Religious Scapegoating Essay

Scapegoating has its roots in biblical accounts when a chief priest would symbolically lay the sins of the entire Jewish population on a goat to be sent into exile. In such acts of tradition, it introduces the concept of a strong majority placing the blame on a weaker minority in order to release the majority from the burden of their transgressions. Acts of religious scapegoating on a national level, such as the one prevalent in Jewish tradition are by no means limited to Jewish societies because it can be observed across many different cultures and societies. In societies such as China during the height of the Chinese Communist Party, for example, scapegoating was used frequently against Christian minorities so that they may substitute the regime in the bearing of their iniquities. The act of scapegoating, as shown by the extent of their use across many different cultures, is an innate aspect of human nature that can be effectively utilized by the government towards the oppression of a select group of people. The Chinese Communist Party, ever since its founding and rise in 1949, sought to establish a national government on the premise of prior traditions in order to promote a strong sense of national identity. Although the party had a largely secular approach to politics, they were only able to amass

Rather than taking responsibility for the consequences of your actions, we as humans would much rather flee and burden those issues upon the shoulders of others. In acts of political scapegoating for example, in order to portray a perfect political institution in an imperfect society, it becomes necessary to shoulder the blame onto minorities. The preservation of national identity, political stability, and national unity can be seen by the perspective of the government as reasonable justifications for