Penn State just got hit with massive penalties to their football program because legendary head coach Joe Paterno and other top school officials knew about years of sexual molestations being performed on children by one of his longtime assistant coaches and friends, Jerry Sandusky, and yet refused to do anything about it.
The sanctions by the governing body of college sports wiped away 14 years of coach Paterno’s victories (effectively knocking him out of being the all-time winningest college football coach), imposed unprecedented fines of $60 million, ordered Penn State to sit out the postseason for four years, capped scholarships at 20 below the normal limit for four years, and placed their football program on five years’ probation.
Penn State football under Paterno was supposedly built on — and thrived upon — winning with integrity, graduating players, and the premise that it did things the right way; that it was not a football factory where only wins and losses determined success.
So much for that mission statement; the school took down Paterno’s statue at the stadium last week and his reputation is effectively ruined for not abiding by his own words.
Recently the New Orleans Saints NFL football team experienced similar penalties as punishment for their defensive coaches having established a “bounty” system for knocking key opposing players (like Brett Favre) out of a game with cheap shots and possibly career ending injuries.
This “Do anything to win” cheating mentality tarnished their Super Bowl victory, hurt their chances for obtaining another one anytime soon, disgraced the entire organization, and adversely affected careers of coaches and players for years to come.
I’m old enough to remember when boxing was king of sports. We don’t see it having the same prominence today because organized crime took it over and began rigging matches and the public rejected it, professional boxing tanked, and has never recovered.
It seems that some in our society are so obsessed with getting ahead that they will forego every spark of integrity that they possess. We even saw it in the Olympics a few years back when Tanya Harding paid someone to hit her opponent in the knee with a baseball bat in order to knock her out of the competition in order that she might win an ice skating competition.
Unfortunately it is not just limited to sports; we see it in most every segment of society. The stock market is filled with insider trading, taxpayers cheat and lie on their tax returns, businesses give kickbacks in order to obtain contracts, employees steal from their employers, and even kids cheat in school.
Nowhere is it worse than in politics. We see lie after lie in political ad after ad. I shake my head in wonder. I remember a time when the press was all over exposing the lies, but not anymore. Now the media is a big part of the problem too, and we have seen time and again where they will even splice bits and pieces of interviews together to make issues appear differently in order to further their political objectives.
And of course the corruption is in the highest office of the land. We had Nixon and Watergate, and now just this morning Diane Feinstein, one of the leading Democrats and Chair Person for the Senate Intelligence Committee made a statement that the Obama Whitehouse leaked high level intelligence to the press.
They leaked it in order to make Obama look like a hero on military issues just in time for the upcoming election. Never mind that the leaked information puts our country in danger and could get our brave secret agents killed or imprisoned like the doctor who led us to Osama Bin Laden.
The United States is in a downward spiral. Some of us are desperately trying to right the ship and save it, but when one looks around and sees rampant corruption in nearly every segment of our society from the White House to leisure time activities like sports, to the classrooms of our schools, it seems just a tad overwhelming, or better…Hopeless!
I wonder if this is the beginning of the end.
In 1970 after reading Phil. 4:13 – (“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”) – I remember telling my hospital nurse that I was a hopeless drug addict, alcoholic, and violent criminal, and the only way I could change my life was to die.
She looked at me and said, “Jesus is God; He can do anything He wants!”
I thought, “Yeah well I suppose God could change my life – Almighty God can do anything -but why would He want to?”
Then I remembered reading the four Gospels where I discovered His incomprehensible love and compassion for us, even to the point of asking God to forgive those who cursed and spat upon Him, and horrifically crucified Him on a cross. He softly said, “Father please forgive them for they know not what they do”.
Yes there is hope in Jesus Christ!
Pray that our nation will return to God with a revival like the one ignited by Martin Luther. God is patient and longsuffering and stands ready to forgive and heal us and our land, provided that we are willing to repent and ask for forgiveness for our many dark sins, and then follow Him.
Admittedly it looks bleak, but we must have faith that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. We should also do our parts and vote those in our society who are hell bent on destroying our Christian heritage right out of office. Vote November 4th and do what you can to vote Obama and his Democratic Senate majority and others who share their Godless philosophy right on out of office. Their replacements won’t be perfect for sure, but hey it’s a start!
John 3:16
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”