The "Disgraced" Uncle is Still Family

There are those who say that religion and sports don't mix. Many roll their eyes and gnash their teeth when football players kneel down in a prayer circle at midfield after the game, or when "look at me" wide receivers point to the sky and kneel after rumbling into the end zone after a touchdown. Devout Christian Michael Chang once remarked that he could hear sportswriters' pencils crack irritation when he would preface post-game interviews with, "First I'd like to thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ..."

Even the most devout fans get really nervous when sports figures who make their faith a matter of public record because the reality is that humans are fallible, and any transgression will inevitably bring out screams of "sanctimonious hypocrite!" As long as Christians, fair or unfair, are equated with righteous and holy living and the desire for others to live righteously, moral failures will lead to a boomerang effect. And this is already happening with Jim Tressel, the former head coach of the Ohio State football team, who resigned in the wake of allegation after allegation of non-compliance with NCAA standards relating to player perks. The extra grease is that Tressel is a vocal Christian, who recent wrote a book titled, "The Winner's Manual: For the Game of Life" and as of last month was actively hawking this at signings, along with his previously written "Life Promises for Success: Promises from God on Achieving Your Best". And as the allegations rolled in, Christian sports fans cringed.

Yes, as a Christian sports fan (who doesn't have any affinity towards Ohio State), I'm pissed. I'm pissed that Tressel has put one more arrow in the quiver of those who count Christians as sanctimonious hypocrites. I'm angry that he made terrible decisions and sold out principle for the understandable allure of victory and the adulation of an entire state and fanbase. I'm disappointed that his actions will create additional cynicism towards any Christian, famous or not, who tries to encourage people to a higher standard of goodness and kindness. It's bothers me that he's thrown gasoline on the fire for those who revile the Christian faith and its followers. In response to one blog poster who stated that despite his mistakes, Jim Tressel was still a good Christian man, another poster retorted: "Tressel is definitely a good Christian: a lying, deceitful hypocrite."

But getting past my own self-righteousness clothed in moral outrage, I realized that my reaction to Tressel was actually pathetically self-righteous in of itself. I actually stumbled upon a post written by another blogger which captured this very well. Dave Burchett wrote in his own blog:

I used to get really self-righteous at moments like this and proclaim that “I wouldn’t have done that”. Really? I thought back on various moral dilemmas in my life. The ones I want you to know about were the ones where I reacted with integrity and honesty. But there are sad incidents in my life where I chose hiddenness and deceit.

This is true. The difference between me and Jim Tressel is that his life and testimony are in the public spotlight and mine are not. I choose sin, hiddenness and deceit, and the worse that I get is loving admonishment from my wife or my close Christian friends. Tressel screws up, and he not only gets excoriated by the public and the media, but Christians who hardly know the guy are picking up stones to throw in his direction. And for the Christian, there is no greater hypocrisy.

As mentioned earlier, another exacerbating factor is that the Christian faith is largely equated with moralism, not grace. Some of this is the fault of the church, and some of this is the fault of selective sight and listening of the masses (e.g. Christians quietly serve as the vessels of healing and mercy all over the world, and the only thing that gets broadcast in the news is the philandering and embezzling televangelist). But the Church should do what it can to influence what it can control. Burchett also writes:

The church has too often communicated through our moralism that righteousness is because of our self-righteous behavior. No drinking. No cursing. No gambling. And so on. But the truth is that righteousness comes because of Jesus. Believers are saints by position and not by personal merit. When we sin we are still righteous even as we may suffer the consequences of those actions. We have been “declared” right in God’s sight because of Jesus. It is that unfathomable grace that is the distinctive of Christianity. If I fail miserably today it does not change the truth of the Gospel. All of us, celebrity and not, should point to Christ and not to our own works. We fail. God does not... Bill Thrall of Truefaced.com hit me with a paradigm shifter when he said this. “Most Christians don’t know that God has made us saints, who still sin, not sinners striving to become saints. This changes everything! If people knew about this treasure, churches everywhere would become safe places. Not soft places, but safe places, where we could be real, we could try out our faith, where we could fail and yet be loved.”

Well said, and we can start with showing some restorative grace to Jim Tressel, a man who will endure just consequences for his mistakes, but should find the Church a refuge of safety in the same way that the rest of us sinners have. Much like that "crazy" uncle who is still family, Jim Tressel is still family.