Our family recently grew by a little beagle puppy. My wife and I have been reminded in the past couple weeks that training a puppy is not the easiest while raising three children ranging from 6 to 1. It is a lot of work. While beagles may be cute, fun, and good with children, they are not the best at learning things quickly. She hasn’t quite learned what she is allowed to chew on and what she isn’t. She hasn’t perfected bladder control yet. She get’s herself in trouble many times in any given day.
Interestingly, when she gets in trouble she never blames anyone else. With my children, if there is a problem it is always their brother or sisters fault. With the dog, she just looks at you with her big ole puppy eyes and lowers her head. She is caught and she knows it.
One of the reasons that animals don’t blame something else, is they are dumb animals. They have no concept of right and wrong. They can be trained on what will get them put in the kennel or what will get them a treat, but an animal has no morality. They have no concept of guilt and desire to get rid of the feeling of guilt. Humans do.
God made human beings with that ability. He didn’t make us creatures that operate solely by instinct. He made us in His own image (Gen 1:26). He gave us the ability to have responsibilities. He allows us to manage our lives and our actions.
God made humans upright, but he also gave humans the ability to choose right or wrong (Ecc 7:29). Upon choosing to do evil, a human is left with a feeling of guilt that doesn’t just go away like it does for a dog. We have to live with it.
Guilt is an incredible weight. It is the source of so much anxiety and stress. Because of this, people live with things and hide from their guilt every way that they can. One of the first things we learn to do with guilt is to deflect it. It is amazing how early we learn how to play the blame game.
Unfortunately, a few generations went by where children played the blame game, and the parents accepted it. Instead of calling their children out for the wrong that they were responsible for, they patted their children on the head and said “its not your fault”. Now we have victims who raised another generation of victims. Today, America has third generation victims going through public schools.
The victimhood blame game way of dealing with guilt manifests itself everywhere. Just look at an “apology” from an athlete or celebrity that has been caught up in a controversy. Usually these apologies are actually just a victim explaining how they are the true victim and it is because of their victimhood they did what the did.
Talk to a teacher about what it is like dealing with the parents of their students today. If a child is failing or falling behind, it is everyones fault but the kids.
Talk to an employer about why it is difficult to find a decent employee. By and large it is because people have no concept of personal responsibility. Professionals at playing the blame game.
Consider how sin is described. Someone who flies off the handle in rage, just has certain pet peeves that are actually to blame for their outburst. People lie and then justify dishonesty based on the situation they are in. Instead of being a drunk, someone suffers from “alcoholism”. Instead of being an adulterer, one suffers from “sexual addiction”. The LGBTQ world has essentially convinced the masses that they are the biggest victims that have ever lived. Instead of calling it murder, it is called having an abortion and is actually celebrated (the victim is the baby).
When Adam sinned in the garden, the first thing he said in response to his sin was “the woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate” (Gen 2:12). We can cut out a majority of that statement to get down to the reality of Adam's guilt “and I ate”.
Playing the blame game didn’t protect Adam. In fact, it appears that his being influenced by what Eve had said also went in to the harshness of his punishment (Gen 3:17). Playing the blame game doesn’t help any one of us.
When we blame others, we are admitting that there is something wrong with what we are doing. We wouldn't blame others if we didn’t do anything wrong. But since we do blame others, we are admitting to the fact that there is a standard of right and wrong.
Playing the blame game implies that we also know there should be consequences and someone should have to pay for this evil. Just not us.
Successfully convincing someone that you are a victim doesn’t change your guilt. Either you did evil or you did not do evil. We might be able convince someone who we have wronged to overlook it, but we forget that every sin against man is also a sin against God (Gen 39:9, 2 Sam 12:13). Someday each person will give an account for those offenses to God. And God doesn’t play the blame game.