By Charles Moncrief
For the last twenty years I've imagined the way I
would teach a homiletics (sermon-preaching) course in a seminary. At the
beginning of the course I'd give each student the Bible texts and the scheduled
preaching dates. On the date of each sermon, at the beginning of class I'd give
the student preacher a breaking news story. This simulates real-world
experience, in which a congregation, stunned by shocking news, hopes to hear a
word of authority or wisdom from the person in the pulpit. Suddenly, all of the
previous week’s preparation may just go down the tubes. Gone is the witty and
pithy erudition, replaced by something that must speak to a genuine human need.
Such is the case with my article for November, as we must all come to terms
with the revelations from Penn State. Maybe I'll submit that article in a
future month.
The trouble is, I'm still trying to collect my thoughts as
much as anybody else. And every attempt eludes me when I try to make a measured
response to something as appalling as the reports coming out of this fine
university. Even worse, no matter what I write, it’s obsolete and inaccurate
when the next revelation comes.
Here are a few basics that I understand as I write (or as I
write at this on the night of November 10.
1. Joe Paterno
has been fired as head football coach at Penn State.
2. Jerry Sandusky ,
an assistant coach at Penn State, has been arrested for child molestation.
3. Coach Paterno knew
something inappropriate had occurred and did not adequately respond.
4. Mike McQueary ,
a 28-year-old former Penn State quarterback and then a graduate assistant, in
the evening of March
1, 2002 witnessed Sandusky raping a ten-year-old boy in the
locker-room shower.
5. The
president of Penn State has been fired.
6. McQueary
is, as of today, the recruiting coordinator and wide receivers coach for Penn
State.
7. McQueary
has been asked not to be in the stadium on Saturday (November 12) when Penn
State plays the Cornhuskers in Nebraska.
Now I have read what I believe to be the grand jury
presentment concerning the Sandusky case. The 23-page, highly graphic version
is largely consistent with the semi-sanitized report from at least one
well-known newspaper from an Eastern state. I'm willing to accept what I've read
as mostly factual. According to the text of the report:
1. McQueary
[the former college football player] “left immediately, distraught.”
2. McQueary
went to his father’s home to ask for advice. Receiving the advice, he met the
following day (Saturday) with Coach Paterno .
3. On
Sunday, March 3, Paterno gave the Penn State Athletic Director a less intense
and less graphic version of the encounter than McQueary gave to the Grand Jury.
[Keep in mind, testimony to the Grand Jury is approximately 9 years after this
particular incident. It is not appropriate, strictly speaking, to accuse Coach Paterno of shading
the truth at this particular juncture.]
4. About
ten days later McQueary was called to a meeting with the Athletic Director and Gary Schultz ,
the Senior Vice President for Finance and Business. McQueary reported to them
that he had witnessed what he believed
to be Sandusky [inappropriate sexual contact] with a boy in the showers
[quoted, but emphasis mine].
5. Even
though Mr. Schultz managed the University Police,
McQueary never received any communication from that body.
6. The
allegations of sexual misconduct in 2002 were similar to allegations that had
been made in 1998.
7. McQueary
next testified to the Grand Jury in December, 2010 [more than 8 years later]
8. In
the fall of 2000 two Members of the Penn State janitorial staff witnessed
certain improper acts between Sandusky and another boy. While the employees
were “distraught,” they did not want to lose their jobs by reporting to anyone
above their immediate supervisor. [Personal commentary: The so-called
“Whistleblower Protection Act” of 1989 was Federal, not state. Even so, a state
counterpart, if any, was as useless then as it is now for protecting
whistleblowers; the US Government and any other entity lies through its teeth whenever
it claims whistleblowers have any protection. From a standpoint of protecting
their jobs, the janitors acted prudently.]
The Grand Jury’s presentment against Sandusky describes
incidents involving 8 different victims of Sandusky’s alleged sexual misconduct.
The University had multiple opportunities to address the allegations long
before any activity involving Coach Paterno
occurred -- according to the Grand Jury presentment.
Here’s what bothers me, while I stay as close to the facts
as I'm capable at this point. Coach Paterno
may have violated a Pennsylvania statute that requires reporting to a police
entity within 48 hours after witnessing an incident such as McQueary reported.
Since Mr. Schultz
managed the University Police, and since the University Police are real cops
(not the Kampus Kops ,
or KKs, that students tend to take lightly), an argument could be made that Coach Paterno was eight
days late in putting the allegation into police ears.
In addition to this, Coach Paterno witnessed nothing. He heard an
account from the witness, so the burden of compliance actually rested with
McQueary. Any report from Coach Paterno
would be hearsay, given credibility only because of his reputation.
As our heads cool, and as our knees stop jerking, we need to
ask ourselves several important questions.
First, who fails and where? For example, Alfred tells Bob
“I saw a man having illegal sexual contact with a male minor.” Alfred doesn’t go to the police, and neither does
Bob. Instead, Bob tells Clarice what Alfred
told him. Clarice tells Daphne, who
tells Eddie . Finally, “Victim Number
2” goes to the police and makes a report. Should we insist upon five jail
cells, one each for Alfred , Bob , Clarice ,
Daphne, and Eddie ? Or should only Alfred and Bob
go to jail? Or should only Alfred ?
Second, why is it that McQueary still has a job? Why is it
so important for Penn State officials to parade around the nation with Joe Paterno ’s
carcass on a stick? Do they seek to appease the NCAA, whose fangs are finally
drying up from the blood of Jim
Tressel and Devier Posey of Ohio
State? Do they need to soothe ruffled feathers of advertisers, legislators, and
alumni? If they think they’re making alumni happy, they have a lot of PR to
catch up with.
“Paterno on a Stick.” Has quite a ring to it, don’t you
think? Makes for better publicity than “Spanier on a Stick” or “Curley
on a Stick”. And I won’t even try to say “Schultz on
a stick” out loud. And quite honestly, I'm not wasting energy on what any of
them are going through. In my opinion a university president is expendable, and
C-titled executives are a dime a dozen. But a football coach who has made so
much difference in people’s lives? Whatever else we may think about whether Coach Paterno ought to be
skewered, his downfall is a loss and a great loss at that.
Forgive me for making light of something I don’t at all take
lightly. But while we’re asking questions, why is it that a former college
quarterback, less than thirty years old, ran away from the locker room and left
a ten-year-old boy in the presence of a sexual predator and pedophile? Why
wasn’t Sandusky lying on the floor, holding his groin and writhing in agony
after McQueary ripped him away from the child and repeatedly kicked his naked
body at the focal point?
One more comment and I'm done with this part. The
Pennsylvania state police commissioner, the Grand Jury, and the Pennsylvania
Attorney General are unanimous in saying that Joe Paterno
is not a target of investigation into criminal wrongdoing.
Now for my own bias. This is the sort of thing that
reinforces my contempt for law and lawmakers. It, and they ,have no substance
when it comes to moral imperatives. What’s legal and what’s RIGHT are hardly
ever the same.
No coach at any college or university has a perfect record
as a mentor, so we have to deal with it. When Texas A&M football coaches
took their teams to the Chicken Ranch as a reward for winning, some of the
players lost their virginity as a result of the mentoring. The Duke lacrosse
players were called “good kids” even though they set themselves up for the
false accusations by even going to the strip clubs at all. And should we even
talk about steroids, money, or any of the other dark-side mentoring by coaches
along the way?
But back to Joe
Paterno . Many are ready to hang
the man in effigy because they’re angry about the permanent injury done to many
juveniles. And let’s not kid ourselves. The number is most likely much more
than the Grand Jury’s 8 victims. But Joe
Paterno did not perform any of those acts of
pedophilia; Jerry
Sandusky did. And fortunately, Jerry Sandusky
will have very little opportunity to damage any more children’s lives.
What Joe Paterno did was punctuate the famous quote by Edmund Burke .
Coach Paterno ,
by his failure to act, put about ten exclamation points on the statement that
the surest way for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.
But we have bigger fish to fry. There are hundreds of
victims who need our prayers, and it’s time to let the flawed criminal system
do its job as we get about the higher business of praying for recovery.
30!
For anyone interested, let me recommend John 8:2-13 for your
reading pleasure.
“He [or she] who is without sin, let him [or her] cast the
first stone.”
Anglican Priest, Charles Moncrief, serves up the issues of the day on a platter mixed with scripture, seriousness, and a sense of humor to create a ministry founded in love for his fellow man.
“I’m an Anglican Priest, disguised as a geek during the week. It’s REALLY tough to change my costume, since phone booths are getting hard to find!”
Anglican Priest, Charles Moncrief, serves up the issues of the day on a platter mixed with scripture, seriousness, and a sense of humor to create a ministry founded in love for his fellow man.
“I’m an Anglican Priest, disguised as a geek during the week. It’s REALLY tough to change my costume, since phone booths are getting hard to find!”
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