In Christ

Brothers and sisters: The love of Christ impels us, once we have come to the conviction that one died for all; therefore, all have died. He indeed died for all, so that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. Consequently, from now on we regard no one according to the flesh; even if we once knew Christ according to  the flesh, yet now we know him so no longer. So whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old  things have passed away; behold new things have come. (2 Corinthians 5:14-17)

We are all new creations.   For this reason there is no reason for us to scapegoat others – to find someone to blame, someone responsible for what has gone wrong.   They are “in Christ” as well, so we must behave as Christ.

According to James Wilson in the 2004 book Religion: Violence and Peace, “The great sacred stories of the world typically point to acts of violence as the solution to human social and political problems, including the principal problem of violence.  In other words, they tell of violence done in order to “end violence”…Scapegoating sometimes refers to excluding or persecuting an individual or minority group…a group or crowd relieves tension or ‘lets off steam,’ which would otherwise burst them apart, by turning against someone or some group that is perceived as ‘bad.’  In fact, they become ‘bad’ because the dominant group on a given situation needs an object of anger and the scapegoat is a good object because he or she or they are vulnerable."

We have witnessed much scapegoating applied to immigrants, races, political parties, and even faiths.  All have produced much violence with more tinder being made ready for other acts of condemnation, persecution, and scapegoating in months to come.  

We who are “in Christ” must resist the temptation to put horns on targeted people sending them into the desert.  If we do not, we will find ourselves in the desert with circling buzzards looking to pick our bones clean.

Deacon David Pierce