Jess: Andrew specifically requested that I elaborate my view on stewardship from my reflection blog for my field education. Next time, buddy. Today, I’m going to fulfill Allison’s request for us to do something topical.
I’m sure most of you have heard about the “Penn State Scandal” by now. If you haven’t, you can read a quick synopsis of it here:http://espn.go.com/ncf/topics/_/page/penn-state-scandal.
Moving beyond the obvious issue of sexual abuse of children, this is one of those stories that just makes me deeply sad. How can we keep letting things like this happen to children? What will happen to the children (now youth) who were abused? More importantly, why did it take ten years for someone to speak up about this atrocity?
The whole issue just makes me wonder what we’re teaching people in the US. Most likely, the children were ashamed and terrified of telling someone. They didn’t feel safe telling the truth—is there any way to make this better? Worse than that, there were adults who witnessed all of these events. Where did they learn that silence was the correct response? When did permitting helpless children be abused become okay? Why are our children not safe anymore?
Another problem with this whole thing has been the news coverage. Not only do those poor families have to revisit all of the pain and shame, but they have to do it publicly. What a horrifying experience. At the same time, the media has spent so much time talking about the “Penn State Community ,” the football team, the effects on sports nationwide, and everyone else who might be affected by the scandal. Everyone, that is, except the victims and their families. Why do we care so little about the people most affected by this scandal? Who cares about football when the children of our nation are being forced into terrible situations?
And how do we as Christians respond to this atrocity? And how do we prevent things like this happening in the future? Jesus calls us to care for the “least of these.” He clearly includes children in this classification. Yet it is so difficult for us to intervene in situations like this. How are we supposed to know? Obviously, if we see something happening that is so wrong, we should work to stop it. But we’re not always there in the moment that something happens. We can pray. We can hope. We can advocate for the rights of children, and for punishments for those who betray the trust between adults and children. And we can weep and mourn with those who have been so abused.
There’s no easy way to fix the problems of the world, which is something I have a hard time dealing with. I want to make everybody better, solve all the issues, and make the world a better place. Yet I can’t do that by myself, and I can’t do it with a snap of my fingers. All I can do is keep praying, loving, and striving. And together, maybe we can make a change.
Wes: So, ever since I started at these churches, I've realized just how little I pay attention to the goings on of the world around me. I have grown up in this oblivious little bubble, and I am completely happy in my ignorance most of the time. The problem with this is that the only things that are really able to break through and pop this bubble are the really horrible things that make me sad to be in a world where these things happen. Then, because I hear about these things, I go and spend a good number of hours over a few days searching through all of the horrors that occurred between the present and however long it has been since my previous bubble was popped. This saddens me even more, so I erect another bubble and leave the larger world to its own devices for a while... until my bubble is popped again.
This isn't exactly the healthiest way to deal with things, and I've learned that especially now that I am a pastor situation, I really have to keep up on current events and goings on so that I can engage in discussion with my parishioners about all of it.
The Penn State thing might be the last bubble popper.
Like Jessica said, the whole thing just makes me sad. I don't like believing that people like me--regular people (or at least as regular as one can get)--could act like that and do those things. It's sad. And the thing that saddens me the most is honestly not that this child abuse happened. That is a horrible thing and I can't begin to truly speak on the depth of that. But what is even more horrible to me is that there were people that knew and didn't say anything to stop it. I know that Joe Paterno and so many others are said to be in this boat, and that saddens me deeply.
It's like that scene from The Incredibles when Mr. Incredible sees a robbery happening during a meeting with his boss. His boss does brushes it off, as if it is nothing out of the ordinary and is too underneath his paygrade for him to care.
But, as David Brooks of the New York Times writes, the sad truth is that this is the society in which we live right now. People will speak out against violence, abuse and injustice when they are distanced from it by either time or space, but when they encounter it personally, the average person is more likely to allow that injustice to happen than they are to stand up against it.
To me, this is the systemic issue that must be dealt with immediately. We need to learn, especially those under the banner of Christ, that we are called to stand up against the evils of this world. For followers of Christ, this is part of the call and obligation of the faithful. When we pray during the Lord's Prayer, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven", we are telling God that we are willing to partner with God to see this come to fruition. If we as a people would work to not allow such atrocities to go unnoticed and unvoiced, we would be that much closer to realizing justice for those who need it most and need it now.
My prayer is that as we sit in the aftermath of the Penn State Scandal and atrocities like it, we will use these times as much as a chance to re-evaluate ourselves and our own reactions to evil as we would as a chance for anything else.
Sorry this is a little bit of a downer. I promise to have a joke in my part of the blog next week.
You stay classy, World Wide Web!
-wes and jess
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