This weekend, Tiger Woods is playing competitive golf for the first time since his adulterous habits became front page news. Whether or not you plan to watch him play golf, chances are you have your opinions about Tiger’s personal life. It is well known that he has cheated on his wife often, a serious moral transgression in the eyes of many.
This Monday, charges may be filed against Ben Roethlisberger, who is being accused of sexually assaulting a 20 year old woman in early March. Whether or not you watch football, you probably know that Roethlisberger is one of the stars of the NFL, a 2-time Super Bowl winning quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers. This is the second time in less than a year that allegations of sexual assault or rape have surfaced around Roethlisberger, and it adds to the growing list of recent off-field troubles surrounding Steelers’ players.
Tiger and Roethlisberger’s incidents have garnered a great deal of attention over the last several months. They are viewed as just further evidence that athletes and celebrities live wild, entitled, out-of-control lives with no consequences. “These pro athletes just do whatever they want,” I recently heard someone say of Roethlisberger.
But the real problems we should be discussing do not lie with Tiger, Big Ben, or any other high profile athlete. We shouldn’t be concerned that Tiger seems to have little regard for the sacred covenant of marriage. We should be concerned that millions of other men and women break that covenant daily, committing acts just as egregious as Tiger but without the press coverage.
And we shouldn’t be poring over the news each day wondering what happened in the bathroom of a college bar between Roethlisberger and a 20 year old woman. We shouldn’t just be skewering Roethlisberger as a man that allegedly feels he’s entitled to have his way with the body of another person without regard for consent. We should be worried about all the other men (and women) in the world that mistakenly assume that they too are entitled to such self-pleasing actions.
While we’re at it, we also shouldn’t be worried about the reports of domestic abuse that surfaced around this time 2 years ago involving Steelers’ star linebacker James Harrison. We should be worried about the domestic abuse and violence that takes place every day, but is never reported by the newspapers (and sometimes not even by the victims).
Don’t misunderstand me. Tiger’s actions are reprehensible. The allegations against Roethlisberger, if true, are utterly intolerable. I don’t mean to excuse their actions (or alleged actions) in the least. However, it is important that we let the implications of these stories sink in a little more deeply. I fear that too often, we hold such activity at arm’s length. It is those entitled athletes that commit adultery. It is those young rich football players that have their way with women. It is those people with too much money and time on their hands that use and abuse other people.
Too often, we allow ourselves to believe that such things only happen in some faraway fantasyland, where the rich and famous live and play. But chances are, someone on your block has committed or is committing adultery. Whether you realize it or not, someone you know has probably been a victim of sexual assault. And it is highly likely that no matter how small your church or workplace may be, you probably have a victim or perpetrator of domestic abuse sitting not too far away. It is not just those celebrities that we don't know, but also the people that we do know.
So, if we learn anything from the recent reports of immoral and/or criminal behavior among star athletes, it is that such things happen all around us. No matter where we live, these problems are present. And we must face these injustices, whether we encounter them on the front page or the neighbor’s backyard. These issues are serious. They are real. They are very dark corners in our very broken world, not just in the public eye, but in the places in which we live, work, and play. I pray that we may remember that these things do not just happen among the rich and famous, but also happen among us. I pray that we then may be able to find ways to shine Christ’s light in the darkness, helping us to be in ministry with the victims and perpetrators of such activity, so that we may one day live in a world where such injustices do not exist.
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