Clare couldn’t wait to
tell me Monday night. “I sent Mom a
story you have to read!” I told my
daughter I would do it as soon as I finished shaving.
The story in question
involved a hazing incident at Wheaton College, a rival of Elmhurst College in
the CCIW. Clare and I were never fond of
Wheaton and how they pressured the opposition to pray with them after a
softball game. For me, it was knowing
that an evangelical Christian institution looks askance at how we Catholics
pray, to a saint as much as to the Almighty.
I once suggested to Clare she take a statue of St. Francis with her the next
time Wheaton came calling to prayer.
The problem for a
school like Wheaton—or Notre Dame, for that matter—is that a public profession
of faith (for that, check their website) draws attention. An athletic scandal in the SEC isn’t exactly
news, but when it happens at once-upon-a-time-squeaky-clean South Bend, send in
the reporters. And that’s what happened
this week.
On Tuesday, five
Wheaton football players were charged with felonies in connection to a hazing
incident March 2016—as in eighteen months ago—that, according to reports, resulted in injuries that
required surgery on both the victim’s shoulders. The charges were serious enough to merit a
$50,000 bond for each defendant.
I should note here that
none of the players has been convicted of anything, which is more than the
Wheaton website does. Oh, you can find
the story about the Thunder being the fourth-ranked D-III football team in
America and the one about the seventeen Wheaton alums who have signed pro
football contracts (NFL, USFL, Arena) since 1979, and how faith played a role
in Jackie Robinson’s baseball career, but nothing on this hazing story.
According to sources,
the school had already punished the players involved, by having them do
community service and write an eight-page essay about their actions; this is
what you might call a classic slap on the wrist. Wheaton visits Elmhurst on Saturday. For some reason, Wheaton has decided to
suspend players it has already disciplined.
I wonder why.
Go, Blue Jays!
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