Sunday Reflections: Saying Goodbye to a Fallen Hero

By The Rev. Dr. George Hickok

Pennsylvania buried a fallen hero last week. 

Fallen in scandal, fallen in illness, fallen in death. For most of our adult lives, Joe Paterno plied his trade on the sidelines of one of the nation’s largest stadiums and from that stage launched a cult of football, which outgrew Penn State University. 

As a sports columnist pointed out long before the scandal news broke, "if the statue in front of your place of work is a likeness of you, it might be time to retire."

The legendary coach won more football games than any of his colleagues, an achievement of note. But no one gets more caught up in a cult than a cult leader—it is intoxicating, the closest thing to deification in modern society. 

Being a hero and a legend is more aggrandizement than most humans can handle. The funeral headline read, “memorial service was first step to relaunch  a legacy.” 

At least one of the “eulogies” defended Paterno’s washing his hands of the incident which burst into scandal. The “mourners” stood and cheered. 

What kind of mindset does it take to consciously or subconsciously decide that an egregious threat to children need not be stopped at the expense of Penn State football? The tangled web of high dollar sports and the academic community is fraught with risk. 

Mainstream culture, history, and God will decide the legacy of Joe Paterno. 

The culture will be more forgiving than history or God.

The history has yet to unfold in the damaged lives of the victims and their families.

As for the Christian God?  

“But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.”  (Matthew 18:6)

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The Rev. Dr. George Hickok is minister of the Spring Hill Furnace Presbyterian Church in Lake Lynn, Pa. and adjunct professor of sociology at the Community College of Allegheny County-South Campus. He is married to the Rev. Beckie Hickok, minister of in Regent Square.