There were some great gigs in the Glasgow City Halls in the seventies. One stand out memory for me was a support act, a girl from Northern Ireland called Gillian MacPherson. With just a guitar for accompaniment she sang deeply felt songs from her own life’s experience. One in particular drew an extended ovation. It was about Belfast then in the teeth of the ‘troubles’ called They All Want Somebody To Blame. I’ve never forgotten the chorus:
‘Who was to blame for the smoke and the flame?
They all want somebody to blame.
History and fame
Every city cries the same,
They keep looking for someone to blame.’
Gillian was in touch with one of the dark tendencies that we all share and one we have to guard against especially in times of crisis. In days of old when the crops failed, when the cows gave little milk, when the hens ceased to lay, yes, and when there was sickness in the community - solitary old women who were sometimes heard to talk to their cats were denounced as witches and the cause of all the trouble.
It’s called scapegoating, referring to the Hebrew ritual on the Day of Atonement. The High Priest would lay his hands on a goat and pray on to it the sins of the people. It would then be sent out into the wilderness symbolically carrying the sins. It was a powerful symbol of God providing a distance between the sinner and the sin. This is probably what the Psalmist has in mind when he writes:
‘As far as the east is from the west,
So far has he removed our transgressions from us.’ (Psalm 103: 12)
The problem with scapegoating as it has developed in societies is that the element of forgiveness has been excised and certain individuals or groups as stuck with the sin that others perceive in them. Furthermore their sin can be held responsible for whatever difficulties a particular community or society is having to face.
When the present pandemic kicked in there was talk of older people being careless and not willing to face up to the seriousness of the challenge we were facing. Then it was the young people meeting together in parks, holding parties, thinking they were bullet-proof. Recently, particular fury has been vented against a group of eight footballers from Aberdeen FC who in the present ‘spike’ in Aberdeen visited a city centre pub. Two of them have subsequently been diagnosed with the virus and the others are in isolation. Apologies have been issued on the club’s Twitter feed and individual players have done the same.
I don’t know all the circumstances but the least that can be said is that they acted irresponsibly and quite possibly have put other people at risk. The fact that they are in the public eye, recognisable and admired, raises the question of their sense of responsibility. They should also have been aware that footballers have long been an easy target for moral outrage, widely resented as having too much time on their hands, too much money and all this with not too much between their ears. That stereotype, largely unfair and inaccurate, is very strong in the public mind especially among those who know nothing about football.
In the end two of the Aberdeen men have the virus, the rest are in isolation and they will carry the memory of their time in the national spotlight for the rest of their lives. I can just hear the chants of opposing fans. So may I make an immodest proposal that in the midst of all of this prayers might be said that the infected might be restored to health, that the isolated will be kept safe, and that they will all emerge as wiser men. I seem to remember Jesus saying that it is spiritually ruinous to think ourselves morally superior to anyone else. That came home to me some years ago when I felt particularly strongly about a certain individual and his opinions and being pole-axed by a thought: ‘Have you ever prayed for him?’ That doesn’t mean that we hold back when faced with values and actions that run counter to those of the Kingdom but it does prevent a sourness of spirit that fastens on someone to blame.
