Over the weekend, the bronze statue commemorating the many wins of JoePa came down outside of Penn State's football stadium
All of his athletic victories cannot overcome the grave moral failing of a man who put his life and legacy above the well-being of abuse victims.
No one should ever commemorate a man in a statue until after his passing. By raising a standard to honor a man, he is then bound to the public opinion that has institutionally memorialized him.
Joe Paterno chose to remain a prisoner of a legacy that was not worthy the serial harm done to young people — the victims of a repeat child abuser as well as the youth on the campus who looked up to him as a father figure.
A deeper problem, however, has not been addressed in the wake of this official shame-based removal. Why are so many youth looking for some father-figure to depend on?
Men and women who have left home still need a "home" to belong to, one whose boundaries stretch beyond the four walls of their childhood house of upbringing, but beyond the arbitrary and bland dorms where they live on campus, something greater than themselves.
And now, the students and alumnae must turn their face to a Father far greater than JoePa, a man of clay feet and weak character, who like any man made his man-made legacy more important than the men and women he was called to lead into victory.
Institutions of great renown are falling under the sway of sin and shame. These events were inevitable:
"But now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the
earth only, but also heaven.
"And this
word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are
shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may
remain.
"Wherefore we
receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may
serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: (Hebrews 12: 26-28)
The institutions of long-standing: the public school system, organized religion (including the Catholic Church) and now college football are shaking. They have served as surrogate kingdoms for the sons of men.
Yet Jesus, the Son of God, came to offer us His eternal kingdom, which we receive as a gift (Luke 12: 32). This kingdom reign in us (Luke 17: 21) through the power of the Holy Spirit:
"For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and
joy in the Holy Ghost." (Romans 14: 17)
When men desire the rule of God's love in their hearts, through Jesus' death and resurrection on the Cross, we will see fewer traumatic instances of men who fall from fame pandering to the base greed for money, power, and prestige.