Pros
update
13 February 08
DWAIN CHAMBERS - A SCAPEGOAT?
Dwain Chambers should not be allowed to represent Great Britain at the World Indoor Championships, says double Olympic Champion Kelly Holmes. Her views have been echoed by many others from Lord Coe to Roger Black who are concerned about the effect his involvement might have in damaging the image of athletics. “It doesn’t put us in a good light allowing a cheat, who’s admitted he’s a cheat, to represent us,” said Kelly Holmes. Roger Black was similarly concerned and pointed to Chambers’ prior remarks as compounding the problem; “It upsets me when Dwain comes out with statements that you cannot win an Olympic gold medal without taking drugs. That's factually wrong and it does an enormous amount of damage to the kids who want to come into the sport.” Opinions are divided on whether he should be allowed to compete, now having served his ban; John Regis commented “Dwain made a wrong choice, a very, very bad choice, and paid the ultimate price. He's now said he's trying to come back and prove that it was a mistake. You can't keep punishing him”.
What do we make of all this from a Christian perspective, should we forgive and forget or should we uphold the Christian principles of honesty and fair competition by seeing him kept out of the UK team? It seems Dwain Chambers is becoming a focal point for all the general frustrations at drug taking in sport, is he being treated as a scapegoat?
Well the idea of scapegoat unpacks two sides of a view that may help to think about this problem. In the Jewish Scriptures we’re told that God instituted a ritual where the High Priest would ‘lay both his hands on the head of a live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities (wrongdoing) of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions (failure to keep God’s standards), all their sins… and send it away into the wilderness… the goat shall bear all their iniquities on itself to a remote area’ (Leviticus 16:21-22). The picture of the scapegoat being sent into the wilderness is a powerful image of the way that wrongdoing contaminates the society around it; hence it needs to be totally removed. In our individualistic times we like to think that the choices 'I make only affect me', but in fact our decisions – right or wrong, profoundly affect those around us. Dwain Chambers’ drug taking hasn’t just impacted him but it also has ramifications for the wider athletics community as elite athletes feel their integrity is questioned because of his wrong decision.
However, the wonderful message of the cross is that there is forgiveness and a second chance for all who turn to God through Jesus Christ. All of us have made wrong decisions, maybe not in cheating in sport but in cheating God out of the thanks and honour that are due to Him. Similarly the effect of this sin spreads like a disease throughout society, undermining our relationships and infecting our lives. And yet, just as the wrongdoing was confessed on the head of the goat so, if we trust in Jesus, our wrongdoing was transferred onto him so that he ‘suffered outside the gate (of the city) in order to sanctify (cleanse) the people through his own blood’ (Hebrews 13:12). God is a god of forgiveness and second chances because through Jesus Christ – the scapegoat – he completely removes all of our sin.
As Christians we know what it is to do wrong and to long for a second chance, and through Christ we’re granted just that hope. It seems to me that we should approach the Dwain Chambers controversy in the same way that God approaches us – knowing the seriousness of sin and the dire consequences that flow from it, but forgiving anyway and giving a second chance.
Pete
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