A United Methodist Pastor's Theological Reflections

"But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory (nikos) through our Lord Jesus Christ." - I Corinthians 15:57


Wednesday, November 9, 2011

My Thoughts on the Penn State Scandal

Someone in the church asked for my thoughts on the recent Penn State scandal that has been in the news.  I decided to make my response a blog post because it relates to our faith and how we handle serious issues that impact people's lives.

My first thought is how tragic this story is (if proven true) that minors were abused by an assistant football coach during his employment AND during his retirement years.  Systems should be in place and followed to protect children.

We still have a lot of unanswered questions.  The legal process and the investigation committee being put in place by the Board of Trustees at PSU will provide us with a lot of answers to our questions in due time. 

Some of those questions include, 1) Was their a cover-up by university officials? 2) Was Coach Paterno part of that cover-up?  3) This was not an isolated incident.  Why would university officials not contact children services directly?

It will be interesting to see how the PSU board will handle this since the football team is still in the process of their season.  Do you wait for more information before making personnel changes or do you go with what information you have, even if it's incomplete and make radical changes with the coaching staff and other university officials.

The protection of minors MUST be the focus of any decision they make.
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