Blame Culture

It is impossible to miss the current fashion of having to blame someone, anyone, for just about anything! It has always been rife in all things political, but it has now encroached into the lives of ordinary people.

There are the usual suspects and culprits: Different ethnic groups blaming each other for all sorts of wrongdoing. Opposing religions pointing the finger at each other for the rising state of bigotry in the country. The police for performing too many stop and searches on the most likely to offend, just because it’s viewed as racially targeted. The NHS for not doing enough to care for a patient when thousands are saved and healed every day. The ambulance crews who don’t get there as fast as we would like, but are still within their target. The lawyers for getting the well known criminal off on a technicality. It starts early in life, in the school playground when a goal is scored against your team and you blame the referee, and so it goes on through life. As we sometimes say in jest, “A big boy did it and ran away”, except it’s not so funny now.

It seems to help when we convince ourselves that any problem we have is always someone else’s fault! The saddest part for me is that some children and teenages will even blame their parents for the way they turned out and the bad example given as they saw it. Is it me, or does no one take responsibility now for anything they do themselves? To adopt a word from the USA, are we turning out a generation of ‘snowflakes’ who are offended at everything but responsible for nothing?

Do we have to constantly use the blame card? Is it possible that there are still people out there who will put their hand up and admit, “that was my fault, sorry” and with that small statement reduce the tension while at the same time increase their own priceless integrity in the eyes of others? Oh, and did I mention being a forgiving person is also Christ-like?

Jesus said, if you forgive...your heavenly Father will also forgive you. Matthew 6:14

Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Luke 23:34