientation (albeit one that is still considered deviant).
So what's the administration to do? Preserve, at all costs, the one thing actually considered sacred on their campus. Protect the high priest (Paterno) and his assistant priest (Sandusky). And dismiss all talk of "the right thing to do here" as the product of unsophisticated notions. And if the innocence of a few young men must be sacrificed on the altar of the venerable institution and its religion - well, what's so bad about a few early sexual experiences?
As the scandal broke, students rioted, and when the NCAA sanctions were announced, all those idealistic young future leaders were aghast - some apparently even weeping. One would have thought that the real victims were the football players rather than the children who were raped.
The bottom line is that Penn State acted in accordance with its deepest values as an institution. Apalling? Yes. Shocking? No.
Labels: Culture
posted by Scott M Roney | 12:01 PM
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