Penn State and threads of evil

As I sit and watch the unfolding of a purely evil story involving Penn State former coach Jerry Sandusky, I'm disgusted on so many levels.  This atrocity is so abhorrent that humanity involuntarily accepts the depth of this evil act.  Yet deviant sins against the innocent often strike all of us.  Not much more needs to be said regarding the unspeakable horrors that this man has committed against these young boys.

What is perhaps more telling is the response of a nation.  Never mind the fact that grown men stood by and didn't take matters into their own hands in either turning the perpetrator over to the authorities or knocking sense into him on their own.  Never mind the fact that it was kept quiet for years while the perpetrator proceeded to not only use facilities and but continue his abuse.  What is eerily striking is the response of some students to the situation.  The sins of omission in this story now reach beyond the school authorities.  Every student who stood by cheering on Joe Paterno this past week stands behind him in approval of his omission.  While that may not be openly admitted, what else is being asserted when we don't stand up and decry man's inhumanity to man and those who stand by and do nothing?  What's really important when we'd rather see a coach of a sport not be punished for an egregious failure because of his legacy?  That only carries on the falsehood that crimes don't have punishments.

It's not surprising though.  This society condemns Sandusky one moment, then goes back to lusting over celebrity bodies, longing for possessions, and apathetically ignoring injustices the next.  Subtle sins are the real killers to morality.  It's not adultery, it's lusting after something that's not yours that is the seed of sin.  It's not murder but hatred.  Woe to the society that fails to see the seeds of destructive sin.  Woe to us.