What Idolatry Hath Wrought at Penn State

Rod Dreher, responding to an unpublished op-ed by Joe Paterno claiming that “this is not a football scandal,” writes:

What eluded Paterno, and what is crystal-clear from the Freeh report, is that the quasi-religious reverence with which the football program was held within the culture of the university, and in particular the secular godlike authority granted to Paterno, made this horrifying scandal possible. When the perceived good of the institution (Penn State football) is taken as the absolute end to which everything must direct itself, this is what you get.
If not for the exaltation of Penn State football, Sandusky wouldn’t have had access to his victims. If not for the exaltation of Penn State football, the leadership who discovered his crimes wouldn’t have covered them up and turned a blind eye to them. It was the status of football at Penn State that enabled these crimes and their cover-up. To ignore or to deny that is to willfully fail to deal with reality.

You can read the whole post here.

Justin Taylor