The Raven Foundation

 

This is a tragedy.  It is one of the great sorrows in my life.  With the benefit of hindsight, I wish I had done more.

 

-Joe Paterno

 

It is hard not to take the Penn State scandal personally.  I have two sons - ages four and two, and a daughter - age 1.  They are three of the most important people in my life.  I’m also a youth pastor.  It may sound hokey, but I don’t care, I believe God has put my children and those 40-50 middle school, high school, and college kids in my life to not only guide them, but to also protect them spiritually, emotionally, and physically.

 

So, I’m pissed.  When Jerry Sandusky decided to start The Second Mile, “a charity dedicated to helping children with absent or dysfunctional families,” he promised to help children, not abuse them.  Joe Paterno’s claims that this is “one of the great sorrows in my life” rings hollow.  He’s known about Sandusky’s behavior since at least 2002, possibly since 1998.   I can’t help but think that the only reason Paterno wishes he had done more was because he got caught.

 

Many people claim that Paterno is a scapegoat for Penn State.  There is no doubt in my mind that he is.  Should he have done more?  Yes.  But many people at Penn State, from janitors to graduate assistants to coaches to the Athletic Director to the Senior Vice President for Finance and Business, knew of Sandusky’s behavior.  What was Sandusky’s punishment?  They took away his keys.  His freakin’ keys.

 

Everyone at Penn State who knew about this horrible situation failed on a monumental scale.  They failed to protect the most innocent and vulnerable members of our society – our children.

 

But the moral failure to protect our children is even bigger than Penn State University.  In 1998, one of Sandusky’s victims arrived at his home with wet hair.  He told his mother what happened, who immediately called the police.  (Apparently, the only people who have the moral conviction to call the police in this situation are the parents.)  She convinced the police to eavesdrop on a conversation between her, her boy, and Sandusky.  It was then that police detectives Robert Schreffler and Ralph Ralston heard Sandusky admit to showering alone with her son and other boys.  They also heard him say, “I understand.  I was wrong.  I wish I could get forgiveness.  I know I won’t get it from you.  I wish I were dead.”

 

Also in 1998, Jerry Lauro, an investigator working for the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare, interviewed Sandusky along with Schreffler.  Sandusky admitted to showering naked with boys and hugging them.

 

Later in the same year, the case was closed after District Attorney Ray Gricar decided not to pursue criminal charges against Sandusky.  I don’t know specifically why Gricar closed the case.  I hope I’m wrong, but I suspect he wanted to cover it up.

 

The cover up is bigger than Penn State.  Many have blamed Paterno and everyone else at Penn State for doing the minimum - for not going to the police.  Well, someone did go to the police and the police did nothing.  The District Attorney did nothing.

 

Now, it would be very easy for me to get all moralistic on you and say that these are horrible human beings who covered up someone taking advantage of children for the sake of a Penn State’s reputation.  And if I did that, my moralism would be justified.  I don’t blame anyone who goes down that road. But here’s the very sad and depressing thing about this cover up.  When a janitor all the way through a Vice President of an academic institution cover up this tragedy, and then police, detectives, and a District Attorney cover it up, well, who’s to say I wouldn’t have gotten caught up in that despicable cover up.  Who’s to say that you or I wouldn’t have done the same despicable thing had we been in that position?

 

I’m afraid that this cover up is bigger than Penn State and police departments and District Attorneys.  I’m afraid that this is a problem that infects all human cultures.  Firing Paterno and others at Penn State isn’t going to solve the problem.  Only you and I can do that.  If we really want to solve the problem then we need to alter our way of life.  We need to choose to move away from spiritually, emotionally, and verbally abusing one another and we need to move toward caring for one another.  We need to support one another and hold one another to account in this endeavor.  Until we have that cultural change, this type of abuse and cover up will only continue.

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Adam discusses the recent sex scandals among high profile men. He claims that there is more to sex scandals than men behaving badly. We live in a hyper-sexed culture. Sexual images on billboards, magazines, television shows, movies, and music all create a hyper-sexed culture. Blaming a few men distracts us from the bigger picture. What's the solution? Adam claims it is through spiritual discipline. What do you think?

 

In her book How to Become a Scandal: Adventures in Bad Behavior, Laura Kipnis describes why we all like a good scandal.  The influence of Rene’ Girard and mimetic theory are apparent when she writes:

 

As scandal reveals, the social world is in an eternal search for scapegoats.  This makes it a brutal place, to be sure, but the scapegoat process is intrinsic to every social group.  Societies have always purified themselves through shows of moral indignation, dumping their burdens off onto designated candidates – all the abnormality and moral disability that threatens to poison the community.  Those cast in this unlucky role don’t have to be innocent victims either; a scapegoat’s crimes can be entirely real.  If it’s the scandalizer’s fate to enact the self-sabotaging tendencies that vex the human personality, then what better sacrificial figure? (196).

 

What makes Kipnis’s statement, and thus mimetic theory, so compelling is its universal nature.  Human cultures are in “an eternal search for scapegoats” so that we can purify ourselves through “moral indignation, dumping [our] burdens off onto designated candidates.”  Currently, the designated candidate in the sports world is LeBron James.

 

A few years ago, LeBron was one of the most liked NBA players.  Sports Illustrated bestowed upon him the moniker “The Chosen One” when he was a junior in high school.  The media and NBA fans loved him while he played for the Cleveland Cavaliers, quickly dubbing him “King James.”

 

But there’s an unfortunate reality to being king – kings make really good scapegoats.  We can all unite in mimetic admiration of the king.  But the same mimetic impulse allows us to quickly unite in condemnation against the king.  LeBron is now the now the scapegoat of the NBA.  One website claims, “But I’m sure that we can all say that LeBron James is hated by 90 percent of NBA fans.  (The other 10 percent being Heat fans.)”

 

And, as Kipnis claims, a scapegoat doesn’t have to be innocent.  Lebron is a scandal because he didn’t leave Cleveland on good terms.  He signed with the Miami Heat, where he would play with two other superstars: Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh.  Most people expected (maybe “feared” is a better word) that the three would be unstoppable.  James, Wade, and Bosh expected that, too.  The Miami Heat organization held a party for the three, where Heat fans packed the American Airlines Arena in Miami and the three promised 7-8 championships before they were done.

 

 

Well, the first championship will have to wait.  The Miami Heat lost in 6 games to the Dallas Mavericks.  (Interestingly, Cavalier and Maverick fans found unity in their shared hatred for LeBron and the Heat as they facetiously called the Dallas Mavericks the “Mavaliers” during the championship series.  How’s that for unity against a common enemy?)  Then LeBron said this after game 6 when he was asked if he was upset “that so many people are happy to see [him] fail”:

 

Absolutely not.  Because at the end of the day, all the people that was rooting on me to fail … have to wake up tomorrow and have the same life that they had before they woke up today. They have the same personal problems they had today. I'm going to continue to live the way I want to live and continue to do the things that I want to do with me and my family and be happy with that.  They can get a few days or a few months or whatever the case may be on being happy about not only myself, but the Miami Heat not accomplishing their goal, but they have to get back to the real world at some point.

 

Well, that didn’t gain LeBron any friends.  It offended many people, and LeBron was forced to backtrack.  But here’s why the statement was so painful for many: Because there is a hint of truth in it.  As Kipnis points out, the reason we love a scandal is because it allows us to dump our burdens off onto another person.  In other words, our shared hatred of another allows us to project all our personal problems upon them.  In that sense, LeBron was absolutely right.

 

But LeBron was wrong in another sense.  Our culture is addicted to scandals.  Unfortunately, our scandals aren’t isolated to politicians, athletes, or celebrities.  Some of our worst scandals are against family members, co-workers, neighbors, and friends.  The sad thing is that scandals and scapegoating is our real world.  It’ll take us “a few days or a few months or whatever the case may be” and we will move on from LeBron.  But, unless we break the cycle by finding more creative and compassionate ways to form unity, we are destined to find for more scandals and scapegoats.