Scapegoating is derived from the instinctual fear of and most particularly, resentment towards, the weak, the poor, the stranger, the immigrant, the outsider, the sick, the vulnerable, the other. Scapegoating occurs when this instinct metastasizes around an identifiable person or group of people as 'impure' or 'unclean'. This scapegoating leads to ritualized violence as the social order sees itself as threatened and its need for purification becomes a part of its deeply held spiritual/religio faith. By cleansing society of its filth (annihilation of the scapegoat) the wrath of the divine order can be assuaged and the purified community can return to blessing and prosperity.
It is essence of the lie of Satan. See Abraham's non-sacrifice of Isaac, the crucifixion of Jesus, Psalm 22, the holocaust, American religio lynchings and in particular the work of Rene Girard.
See in particular: Psalm 22, the first known human record of a prayer to God from the perspective of the person scapegoated, a victim of lynching.
See how carefully Jesus' own lynching mirrors the prayer of Psalm 22.
See the work of Rene Girard. I recommend in particular "I See Satan Fall Like Lightning"
See Orlando Patterson's chapter on ritualized violence in America from "Rituals of Blood"
See the Holocaust
See Rwanda
See Bosnia
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