From the Penn State announcement:
This case involves tragic and tragically unnecessary circumstances. One of the grave damages stemming from our love of sports is that the sports themselves can become too big to fail, indeed too big to even challenge. The result can be an erosion of academic values that are replaced by the value of hero worship and winning at all costs.
In the Penn State case, the results were perverse and unconscionable. No price the NCAA can levy will repair the grievous damage inflicted by Jerry Sandusky on his victims. However, we can make clear that the culture, actions and inactions that allowed them to be victimized will not be tolerated in collegiate athletics.
I couldn’t agree more. Here is the same statement re-written for another ongoing problem that for some reason hasn’t gotten the same attention.
This case involves tragic and tragically unnecessary circumstances. One of the grave damages stemming from our deference to religion is that the religions themselves can become too big to question, indeed too big to even challenge. The result can be an erosion of human values that are replaced by blind worship and tolerance at all costs.
In repeated cases within the Catholic Church, the results were perverse and unconscionable. No price society can levy will repair the grievous damage inflicted by pedophilic priests on their victims. However, we can make clear that the culture, actions and inactions that allowed them to be victimized will not be tolerated anywhere in our society.
Football is huge in the USA, and yet we came together to show that certain things just can not and will not be tolerated. That we have not even had a serious conversation, let alone a discussion about consequences, about the ongoing issue of child abuse and cover-ups within the Catholic Church is a measure of how powerful the Church is.
Food for thought.