THESE PEOPLE ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL OF YOUR PROBLEMS!

It is unfortunate that so many politicians around the world have carefully chosen two groups to use as scapegoats for their nation's problems. In short, they identify immigrant and minority communities as being responsible for fundamental and deleterious changes to their cultures/societies, and they offer a host of policies designed to negate/reverse this impact. Of course, this is NOT a new development in human politics - our history is full of instances where these tactics have been employed to advance the interests/power of some politician or political party. Scapegoats are a convenient way to harness the fears, prejudices, and grievances of a nation's majority - to focus negative energy on a common "enemy."

In times past, religious and/or ethnic minorities were often the targets of these politicians. In our own time, the targets are more often than not "socialists," immigrants, and members of the LGBTQ community. The common thread is that the targeted group can be clearly differentiated from the majority. The objective, of course, is to make it us against them. Their narrative is that these folks are responsible for all of your problems. They claim (without any real justification) that these folks are responsible for things like unemployment, social spending, crime, societal tensions, terrorism, unpopular laws, corrupting moral values, historical revisionism, and indoctrination of the majority's children. After all, if it's THEIR fault, it's not YOUR fault!

I can hear the gears turning in the minds of the folks who engage in scapegoating. "Well, that's just politics!" "What's wrong with this stuff?" "You even admitted that scapegoating has been used by politicians throughout human history!" "What does this stuff have to do with God or religion?"

The problem with this kind of reasoning, of course, should be obvious to anyone who claims to be a part of the Judeo-Christian tradition. After all, the God of the Bible commanded that "You must not testify falsely against your neighbor." (Exodus 20:16) In other words, it is a SIN to blame someone for something that he/she didn't do! It is also extremely dishonest and hypocritical to offer "solutions" to problems that don't really exist! Moreover, by attacking some scapegoat, the politician/party is also avoiding confronting real problems and their sources! After all, it's much easier to blame the dissolution of the traditional family on socialists or LGBTQ folks than to confront things like heterosexual divorce and remarriage or the time we devote to our jobs and entertainment! It's much easier to rail against indoctrination of children than to actually confront the reality that your nation behaved badly in the past! Yes, scapegoats are convenient, but it is also a very dishonest and ineffective way to actually address real problems!

More importantly, projecting a society's problems onto some innocent group is mean-spirited and unkind. In other words, it is the exact opposite of the love and compassion that Jesus Christ demanded from his followers. (John 13:25) Moreover, Christians aren't supposed to be participating in the manipulative, divisiveness, and deception which so often characterizes the political and religious systems of this world. In short, Christ expected his followers to treat others in the same way that they would like to be treated. (Matthew 7:12) Hence, the practice of scapegoating is contrary to the spirit of Christ and his teachings and should NEVER be sanctioned or employed by Christians.