Penn State Football: Blessed are they who suffer persecution for justice's sake

Jerry Sandusky, Penn State, and the Cover-up

The Thanksgiving football were on and I just couldn't help but look at all the "manly" and "masculine" men with the Motorola headsets and the men with very tight pants who are probably hopped up on testosterone and think, wow, which ones are raping boys when they think nobody is looking?  It's the same way the world is looking at priests since the abuse scandal broke almost ten years ago.

Human beings want to find order and predictability in their world.  If they hear about a scandal like this, they want to find ways that this would be impossible in their own sphere of influence.

In Massachusetts, at a basketball camp, some older students put "bodily fluids" on an oreo and forced a younger student to eat the oreo as part of a "hazing ritual."  Here is a link to the news video.  Here is an incident in Idaho of sexual hazing in sports.  Is it any wonder that Jerry Sandusky was able to sodomize children for decades and not be caught?  Let me rephrase, he was caught, he was not reported and the behavior was not considered unusual enough to consult the police or to EVEN STOP IT RIGHT THEN AND THERE.

The sheer masculinity of American football's image makes the rape of boys by a famous coach very shocking.  Isn't masculinity defined by protecting women and children, by honor and dignity, and by truth and justice?  No!  Christian masculinity is all those things.  Relativist masculinity is power, might, use of others for sex, sexual conquest, porn, and fame. Jerry Sandusky had all these things.  Let's learn more.


Before his discovery as a child rapist, he was interviewed about his project to "help" underprivileged children, The  .

Here is the interview with on the NBC show "Rock Center."  Note a few glaring tells of lying.

• repeating the question and otherwise delaying an answer
• NO OUTRAGE
• evasive answers, hesitation
• "I have hugged them.. I have touched their legs." Attempts to minimize the damage.
• lack of affect.  Mr. Sandusky is being accused of horrendous offenses and is cool and unphased by this.  The ONLY way he could be unsurprised or unoffended by these allegations is if he had thought about them before.

With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Jerry Sandusky Phone Interview
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So, is Jerry Sandusky innocent? Not likely.  If you would like more information on liespotting, check out the post, "blessed are the clean of heart."  Will football be tainted by this scandal for the foreseeable future?  Yes.   Will innocent men be looked at with hatred and suspicion?  Probably.   Is this a natural consequence of sin?  Yes!

Jerry Sandusky is not someone who is persecuted for justice's sake.  All the other coaches who are not guilty, but must forever change the way they are around kids are making those changes "for justice's sake."  I hope public outrage does not wane before those changes are made.

3 Degrees 

Sandusky outraged The Devil who tempted Jesus Christ, the boss of Blessed John Paul II.  

Father John Corapi

1 Degree

Father John Corapi

A funnel cloud of garbage is swirling around Father John Corapi and hundreds of other priests accused of sexual sin with adult women.  This matter is very personal to me, not because I know Father John, but because the man who married me (to my husband and The Holy Spirit) was also accused of sexual sin with an adult woman.

My priest's charges were leveled by a single "victim" over the course of the past few years.  Father M left the cathedral where he married me and where he spent decades as a priest because of these charges.  The community has suffered a great loss.  Father has suffered a professional and personal pain of an extreme degree.  

How do I know that Father M is innocent?  Well, ultimately, I don't, but I do know a few things.

• the propensity to be violent and a sexual preditor generally does NOT begin later in life, these sins tend to be strongest when one is younger. 
• Father M's temperament is very mild, it's not like him to become violent
• with all do respect to Father, he just doesn't isn't strong enough to do what he's accused of doing with a compliant partner, much less with someone being forced.  He just could not have pulled it off
• the scene described by the victim is very similar to scenes in The Exorcist.  Maybe she is suffering from a "recovered (false) memory". It doesn't add up.
• the DA admitted that evidence could not support the rape charge and the charges were reduced and may be reduced further.  

John Corapi is at retirement age and is just now being charged with sexual misconduct.  It seems that such charges or, at the very least, gossip, would have followed him throughout his ministry if this were true.  We were all better looking in the 90s, heck, it's 20 years ago!  Things are continuing to unfold with Corapi.  I will say that Father Corapi's response to his troubles has been less than Christlike.  He's disobeying his bishop and continuing to preach and perform priestly duties before the investigation is conducted.  I understand his frustration, but his actions make him appear guilty.  For help clarifying the situation and what is going on, check out this post of The Deacon's Bench blog.  There you'll find two interviews that shed light on what's going on and what it all means.

Here are Father John and Father Michael in better days.  

When we take away civil rights in order to achieve security, we have neither civil rights nor security.  We're finding this in post 9/11 laws like The Patriot Act, and we're learning this in the wake of the clergy sex abuse scandals that have rocked the Catholic Church.  If we keep true to the ideals of American justice, we can protect and defend all citizens, children, adults, the mentally ill, the unborn, clergy, laity, everyone!  We cannot let fear throw the baby out with the bath water.