Human sacrifice was very common in early human history, and then animal sacrifice came to replace it in many cultures, sometimes with a literal scapegoat. We have an innate impulse to throw the blame for society’s problems onto one figure, and then punish that creature in an effort to bring justice, peace, and prosperity back to the society, and it worked psychologically. Then Christianity came, and we had our ultimate scapegoat. Before Jesus died He taught us that mercy was better than sacrifice, and after he was crucified we had our permanent sacrificial symbol. We could throw all of those sacrificial impulses on the image of Christ on the cross. Our inner need for a scapegoat was satiated and we were psychologically freed to show mercy and forgiveness to our neighbors. It’s little wonder that the cross is still the central symbol for Christianity, even outside of its theological significance in penal substitutionary atonement. Millennia passed and technology advanced, and with the advent of social media an entirely new society developed. This brand new digital civilization is largely hostile to traditional religion and Christianity in particular, and as such doesn’t have that image of the crucified Christ upon which to direct their impulsive demand for sacrifice. And, like clockwork, the old impulses are coming to the fore once again. This is the root of the #calloutculture and #cancelculture. This is the reason the twitter mob is so determined to ruin a person’s life for something they did or said years ago. They normally don’t call for the literal death of the person they are attacking (though sometimes they do), but the spirit is there. “YOU are the cause of the problems in our society. Racism, sexism, and homophobia exist because of people like YOU, and so we must eliminate YOU if we are ever to make the world a better place. Listening to these podcasts really helped cement what I was working on in my head. Massive props to Bob Murphy and David Gornoski....