Southside Oracle Archive

Vol. 49, No 30                             SOUTHSIDE ORACLE                  September 22, 2006

Shifting the Blame

Some years ago a young man in a Wisconsin community was convicted for killing his parents and setting fire to their home to cover up the deed. At the trial he admitted the arson, but claimed his sister was responsible for the homicides. The young man's attempt to fasten the guilt upon another was as understandable as it was reprehensible. He was seeking to escape life in prison by shifting the blame.

We all shift the blame sometimes. It is the device of the boy caught with his hand in the cookie jar who points to his sister and says, "She took some, too." He is merely trying to escape the heat by implicating another. It is the method of the employee who tries to attach responsibility to another for his own failure in an assignment. We see it in the home, at work, in politics - and in the church.

It is the church we are concerned about here. In my years of preaching I have sometimes seen supposedly mature Christians lash out at fellow disciples of Jesus. Sometimes a person may even accuse all of his fellow Christians, or most of them, of having wronged him. As a result he becomes spasmodic in church attendance, lukewarm in attitude, and may even quit the church. But almost always it is apparent to other Christians that the fault lies within himself. A personal problem, a sense of guilt for having failed, a domestic crisis - any of these things may cause him to condemn other Christians and to blame them for his failures. While others may have been involved in the events that triggered the emotional outburst, and may even have been partly responsible, the real difficulty lies within. You see, this person is merely doing on a grand scale what all of us have done on a small one - SHIFT THE BLAME.

When we shift the blame we rationalize and magnify. We rationalize our mistakes by refusing to admit them and instead put the albatross of guilt around necks of others. To do this we must magnify all of the petty hurts we have stored within us for such a time when we could use them as excuses for our own unchristian attitudes.

There is only one solution for the person who thus lashes out at others. That is to frankly admit, especially to himself, that in seeking to shift blame he is merely covering up his own inadequacies. In other words, one must say, "I was wrong." Only when we squarely face our problems instead of running from them by blaming others can we ever be happy - or saved. When we do so we will realize that life is not made up of a succession of successes. We all fail at times. Sometimes we fail because we expect too much of ourselves. Let's realize that God expects the same

from each of us - our best. If we do our best and fail, God will not condemn us. If we have failed to give our best, let us pray that he will give us strength in the future to do our best and address our problems head on instead of shifting the blame.

Monroe E. Hawley

The Bulletin Board

Wedding Bells - Congratulations to Christina Anguiano and John Case who were married Saturday at York, NE where both have been students at York College. They plan to remain in York after their wedding.

This next Sunday will be the last Lord's day that Rodney and Colleen Windell will be with us. They are moving next week to Abilene, TX. We will miss them much Rodney has been one of our elders for several years. One of the midweek Bible studies has been conducted in their home. We bid them Godspeed as they leave us.

ATTENDANCE RECORD

(*) first service, 112; second service, 95

Fallhall Days, youth rally sponsored by York College at Fallhall Glen scheduled for September 22 & 23, has been cancelled due to lack of enrollment.

The 43rd annual Midwest Preachers' Retreat will be at Fallhall Glen next Monday through Wednesday. Prentice Meador of Dallas, TX will be the featured speaker. Though the retreat is designed especially for preachers, it is open to church leaders or anyone else.

No Oracle will be published next week.

The annual Southside Give-Away will be Saturday, October 14th. If you have items that you would like to donate, you can bring them now and leave them in the basement of the annex. For additional information contact Denise Eppler.

Because of the Windells leaving, the Wednesday evening Bible study that has been meeting in their home will have to meet elsewhere. That determination has yet to be made.

Calendar of Events

September 22, 23 - York College Fallhall Days, Fallhall Glen - CANCELLED

September 25-27 – 43rd Annual Midwest Preachers' Retreat, Fallhall Glen

October 8 - Elders/deacons meeting

October 8 -Praise and Palate, 6:00 p.m.

October 14 - Annual Southside Give-Away, 9:00 a.m.

October 21 - Family Bible Day

October 21 - Annual Wisconsin Christian Youth Camp meeting

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