Guest post by Joe Crispin.
For those of you who don't know, Terrelle Pryor is the former star quarterback for the Ohio State Buckeyes. Accusations that he took money in exchange for autographs and OSU gear have been all over the news over the first half of this year. The fact that his Head Coach, Jim Tressel, had to resign in large part because of the scandal has led to him becoming a rather hated figured in the OSU community.
No matter what the full story may be, there is no doubt that he acted foolishly and selfishly. And yet, the video below shows you what he did with the opportunity to confess his foolishness and selfishness in a public setting. Not surprisingly, he doesn't do so well.
I encourage you to watch. But I urge you to beware of watching and thinking (to even the least degree) that you are somehow better than him. None of us are. For when it comes to confession, we all tend to perform rather poorly in private. And yet, we somehow convince ourselves that we would do well on ESPN.
That's craziness, of course. And yet, it's a craziness that is so easy to embrace. Fans and commentators everywhere talk endlessly of how foolish and selfish Pryor has been. And yet they do so without any real humility. Pride rules the day. It's just much easier to put yourself on a pedestal in order to talk bad about a 22 year-old young man.
Of course, that is not to say that Pryor is in the clear. He is not. It is just to say that we should be beware of the way we approach stories such as these. The gospel would have us think and talk in a radically different way. A radically, but very reasonable humble way. A way that embraces the truth of the situation while offering much grace and patience to the one who went astray. A way that recognizes a poor confession for what it is - a poor confession - while reminding oneself that we recognize poor confessions because we are so good at them ourselves.
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