Here’s Why Nations Turn on Themselves: Insights From Scapegoat Theory
Anthropologist and literary critic Dr. René Girard, who finished his career at Stanford University, developed a theory over the course of his life called Scapegoat Theory, which purports to explain the origins of how and why groups self-destruct. I can not say if he is correct regarding the entire scope of his research, but Girard’s insights into scapegoating dynamics proved stunningly accurate when I faced a scapegoating event of my own: being publicly outed as a queer Christian pastor, and then fired from the church where I worked. (I went on to plant another church, Blue Ocean Church Ann Arbor, with my co-pastor and co-author Ken Wilson.)
I studied Girard’s theory throughout my ordeal, and eventually wrote a book, Solus Jesus: A Theology of Resistance, with Ken Wilson, unpacking and applying Girard’s understanding of social dynamics. I think you will find understanding them useful as well — especially if you are an American in this day and age — when it feels like we are so divided that rumors of civil war are cautiously whispered in groups huddled around pints of microbrewed beer. (Or openly declared in a New York Times op-ed.)
