Penn State football and the Catholic clergy sex abuse scandal

More and more disturbing news seems to be coming out of Happy Valley every day. First we heard this weekend that the Penn State athletic director had been ” title=”details of the alleged abuse”>details of the alleged abuse, as told to the grand jury, were released. In all of this, it’s been difficult not to think of the ” title=”E.D. Kain focuses”>E.D. Kain focuses on fact that “Penn State is not some extreme religious order”—there are a lot of similarities. ” title=”Church of Happy Valley”>Church of Happy Valley:

As anyone who has ever visited State College, Pa. knows, Penn State football is a cult, a pilgrimage site complete with shrines and devotees and rituals. You can find similar ones in other university towns, be the institution of higher learning public or private. Among the hierarchs, to be sure, few have ever reached the power and status of the Nittany Lions’ Joe Paterno—the closest thing to a permanent icon in American sports history.

The scandals that regularly arise in such cults tend to be about money—usually having to do with the recruitment and care of the athletes—with sex thrown in when the athletes misbehave. That this one involves protection of an important assistant coach who reportedly liked to rape boys is incidental. … [A]t bottom, it is the religious character of these institutions that, again and again, impels them so determinedly to cover up their sins.

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