Articles
The Blame Game
Several years ago, when John Stossel was with ABC working on 20/20, he hosted a television special called “The Blame Game.” The show examined how we as an American society have become so adept at blaming others for our mistakes. The feature of the report was Damion Osby. Osby was the young man who “could not help” shooting two other men because of “urban survival syndrome.” This defense tactic meant it was not Osby’s fault that he had killed his two cousins. Instead, Osby acted in self-defense because of his environment.
Blaming our environment for our own mistakes and failures is not new. Esau blamed the circumstance of his being hungry as the reason for selling his birthright. The Holy Spirit just did not know it was “urban survival” that Esau was dealing with. It was not his fault; he was just a victim of his environment.
The attempts of many to blame our society for all of man’s problems are similar to the social gospel’s appeal. Like Osby’s lawyers, social gospel advocates tell us it is man’s environment that is his problem. If you correct his environment he will be fine. Social gospel advocates fail to see that society is changed only as man is changed. Man is only changed as his heart is changed. If environment is the problem, why then did Judas fail? He was in a favored environment; he kept company with the best on earth at the time, the twelve apostles. He was in constant companionship of Jesus. He had seen Jesus work His miracles and heard Him teach the multitudes as well as individuals. If a better environment is the solution then Judas should never have betrayed Jesus. The problem was that Judas let Satan enter his heart. His problem was not his environment, but his heart.
Our problem is we have been blaming the environment, society, and others for far too long. We need to take a good long look at ourselves. Man’s greatest problem is sin. His greatest need is salvation. In order for man to be saved he is first going to have to admit his own problem, not blame it on someone else or something else. For man to have salvation he must change his heart.
The environment will not change the heart of man. The only power strong enough to change man’s heart is the gospel (Rom. 1:16). The gospel contains the expression of God’s wrath for sin and God’s love for obedience (Rom. 11:22). If God cannot effect the change of man’s heart through one of these two inducements, then man’s heart is too hard. Changing his environment will do him no good. “Urban survival” is just an excuse for wrong doing.
