Johnny Did It! – Sunday, July 18, 1943
There is a common practice among us that is perhaps as old as human nature— and almost as prevalent. When things go wrong, someone usually blames someone else. Every parent has had the frequent experience of correcting a child who immediately protests that he didn’t start it—”Johnny did it.” This may be only a passing phase which in childhood is rather to be expected. But this practice of blaming everything onto someone else may become a matter of deep concern when it carries over into the serious phases of life.
When things go wrong in the perpetration of a crime, for example, we see the spectacle of former partners in crime pointing accusing fingers at each other. The inebriate blames those who offer him drink. They share the guilt, it is true; but something inside him is at fault also. Some blame the company they keep for the tragedies that befall them, which may also have a measure of truth in it—but why keep such company?
When things go wrong in a nation, we often witness the spectacle of the planners and politicians calling names and pointing fingers, each blaming the other in the hope of keeping public displeasure from falling upon himself. But this business of scapegoat hunting goes yet further than that. All down through the centuries men have been inclined to blame the devil for a good many things for which they, themselves, are personally responsible. Satan, real though he is, and guilty though he is, has found some very willing victims at times—and often men have created convenient “devils” for their own purposes.
For the dictators it’s the minority groups, or the capitalists, or the democracies. In the democracies it’s the other party. And Abraham’s finding of the “ram in the thicket” was neither the first nor the last instance of someone’s looking about for a victim to sacrifice; and Pilate was neither the first nor the last man who has unsuccessfully attempted to wash his hands of complicity. And so the quest for a scapegoat goes on, as men seek to avoid responsibility for their own mistakes and errors and faults. And at that day when all shall stand before the judgment bar of God, perhaps one of the most interesting things to observe will be the discounting of excuses, and the fixing of responsibility where it really belongs. But even then it would not be surprising if the devil himself would look around for someone else to sacrifice, as so many of his apt admirers have so often done.
By, Richard L. Evans, spoken from the Tabernacle, Temple Square, Salt Lake City, Sunday, July 18, 1943, over Radio Station KSL and the nationwide Columbia Broadcasting System. Copyright – 1943.
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July 18, 1943
Broadcast Number 0,726