In the days after the Bondi massacre, Australia found itself suspended between shock and solidarity. The beach, usually a symbol of ease, openness, and shared life, became a place marked by absence. Towels lay where people had fled. Flowers appeared where lives had been taken. Silence settled where laughter had been only hours before. RenéContinue reading “Let us choose to imitate those who heal.”
Tag Archives: scapegoat
Goats, Cricket and Good Friday
Atonement Day on the ancient Hebrew calendar marked the day that two goats were brought before the community. One goat was ritually slain, the other, the scapegoat, having had the sins of the community laid on it, was set loose into the wilderness, not to knowingly be seen again. Anthropologist/theologian Renee Girard cites this as an example ofContinue reading “Goats, Cricket and Good Friday”
Caught Out!
Exposure and shame, particularly in high places, draw us like a magnet. The media come out for a prolonged playtime and the population stands on the sidelines, tut-tutting and shaking their heads. The more we find out the more we want to know, so that we may feel justified in pouring more burning coals onContinue reading “Caught Out!”
Wondering Pilgrim 