No More Scapegoats! (part 2)

In the last post I discussed what scapegoating is and where the term comes from, which you can read about here.
In this post I want to continue with how this is developed in scripture and how we can begin to see it in our society. But first, a story...

I used to have some neighbors who were from Mexico, and to this day I consider them some of the best neighbors I've ever had. They are hardworking, generally happy, and as friendly and generous as anyone I've ever met (and yes, they are legally here, if you were wondering). But it became clear pretty quickly that some people in the neighborhood looked at them as a problem. I learned with time that there wasn't much, if any, good reasons for this. A combination pattern of racism, petty jealousy, and classic scapegoating began to reveal itself among a couple of these other neighbors. The Mexicans were an easy target for collective anxiety and hatred.

Why, we should ask ourselves, do people do this? That's what I want to explore. We can attribute it to things like, "Some people are just ignorant, racist bigots." But that is too simplistic and it overlooks the universal human problem that is at work in such a scenario. We all have a tendency to do this, in one form or another. This is one of those things where, once we see it, we can't un-see it. I think it is one of the more helpful paradigms I've ever come across.

Sooo, as the story goes: In the beginning… it is well, with Adam and Eve’s soul (Genesis 2:25). They are naked and without shame. There is peace like a river. They have no rivalry. They have peace with God and each other. This is a beautiful story, a picture of human flourishing.

Enter the serpent (Genesis 3) = Satan: the Hebrew HaSatan means “the accuser" or "the adversary."
Adam and Eve listen to the satan, pictured here as a cunning serpent, as it accuses and scapegoats God (3:1, 4-5), and they eat the forbidden fruit.
Adam then accuses Eve (3:12), and Eve accuses the serpent (3:13). The spirit of the satan has taken root…
It continues in their angry son Cain, who accuses his brother Abel and murders him (Genesis 4). John 8:44 says that the devil/satan was a liar and a murderer from the beginning.

After Cain murders Abel, he is terrified that what he did will come back upon himself (Genesis 4:13-14). Driven by the satan, his internal world has become a pool of fear, guilt, and shame, as he accuses even himself— so he begins to project his internal world onto everyone else ("Whoever finds me will kill me.")— Which is instructive for us…

A primary fruit of sin is that we are all mirroring or projecting our own internal fear, anxiety, guilt, and shame onto the world around us and casting blame on others as a way of self preservation. This causes us to live in slavery to fear, and to form rivalry and enemies.

Mimetic Theory
Anthropologists, psychologists, philosophers, and even neuroscientists have recognized this mirroring pattern in human culture. There is a phenomenal body of literature and resources where these ideas are continuing to be explored. Rene Girard developed "Mimetic Theory," building from the work of Kenneth Burke. Many others, such as Ernest Becker, have also influenced the discussion. Gerard was the first to trace this theme in scripture. He describes the scapegoating process as something rooted in our imitation of desire, which leads to rivalry and sacred violence.

So for example: From a young age, we learn to imitate the desires of others. A child doesn’t want a particular toy until the other child decides he does want it, and ascribes value to it. As soon as that happens, the other child suddenly sees him enjoying it, and agrees that there must be value to that toy. So we have a rivalry that is born.

Or an adult male proudly admiring and showing off his new sports car— provokes his neighbor to envy and then hate him.

Or a thousand other examples... rivalry over someone's beauty, someone's possessions, someone's lifestyle, someone's talents or gifting, etc. We've all seen this and experienced it. As we imitate each other's desires, it stirs up insecurity and we project our internal rivalry onto each other. The satan whispers, "They are not your friend, they are your enemy. There is not enough for everyone. You must cast them out, push them down, triumph over them."

Materialistic culture thrives on this mimetic desire… Advertisers know how to appeal to the base desires of envy and jealousy pretty well. By linking our human value to the objects they are selling, our mimetic desire takes over from there and we are hooked. Intrinsic to this rivalry is also a mindset of scarcity rather than plenty. Remember the “Tickle me Elmo” craziness several years back? People were paying thousands on eBay to get one for their child for Christmas. What sense does that make? Or have you ever witnessed a Black Friday opening at, say, Walmart? Good shopping deals become a legitimate reason to injure your neighbor if necessary. These are classic examples of mimetic desire that often leads to rivalry and even violent behavior.

Adam and Eve had no rivalry with God until the serpent appealed to the fruit on the tree, provoking the initial Mimetic Desire-- they wanted to be "like God" (Gen. 3:5) even though they already were--they were made "in God's image" (Gen. 1:26-27). Cain and Abel had no rivalry in the text until one’s sacrifice was valued over the other. Suddenly, rivalry was born, or as the scripture puts it –“sin is crouching at the door. It desires to have you, but you must master it” (Genesis 4:7). If we learn to master it and manage our anxiety and fear, we can overcome. But if not, we are birthed with hatred and rivalry for the other. Mirroring turns to rivalry, producing inner angst, fear, shame, insecurity—which often leads to scapegoating and sacred violence ("sacred" because the violence is completely justified and even righteous in the mind of the perpetrator). It begins in individuals but it also takes root in human cultures.

So Cain kills Abel (Genesis 4).
Then Cain goes on to build a city, with the foundational sin of accusing, scapegoating violence as a way of life. It escalates quickly in the text: Lamech says, “I have killed a man for wounding me… if Cain is avenged 7 times, then Lamech is avenged 70 times 7 times.” The foundation of a human society built after the way of Cain is ever increasing rivalry and violence.



As the rivalry increases, a scapegoat must be chosen to blame, pour collective guilt and anxiety upon, and cast out in order to restore peace to the community. Scapegoat rituals with animal sacrifices served this very function. The scapegoat is the community's substitute victim for their collective sin, shame, fear, guilt, and violence. What's true on the inside will find expression on the outside. It has to for our own self-survival. With a scapegoat, communities find an acceptable person or group to blame. This saves us from having to examine our own hearts, confronting our own darkness, telling the truth about our own sin. And it blinds us from the reality that the line between good and evil goes right down the center of every one of us, as the Russian novelist Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn suggested.

We have many scapegoats in our own society today. Muslims, gays, minorities, immigrants, conservatives, liberals, atheists, Christians, men, women, etc. Everyone has a tendency to identify and label and blame the "problem" people. Capitulating to collective blaming and scapegoating is participation with the satan. "If we could just get rid of them, things would be better," the satan whispers. "They are the reason I am unhappy. They are the reason I don't have the life I want."

What is fascinating is that the majority of these processes are happening at a subconscious level. Most of us do not even recognize the pattern of rivalry and scapegoating that happens in our own lives and in the culture around us. It is a blindness, a system of slavery that we have all found ourselves in. The satan is a deceiver, the prince of darkness, a liar, a murderer. We need to be aware of his schemes (2 Cor. 2:11, Eph. 6:11).

So who are your "go to" scapegoats? Who are you naturally tempted to curse and blame for the problems you face? Who do you blame for society's problems? Our natural tendency is not to look at our own sin, but to point out and magnify the sins of others (Matthew 7:3-5).

In the next post, I want to show how Jesus is the last scapegoat.